Pharma Industry Archive

Charles Rivers brings jobs to South Carolina — Charles River Laboratories, a contract research and development firm, will build a research facility and warehouse in Charleston. The company expects to hire 60 people. [Source: Pharmalot] Texas sues Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals — The state claims that Janssen, a J&J subsidiary, used public health officials...

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The news on Risperdal continues to get worse for Johnson & Johnson and its antipsychotic unit, Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Texas officials filed suit against the company alleging Medicaid fraud, kickbacks and improper marketing of the drug to children and the poor in that state. J&J denies the claims. BNET readers know this is the latest in a series of allegations that J&J...

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Deutsche Bank analyst Barbara Ryan has again gone public with her desire to see Pfizer get off its pile of cash and make a dramatic mega-buy that would solve its pipeline hole. This time she thinks Amgen ought to be the target. BNET readers have been down this road before. A couple of weeks ago Ryan suggested Pfizer buy Bristol-Myers Squibb. Shortly after that, Jim Cramer said Pfizer ought to...

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A Bristol-Myers Squibb employee who donated money to campaigners in favor of California’s Proposition 8 to ban gay marriage has caused controversy within the company — or at least on the notoriously feisty Cafe Pharma bulletin boards. Drew Dellenbach identified himself as an employee of BMS when he made two donations, one for $1,000 and one for $500, to ProtectMarriage.com, a...

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Federal government sues Ovation for price gouging — In 2006, Ovation’s Indocin, a drug for infant heart defects, cost $35 per vial. Ovation then acquired its sole competitor in the market and started charging almost $500 for the same amount. The Feds are crying foul. [Source: PharmaGossip] Bristol-Myers Squibb lays off 10 percent — The losses announced today come on top of the...

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When Procter & Gamble announced that it was getting out of its prescription pharmaceutical business, the obvious question was, “Why would P&G want to get rid of Prilosec OTC, the giant of the antacid category?” But CEO A.G. Lafley said that the company would keep Prilosec and Pepto Bismol, only selling its less well-known Rx brands like Actonel. Nonetheless, a little bit of...

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Bayer Diabetes Care is selling dog tags for youngsters with Type 1 diabetes. The tags are being sold as a trendy consciousness-raising item (even though the original meaning of “dog tag” was an ID necklace worn so that dead soldiers’ corpses could be identified, and life expectancy for type 1 diabetics is slightly reduced.) The tags cost $5 and feature a “medical...

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Bayer: in our pipeline we trust — With 50 projects in phases I, II, and III of development, Bayer plans to increase research & development spending; chairman Werner Wenning cited innovation as the firm’s hope for the future. [Source: PharmaTimes] AstraZeneca outsources IT –  AZ has forged a 5 year, multi-million dollar contract with India’s Infosys. The contract...

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Pfizer donated tens of thousands of dollars to Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and those senators supported an expansion of the H-1B visa program that allows foreign workers to be  brought to the US to do technical jobs, according to New London’s The Day. Coincidentally, Pfizer has had a policy since 2005 of using outside contractors staffed heavily with H-1B visa...

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Pfizer’s director of health policy, Eleanor Perfetto, was locked out of a meeting about former NFL players with health problems even though she is married to an ex-player with dementia and is thus not able to represent himself. Perfetto was barred from the meeting for the 19th Century-style reason that she is female and may swoon at the salty language of ex-pros. The football league set...

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