Pharma Industry Archive

PhRMA has published new rules for direct-to-consumer drug advertising. Although the new rules are more strict than the previous ones, they still have one giant hole in them — enforcement is non existent. Plus, Rep. Henry Waxman D-Calif., just announced that as head of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, he wants to enact a new ban on pharmaceutical advertising — raising the...

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Elan’s Kelly Martin named biotech’s worst CEO — Adam Feuerstein, who writes for TheStreet.com, selected Martin because of his role in the debacle surrounding Alzheimer’s drug bapineuzumab. Martin painted the treatment as a miracle cure, buoying consumer and investor hopes alike, even as actual data showed little to celebrate. Then, when the bapineuzumab glitter wore off,...

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A Merck plant in Elkton, Va., is wrestling with the local water control board there over whether it should reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphates it pumps into the Shenandoah River: The pharmaceutical manufacturer petitioned the water board to allow its Elkton plant to discharge about 30,000 pounds of nitrogen and about 3,000 pounds of phosphorus per year. That’s about twice as much...

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Merck sees its future in generics — Today, at its annual business briefing, Merck announced a new division which will develop generic versions of successful biotech drugs. Named Merck BioVentures, the project traces its lineage to GlycoFi, an acquisition from a few years ago. CEO Richard Clark told the press Merck intends to become a leader in the generics market. [Source: WSJ Health...

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Citing a single example of a woman who stopped taking Pfizer’s Chantix in her efforts to give up smoking, the WSJ published a story today about whether drug advertising is so filled with warnings and disclaimers that consumers may be scared into not taking their drugs. The piece will be warmly welcomed by the Coalition for Healthcare Communications, a pro-drug-industry lobby group...

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Two prominent doctors accused of failing to be transparent about payments they took from drug companies have gone on the counter-attack. NPR host Dr. Fred Goodwin wrote a letter to the New York Times and an email to Daniel Carlat’s psychiatry blog. And Dr. Joseph Biederman, the Boston psychiatrist who is a focus of a Congressional investigation into his role in promoting Johnson &...

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Roche CEO sees trouble ahead — CEO Severin Schwan does not paint a rosy picture for his industry. “Those who fail to bring sufficient innovation will be squeezed out of this market. No one is immune to this failure. That applies equally to small companies and big companies,” he told the Wall Street Journal. [Source: WSJ Health Blog] Novartis CEO in no hurry to leave — CEO...

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The faster a drug is approved the more likely it is to be withdrawn or have safety warnings added later, according to the author of a study in the British Medical Journal. In addition, the rapid rollout of mass marketing plans increases the risk that large numbers of patients will be quickly exposed to unknown risks, the study says. The study’s author, Dr. David Kao of the University of...

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Johnson & Johnson units Janssen and ALZA have lost a third Duragesic patch death case. A jury in Chicago found J&J liable in the death of a Cicero, Ill., woman who had used a Duragesic to reduce the almost constant pain she experienced as a result of a neurological condition called reflex sympathetic dystrophy. The woman’s family argued that the patch allowed the painkiller...

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After noting a trend at Pfizer’s Groton and New London, Conn., R&D campuses, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said he will call for a Congressional probe into whether American companies are abusing the H-1B visa process to bring foreign workers to the U.S. in an attempt to displace locally contracted workers. Courtney wants the Government Accountability Office — the non-partisan...

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