Pharma Industry Archive

Schering-Plough reaches settlement with Missouri — The state’s attorney general accused the firm’s generics subsidiary, Warrick, of price inflation in sales to Medicaid. The settlement is valued at $31 million. [Source: Forbes] Executive announcements at Pfizer — Ian Reed, head of the pharmaceutical division, named the 12 executives who will be leading business units and...

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Merck seems to be having difficulty with many of its vaccine efforts. So much so that CEO Richard Clark all but apologized to analysts in his third quarter earnings call. The trouble began about a year ago, when Merck recalled a batch of Pedvaxhib and Comvax vaccines, for Haemophilius influenzae type b and hepatitis B, respectively. Then, in March 2008, the FDA placed on hold a trial for a new...

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Novartis tempts India’s brightest — The Swiss company’s Biotech Leadership Camp will try to attract the subcontinent’s top talent into its laboratories. It is Novartis’s first big move in India since an acrimonious intellectual property court ruling in 2007. [Source: Pharmalot] Allergan and Spectrum forge $345 million partnership — The two companies will...

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Schering-Plough shareholders to have say on executive compensation — The company will include a “say on pay” survey with its proxy reports to investors; the results will be released in the drug maker’s 2010 proxy form. [Source: Pharamlot] Predictions of U.S. drug sales lowered — The research firm IMS has downsized its already-modest predictions for annual growth in...

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It comes as no surprise that Daniel Troy, the current general counsel to GlaxoSmithKline, is at the center of the preemption mess unveiled by Rep. Henry Waxman today. It is surprising, however, that Troy’s actions led to a three-month delay in getting a label change requested by GSK for Tykerb, when the company discovered new risks on that breast cancer drug, according to the documents...

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Despite pharma’s relative insulation from the credit crisis, things have gotten so bad out there that some companies feel the need to issue press releases reassuring everyone that yes, the company still has a bank account, and yes, the bank managers are letting them borrow some money. Check out these cryptic statements from Israeli generics maker Teva. The first one simply states that...

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Wyeth restructures R&D — The drug maker has announced a huge shuffling of its research division, reducing the number of its target diseases from 55 to 27 and ending its work on women’s health. The company claims large layoffs will not happen, though some scientists may have to change their research direction. [Source: WSJ Health Blog] FDA appointee causing problems for pharma...

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The FDA slammed Bayer with two warning letters today for allegedly unlawfully selling two unapproved aspirin products. It is not the first time Bayer’s Consumer Health marketers have gone off the rails, raising questions about how professional — or even scientific — the company is when it comes to over-the-counter medicines. The FDA specifically charged Bayer with mismarketing...

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Allergan is hoping to turn its glaucoma drug, Lumigan, into a cosmetic treatment for longer eyelashes. Lumigan is currently approved only for preventing blindness. But it has one very odd side effect: patients’ eyelashes become longer when using it. Unsurprisingly, doctors are already using it off-label for vanity purposes. And Allergan, as the premier vanity pharma company, isn’t going to...

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Pension fund sues over Lilly/ImClone deal — The State-Boston Retirement System of Massachusetts, along with several other ImClone shareholders, claims in the suit that the $70 Lilly paid per share was too low. [Source: Pharmalot] Pharma buyouts of biotech close? — Predictions are flying that pharma companies are about to embark on a buying spree of biotech firms, fueled by credit...

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