Pharma Industry Archive

Abbott Labs announced a $5 billion stock buyback plan Monday. Such plans are often used by companies seeking to prop up stock that’s down for a good reason, i.e. the company sucks. But in a market like this one, where everyone is down at bizarre lows, suddenly those buybacks look like cash-generating plans. What makes pharma different from other industries is that many of the larger companies...

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Is there money in cancer research? — According to BusinessWeek, big pharmaceutical companies may regret focusing so much R&D on cancer therapies. Consumer prices for these treatments, which often extend life for only a short time, are spiraling out of control, and price-reducing moves from either the government or the insurance industry may soon limit their profitability. [Source:...

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Of 25 stocks identified by Barron’s as being “Like Money in the Bank,” only two are pharma companies — Merck and Pfizer. That should comes as a disappointment to the business, which has traditionally regarded itself as a sort of cash-rich safety play for stock holders. The list* is also interesting for who is not on it — Eli Lilly, Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb....

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AstraZeneca’s Nexium is most-visited drug website — The “Purple Pill” drew over one million unique visitors to its page in the second quarter of 2008, an increase of 55% over last year. Following Nexium were Takeda’s diabetes treatment Actos, with 855,000 unique visitors, and Sanofi-Aventis‘ insomnia treatment Ambien CR, with 756,000. [Source: Washington...

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Johnson & Johnson has paid $68 million to settle hundreds of cases brought by women who used the Ortho Evra birth control patch. The settlements raise a question: Why is this patch still on the market when it is now well-established that its risk of causing fatal blood clots is far greater than ordinary pills, and J&J itself no longer promotes the brand to consumers? The patch has...

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Johnson & Johnson shuffles executives — J&J has announced that Sheri McCoy, currently leading the company’s surgical products division, will head the pharmaceutical unit starting next year. McCoy, trained as a chemical engineer, has worked for numerous units within J&J but doesn’t have specific pharma experience. She will take the helm of a division losing...

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It took him five years, but Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan has finally lost money on his company’s stock. Between 2003 and this year, Hassan bought $6.68 million of SGP common stock and made this vow: This investment in Schering-Plough reflects my long-term confidence in the company, its products — including ZETIA and VYTORIN — and our late- stage pipeline. BNET readers will...

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Teva, the generic maker, is suing AstraZeneca, the holder of the original Crestor patent, claiming that AZ is somehow infringing on rights Teva acquired to the drug back in March 2007. The Crestor patent isn’t supposed to expire until 2016 — well beyond the industry’s looming patent cliff, which is why certain analysts think AZ is at least a hold right now. (Generic entrants...

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Let’s examine some of the positioning going on around the FDA’s joint announcement with the Consumer Healthcare Products Association that drugstore cold and cough meds should not be given to kids. First, I was struck by GlaxoSmithKline’s press release yesterday: “FDA hearing on kids’ cold medicines spells greater confusion for parents.” Er, does it? I thought it...

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Wyeth eliminates East Coast distributor — Next year, Wyeth will shut down a distribution center in Virginia, a move which will terminate 61 jobs and consolidate its east coast distribution network into one Tennessee-based facility. The Virginia operation once shipped 30% of Wyeth’s U.S. sales. [Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch, via Pharmalot] Pfizer suppressed study — When...

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