Pharma Industry Archive

BNET pointed out today that the announcement of Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth formed a welcome distraction (for Pfizer) from the news that the company was also paying a $2.3 billion settlement to make the Department of Justice stop investigating the company’s illegal promotion of discontinued Cox-2 painkiller Bextra. The company said the Bextra investigation had been...

More...

Reaction to the Pfizer-Wyeth merger is … mixed, to say the least. Pfizer employees think this will be Pharmacia/Warner-Lambert redux. Wall Street analysts are all over the place. Pfizer’s stock has lost 10 percent of its value between the opening bell and lunchtime. Wyeth’s rose 13 percent. Wyeth employees seem terrified by it… and some have organized a rebellion...

More...

Today’s announcement that Pfizer is to acquire Wyeth for $68 million eclipsed some things that on any other day would have been headline news in themselves: a) The fact that Pfizer’s earnings were down 90 percent due to a $2.3 billion settlement with the Department of Justice over its off-label promotion of Bextra, the Cox-2 painkiller. And b), that the new company plans 19,000...

More...

Pfizer and Wyeth: ramifications for the industry — In a much-reported bit of news, Pfizer and Wyeth have been in merger talks for month, although there’s no reason to believe the deal will necessarily go through. BNET’s Jim Edwards has the details on what that would mean for the two companies. As for the rest of the industry, speculation is high that news of the talks could...

More...

With the $4.85 billion Vioxx settlement with Merck safely in hand, now the squabbling has begun over who, exactly, is going to receive that money: the patients who were hurt, the insurance companies who paid for the faulty drug, or the lawyers who engineered the jackpot deal? The Louisiana federal court had capped lawyers’ fees at 32 percent of the deal. But that was less than what the...

More...

UPDATE: The deal is done! Pfizer will get Wyeth for $68 billion. See BNET’s look at the deal here. Meanwhile here’s the pre-deal analysis: Folks are freaking out right now on CafePharma — sample quote on the Wyeth board: “You’re Pfucked!” What will the new company be called, Pfyeth? Wyther? Wyzer? More importantly, let’s do our traditional BNET...

More...

Pfizer’s gruesome new anti-counterfeit campaign — In the U.K., Pfizer has rolled out a new TV ad that warns consumers against the dangers of counterfeit drugs. The nauseating image of a man pulling a rat from his mouth intends to educate consumers about the dangerous substances (like rat poison) which lace counterfeits, but counterfeits are more of a problem in the supply chain than...

More...

A California appellate court has upheld a ruling holding Wyeth liable for injuries suffered by a patient who took the generic version of Reglan, but never actually took Wyeth’s branded drug. Critics of the ruling — including the Drug and Device Law blog — have said that the ruling stands tort law on its head, as normally plaintiffs have to prove that they actually used the...

More...

The Jan. 16 deadline has passed for Boehringer Ingelheim sales reps who want to join the class action suit against their employers for back pay. The question now is, what will be the fate of current BI reps who have signed forms asking for back pay in the event that the plaintiffs win? It’s an interesting issue because BI and its lawyers will get a complete list of names of all current...

More...

An unhappy wind blows through Johnson & Johnson — Patent expirations are taking their toll on the drug giant, which has seen profits slip and year-over-year sales drop 11 percent. Analysts predict an acquisition. [Source: Forbes, via Corey Nahman] Abbott’s diversification brings financial health – The yin to J&J’s financially-troubled yang seems to be Abbott,...

More...