Pharma Industry Archive

The town of Marlborough, Mass, has approved a $3.8 million tax break for Sepracor despite some councillors having questions about whether the company is actually going to deliver the full 250 jobs it promised in return. The company is using the tax break to construct a new building. It is dependent on the creation of the new jobs. But Cllr Paul Ferro said there are “fundamental”...

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On the same day that news of a study of 49 randomized trials of Bayer’s anti-bleeding drug Trasylol showed there was a higher risk of death than for alternative drugs, Bayer learned it was slapped with a lawsuit from a woman alleging her husband died because Trasylol was used in his coronary artery bypass surgery. Trasylol was removed from the U.S. market in 2007. In the new study,...

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The New York Times has aired another episode of its “Evidence Gap” series, and it’s infuriating. This one is about the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the U.K.’s price-approval body for National Health Service drugs. The purpose of NICE is to evaluate drug efficacy and prices, and to approve those drugs that are cost-effective for the benefits they...

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Roche exec calls DTC advertising the industry’s “worst decision” — As William Burns, head of pharmaceuticals, explained to the press, “when [the] industry says [it's] spending all the money on R&D but actually it’s spending it on TV advertising to preserve margins, it doesn’t get much credibility.” [Source: WSJ Health Blog] Novartis and Mylan reach Femara...

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Senior execs at AstraZeneca and Roche said American direct-to-consumer drug advertising was the “worst” thing to happen to the industry in the last few years — but both want to see it expanded to Europe. Authorities there are set to do their bidding. At an FT health conference in London: “Direct-to-consumer promotion was the single worst decision for the industry,”...

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Medicis may find itself on the losing side of the vanity pharma death match now that Johnson & Johnson has waded in with what will soon be a full suite of silicone breast implants, wrinkle fillers and botulinum toxin line smoothers. J&J on Monday agreed to acquire implant maker Mentor Corp for $1.07 billion. Mentor is developing two more dermal fillers and a Botox competitor, called...

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Teva’s next target: Lilly? — Teva has made a name for itself by playing a risky game in which it begins to manufacture generic versions of big name drugs while the originals are still officially under patent protection. The Israeli company has made such moves 13 times since 2004, and Bloomberg predicts the 14th target might be Lilly’s osteoporosis treatment Evista. [Source:...

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A report in Kiplinger’s notes that roughly 25 percent of the employees of Abbott Labs are age 50 or older, and in five years that number could top more than 40 percent. The demographics are likely similar at many other large drug companies. Abbott is experimenting with a kind of “phased retirement” for some employees as they approach age 62: Workers 55 or older with 10...

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A few days ago BNET noted that the Roche-Genentech deal was conspicuous by its absence because, among other reasons, “liquidity — meaning the credit Roche needs to make the deal — has dried up.” Reuters put some numbers on that this morning with a report noting that there isn’t enough loan money in the world (figuratively, at least) for Roche to make the deal: The sheer...

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Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler recently gave an indication of the scale of the FDA’s problem in inspecting Chinese pharmaceutical plants. After recent scandals involving tainted baby formula and heparin made in Chinese factories, the FDA in late November beefed up its inspection presence behind the Great Wall. It has one office in the country, and plans two more. But Kindler told investors in...

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