Pharma Industry Archive

The FDA has published a list of unapproved, “tainted,” or “undeclared” weight-loss drugs that it wants off the market. The list includes rimonabant and sibutramine. Rimonabant was the active ingredient in Zimulti/Acomplia, the ill-fated obesity treatment that Sanofi-Aventis tried to get approved in the U.S. The FDA turned the application down. UPDATE: Even as the FDA...

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Merck CEO admits company’s mistakes — “2008 was a disappointing year. In many ways an unacceptable year,” said Merck’s Richard Clark, according to Reuters. What’s interesting is that he laid blame at his own management team’s feet. Clark cited approval problems with Cordaptive, marketing issues with Gardasil, vaccine production problems, and other...

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Inspire has stopped co-promoting Restasis, the dry-eye drug launched by Allergan, according to the Triangle Business Journal. Inspire will still receive royalties on the drug at the same rate as before, but only as long as Allergan and Inspire continue work on a new dry-eye drug, Prolacria. That drug is currently stalled — it’s been turned down by the FDA twice and is now in its...

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Sales reps at Boehringer-Ingelheim have won a legal victory that may lead to them being awarded back-pay for all the unpaid overtime they have worked. The ruling, by a federal court in Connecticut, could also affect two related cases involving sales reps at Amgen and Serono. The suit was filed in 2006 by Luann Ruggeri, who was a Florida sales rep for Boehringer-Ingelheim until 2005. She...

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Courts allow Pfizer to repair Lipitor patent loophole — In 2006, an appeals court ruled that Pfizer’s patent on Lipitor was illegal, potentially opening the door to generic versions of the hugely popular cholesterol drug — and Teva, Ranbaxy, and Canada’s Apotex, all of whom have developed versions, were chomping at the bit. The Feds have granted Pfizer the chance to...

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Earlier this week shares of Shire rose on rumors that Pfizer may be interested in acquiring the company, which is best-known for its ADHD drug Adderall XR. The notion that Pfizer is in acquisition mode has been driving people crazy for days. (See BNET’s coverage of Pfizer Pfever here.) But would a Pfizer-Shire deal make any sense? (Shizer?) Traditionally, we at BNET like to look at the...

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GlaxoSmithKline is not giving up on Alli, its OTC weight-loss pill that has seen only modest sales. The company announced it will begin a campaign featuring singer Wynonna Judd. Check out the Alli/Judd web site here. Alli made only $88 million in sales for the first nine months of 2008 — far below the blockbuster status that was anticipated. The move toward attracting celebrity heat for...

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Daiichi Sankyo to take $4 billion write-down on Ranbaxy — Indian generics maker Ranbaxy was supposed to be a jewel in Daiichi’s crown, but the Japanese company has revealed it will lose billions of dollars on the acquisition, a deal finished last fall. [Source: WSJ Health Blog] Merck contracts distribution facilities to UPS –  Merck has made a deal with UPS in which the...

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On Monday, Pharmalot’s Ed Silverman shocked the pharmaceutical business by returning from vacation and announcing that his blog was no more. Over the past two years, Pharmalot grew into the premier supplier of aggregated drug news and a formidable producer of original content (even BNET took the Pharmalot feed). In short, everyone in the business read Ed. The reaction to his departure was...

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The world continues to fuliminate over the notion that Pfizer is poised to make a big deal. Could it be Amgen? Could it be Bristol-Myers Squibb? The speculation reached a new height of ridiculousness with this column in Today’s Financial News, “Pfizer shouts its message to the world.” The writer speculates, based on “signalling theory” (!), that Pfizer is sending a...

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