Pharma Industry Archive

Merck described the astonishing scale of its layoffs program today. The company will spend up to $2 billion when it is done, and will have axed 17,600 jobs in total. Here’s a breakdown of the plan: The cuts cost $757 million in the third quarter of 2008. $49 million was spent on cuts in the third quarter of 2007. Total overall costs associated with the company’s global...

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Pfizer buys Biotene — Biotene, known for mouthwashes and other products which alleviate dry mouth, is now a property of the pharmaceutical giant. The $170 million purchase nets Pfizer another consumer health care property (it owns several, including Aquafresh), and furthers the company’s diversification into profitable consumer goods. [Source: In Vivo] Regarding Wyeth preemption...

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Pfizer’s third-quarter earnings were pretty much what you might expect given that the company is on a cost-cutting drive: Overall business is flat at $11.9 billion; net income was up dramatically — 199 percent! — from a year ago. However, the numbers show that in order to make net income jump so high, to $2.3 billion, the company is in a sort of race to the bottom, in which it...

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Novartis announced a great quarter yesterday but the stock didn’t move. Here’s one argument why: The company’s business is treading water, and all its gains — net income up 32 percent to $2.08 billion — have come from its cost-cutting program, the creepily named “Project Forward.” Companies always announce their earnings in comparison to the year...

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Daiichi buys 20% stake in Ranbaxy — The Japanese firm has faced regulatory hurdles in its acquisition of the Indian generics manufacturer, but the first phase of the purchase has gone forward. Daiici eventually wants a controlling interest. [Source: The Financial Express, via Corey Nahman] At Novartis, executives and jobs on the move… — Novartis announced a large-scale...

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Pharmaceutical company web sites tend to have one thing in common: They almost never allow consumers to interact with each other or the company. That’s a stark contrast to companies in every other consumer-oriented business, where brands are desperate to get consumers hooked on their bulletin boards, web-hosting services and social media apps. Drug companies tend to believe that if...

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Signs of decline are setting in at Merck’s highly profitable vaccine for some strains of HPV and cervical cancer. Merck has adjusted its marketing to target women who are not the most likely to benefit from it. The drug has seen a 33 percent decline in sales. On the one hand, Merck is simply adjusting its strategy to the inevitable grind of numbers: As more girls get the shot, its...

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In what is turning out to be an increasingly strange fad among drug companies, Teva, the generics giant, has produced an online game titled “Biologicsland.” Some have noted it looks a lot like Candyland. Regular BNET readers will remember that Sanofi-Aventis, Pfizer and Novo Nordisk have all waded into the online and video game sphere, with what I will diplomatically describe as...

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Gilead’s third quarter numbers blew everyone away — revenues up 30 percent, net income up 26.5 percent.The numbers call into question the value of large sales forces. A couple of days ago BNET noted that Abbott Labs got a “spectacular” $3.63 per dollar spent on marketing. The company achieved that in part by laying off staff. But that was nothing compared to Gilead. Here...

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Lilly’s Prasugrel not alone in FDA delays – Prasugrel is becoming the poster child for holdups in the FDA approval process. The final decision on the drug, originally due in September, has now been pushed to February 2009. It’s a common trend this year; Reuters reports at least eight occasions in which the FDA missed 2008 approval deadlines. [Source: The Science Business]...

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