Pharma Industry Archive

The California Supreme Court has declined to hear a case in which Wyeth (and now Pfizer!) was held liable for injuries suffered by a patient who took a generic version of Reglan, even though the patient never actually took Wyeth’s drug, only generics made by competitors. According to FDA Law Blog, the decision leaves in place a previous ruling by a California appeals court that said drug...

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When Schering-Plough declared its Q4 2008 earnings a few days ago, the management team there got about half-a-dozen questions about the company’s sales and marketing expenses — more than the usual number. Schering has played up its Productivity Transformation Program to Wall Street, which is essentially a layoffs program designed to cut $1.5 billion from the company’s...

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Two companies are developing new erectile dysfunction drugs, even though there’s already three on the market and one of those — Pfizer’s Viagra – is set to go generic between 2011 and 2013. Rexahn is developing a compound called Zoraxel and Vivus is developing Avanafil. Rexahn is in Phase 2 and Vivus is in Phase 3 with their research, according to the AccessRx blog....

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There were no nasty surprises in Sanofi-Aventis’s Q4 results. Yesterday, BNET had suggested that CEO Chris Viehbacher’s desire to cut $1.3 billion in operating costs would fall upon sales reps, whose jobs would be axed. We also noted that, dollar for dollar (or euro for euro, in this case) Sanofi’s reps are some of the most productive in the business. So, did...

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A unit of Johnson & Johnson has won approval to market a pill for premature ejaculation in Finland and Sweden. The company expects five more countries to follow suit. There was a time when J&J’s corporate image was like that of your mom, if your mom was a nurse: trustworthy, caring, and expert. But in recent years J&J has expressed interest in increasingly outre businesses,...

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Bayer will run a $20 million corrective ad campaign for its contraceptive brand Yaz to settle a case where it was accused of deceptive advertising. The news cements Bayer’s reputation as the most ethically challenged pharma company in the business — it is only the latest in an increasingly long string of citations and settlements in which Bayer has been accused of deceptive...

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Swiss authorities have accused Pfizer and Eli Lilly of conspiring to fix prices for Viagra and Cialis. The news has created the best Bloomberg headline ever: “Pfizer, Lilly, Bayer Operated Erection-Drug Cartel, Swiss Say.” A couple of days ago BNET noted that Pfizer and Lilly appear to have frozen Bayer’s Levitra out of the market. The two ED brands have come to dominate...

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The top six executives at Eli Lilly received $48 million in pay between them in 2008, according to the Indianapolis Star. CEO John Lechleiter received $13 million last year, a 39 percent increase from the year before. Chairman emeritus Sidney Taurel got $13 million, too. The news comes on the heels of an AP report detailing Taurel’s retirement package, worth $40 million. Excessive in a...

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You could be forgiven for thinking that under the Obama Administration, GlaxoSmithKline might be at something of a disadvantage as a lobbyist. After all, GSK’s general counsel is the ultra-conservative Daniel Troy (pictured), the man who, when at the FDA under Bush, tried to write regulations that prevented drug companies from “disclosing too much.” But you would be wrong. President...

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Roche’s offer document for purchase of outstanding shares of Genentech is worth a look — it gives a day-by-day, sometimes hour-by-hour explanation of what exactly happened between the two boards of directors since last summer, when Roche first proposed buying Genentech. It also explains why Roche is now low-balling its bid at $86.50; and why Genentech thinks it’s worth $115(!)...

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