Pharma Industry Archive

Deutsche Bank analyst Barbara Ryan left pharma pholks with an interesting wishbone to chew on prior to Thanksgiving — the notion that large pharma was overdue for consolidation and that Pfizer ought to consider finally merging with Bristol-Myers Squibb. It’s not a new idea, of course. But is a Pfizer takeover of BMS realistic? The answer is that Ryan’s note may be all stuffing...

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It’s time again for BNET’s roundup of the news that was too strange for our regular programming but too interesting to be ignored. Here are the 10 weirdest drug stories of November 2008: French Researchers Working Hard to Take the Fun Out of Pot In France, researchers are trying to develop a new painkiller from a drug that mimics the pain-relieving affects of marijuana but...

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Twenty-three biotech companies have pulled their planned IPOs this year, according to The Burrill Biotechnology Report. The companies are now looking for partnerships with Big Pharma or to be acquired. The situation is essentially a race against time for dozens of companies as they try to find new funding before going bankrupt. In the past month, at least five biotechnology businesses have...

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Roche purchases Memory Pharmaceuticals for $50 million — The Swiss company still hasn’t acted on its plans to buy Genentech, however. [Source: PharmaTimes] North Carolina biotech industry seeks government help — The state’s research lobby is pressuring the incoming governor to help biotechs weather the credit storm, as many teeter on the brink of bankruptcy. [Source:...

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Bayer will pay the Justice Department $97.5 million plus interest to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to a number of diabetic suppliers and caused those suppliers to submit false claims to Medicare. Here’s the nut: Between 1998 and 2002, Bayer allegedly paid Liberty Medical Supply Inc., one of the largest direct-to-patient diabetic suppliers, approximately $2.5 million to convert...

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The risk that boys taking the atypical antipsychotic Risperdal might grow breasts was known as far back as 2004. The Wall Street Journal reports that the FDA heard about this worrying side effect in a meeting on Risperdal last week: The FDA’s Tom Laughren, who runs the psychiatric medicines division, didn’t see a need to strengthen warnings on the drug, despite calls to do so from some...

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The split between AstraZeneca and Abraxis over their copromotion of cancer drug Abraxane was expected among some Abraxis reps since August of this year. Now it’s official. The end of the agreement comes as the patent on Casodex expires in April 2009 and the company this week saw mixed results from its trials of Zactima. So perhaps BNET spoke too soon when we suggested recently that AZ...

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AstraZeneca and Teva resolve dispute over asthma med — AZ reacted quickly when Teva started shipping a generic version of Pulmicort Respules last week, before official patent expiration. The fight could have been ugly, but the parties reached a settlement in which Teva will get exclusive rights to a copycat license, with distribution beginning in December 2009. [Source: Pharmalot] Merger...

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More detail is emerging about what the FDA wants to see from drugmakers in terms of managing heart and cardiovascular side effects in new drug applications. BNET reported Nov. 17 that the FDA was in the process of sending letters to companies developing new diabetes drugs that said the feds will want to see more data on CV risks before approving new drugs in that category. The companies on the...

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Like a car crash in slow motion, the years that drug companies have spent encouraging the idea that disruptive children ought to be medicated are resulting in ever more lurid revelations in the business press. Yesterday evening came news that a suit against Johnson & Johnson regarding its drug Risperdal was filled with documents describing $6.4 million that J&J spent to popularize the...

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