Pharma Industry Archive

Dendreon had better pull something amazing out of the hat when it gets the results of its “Impact” study on Provenge, the drug it’s developing for prostate cancer — because investors are already guessing that the results are not going to be good. Back in March, Dendreon announced that it was changing the way its study was working and instead of waiting for a full set of...

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Few things are less sexy than proposed changes in accounting rules for drug companies, but bear with me — this is actually interesting. Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and Wyeth have complained about a rule change that would require them to estimate how large their potential losses might be from lawsuits, and to disclose that to the public. Providing such estimates...

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Last year, Sepracor, the maker of sleeping pill Lunesta, announced it would reduce its sales and marketing expenses by $90-100 million in 2008, “including an anticipated reduction of approximately 300 sales force positions.” The company said it needed to make the layoffs because, by last October, its revenues were falling. But Sepracor’s own numbers seem to show that the plan...

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Stephen Stefano, one of GlaxoSmithKline’s senior executives in charge of commercial strategy, has written a book about leadership. It’s called Passion and ICE. And, according to the employees and business partners of the senior-vice-president-of-managed-markets-and-neurohealth-divisions-turned-motivational speaker, Steve’s book is totally awesome! Here’s a selection of...

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The good news: The FDA approved Viread, Gilead’s dwindling HIV treatment, as a therapy for hepatitis B. The drug’s sales had gone down to $613 million from a peak of $783 million as newer combination drugs — including Gilead’s own Atripla, which includes Viread — eroded the market for standalone Viread. The bad news: A California appeals court reinstated a shareholder lawsuit...

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The official blog of GlaxoSmithKline’s Alli diet drug franchise has suddenly adopted a decidedly different voice. Alliconnect used to be a series of posts about health, nutrition, and some upfront warnings about Alli’s side effects (eat too much fatty food and you can lose bowel control). It came on like a combination of your best friend and your family doctor — all common...

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There are two ideas floating in the world of politics to curb the way drug companies give doctors gifts and (often biased) information. One of them is a good idea, and one of them is a bad idea. Drug companies — such as GlaxoSmithKline — have chosen to publicly oppose the good idea, and to ignore the bad idea. Those ideas: Massachusetts is enacting legislation that would require...

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This week’s must-read is Jerome Groopman’s article on super-resistant bacteria in the New Yorker. If you get infected, the bacteria destroy your lungs and you end up drowning in your own blood. There’s no cure: Antibiotics no longer work against them. These bugs are “literally resistant to every meaningful antibiotic that we had,” according to one doc in the story....

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Trading in options on King Pharmaceuticals shares reached a four-year frenzy yesterday, Reuters reported, and King shares rose to an 11-month high on rumors that Pfizer may be interested in acquiring it. Pfizer pfollowers know that CEO Jeff Kindler made a lot of noise a few years ago about making acquisitions to beef up Pfizer’s dwindling pipeline. But then… he didn’t do...

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Confusion continues at GlaxoSmithKline this morning as R&D employees attempt to figure out if they’ll be receiving pink slips and their bosses attempt to keep everyone calm. Tension at the company has been building since Chemistry World reported that GSK sought hundreds of job cuts internationally at its various R&D sites: Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, Upper Providence...

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