Pharma Industry Archive

Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler isn’t resting in his reorganization of the company. But although that plan is said not to involve layoffs, no one seems to believe it. As such, Pfizer is heading into territory previously ploughed by GlaxoSmithKline, which was plagued by layoff rumors throughout the summer while the company officially kept silent. The result was mass confusion among the GSK ranks....

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Pfizer reorganizes — The drug-maker has abandoned the geographical divisions it formerly used and will now split its operations into three groups: primary care, specialty care, and emerging markets. Research will continue independent of the groups but marketing, sales, and related activities will be adjusted to the new plan. Layoffs are not expected. [Source: Pharmalot] Lilly to pay $62...

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It’s been a just a day since Dendreon announced that the interim analysis of its Provenge anti-prostate cancer candidate showed some — but not enough — improvement in sufferers, and already the drug’s army of web activists is heaping abuse on those who suggest that possibly, just possibly, this drug isn’t going to get approved by the FDA. Dendreon said the drug...

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A good day for Dendreon? — On a day of bad financial news, people hailed Dendreon as a ray of sunshine: the company’s prostate cancer treatment Provenge produced encouraging results during clinical trials. But don’t be too happy, warns the WSJ Health Blog. The drug still faces hurdles, with at least one analyst putting its chances of approval at just 50/50. [Source: WSJ Health...

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Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO James M. Cornelius wrote this note today after the announcement that Eli Lilly and ImClone had agreed on the former’s $6.5 billion, $70-a-share acquisition of the latter. Let’s go through it line by line to see if there’s a subtext, shall we? After describing the deal in the first sentence, the next piece of information that Cornelius wants everyone to...

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Medicis is going through a dramatic period. The vanity pharma company’s Restylane dermal filler is in a battle royale with Allergan’s Juvederm. It’s waiting for FDA approval for Reloxin, its competitor to Allergan’s Botox. And it just acquired LipoSonix, a high-intensity non-invasive ultrasound fat reducer. I talked to Medicis CEO Jonah Shacknai about why he believes the...

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Emory. Harvard. Stanford. Brown. The University of Texas. The University of Cincinnati. It’s a roll call of the nation’s most prominent schools of psychiatry. But top researchers and professors at those schools could, essentially, be rented out by drug companies for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then, those academics allegedly concealed their drug company ties even when they...

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Amgen wins patent case against Roche — The courts have decided that Roche can’t sell its anemia drug Mircera in the United States, since it violates patent law by competing with Amgen’s anemia offerings, Epogen and Aranesp. This is very good news for Amgen. [Source: WSJ Health Blog] R&D tax credit tacked onto rescue bill — Today, the House finally passed the infamous...

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For the first time in at least three years, drug companies have spent zero dollars on Spanish-language television for their unbranded health education ads, Nielsen-Monitor Plus reports. The wholescale write-off of Hispanic TV draws attention to how little Spanish-language provision there is in drug marketing. Of the web sites for the top 10 best selling drugs ranked by IMS Health, only three...

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Roche still plans Genentech purchase — Despite the state of the world economy, not to mention exchange rates making takeovers more expensive in Swiss francs, Roche announced it has every intention of completing its buyout of Genentech. The $43.7 billion deal is being watched closely outside the industry, as it is seen as a barometer for the global condition of mergers and acquisitions....

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