Pharma Industry Archive

The FDA blasted Becton Dickinson for marketing a bogus swine flu test kit. The FDA’s warning letter, citing “national security” (!), said BD promoted on its web site a “Rapid Influenza Antigen Test (Swine Flu).” The memo is interesting because it is usually small fly-by-night companies that get caught marketing useless tests and remedies for the disease of the moment. In...

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Pfizer is accused of “deception through concealment” and “cheating” in failing to disclose nine of 16 trials of an antidepressant, Edronax (reboxetine), in Germany. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care slammed Pfizer in a press release titled: Pfizer conceals study data; Drug manufacturer hinders the best possible treatment of patients with...

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Eli Lilly knew in 1995 that Zyprexa was ineffective for treating Alzheimer’s and dementia in the elderly but promoted it for that purpose anyway, according to a lawsuit. The suit also claims that each Zyprexa sales rep had a $10,000 budget that it used to pay pharmacies and doctors for talking up off-label uses of Zyprexa. The news comes from the same case outlined by Bloomberg...

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Roche has won a ruling insulating it from allegations that its Accutane acne drug caused the suicide of U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak’s son. B.J. Stupak started taking Accutane in 1999. In May 2000, at age 17, he shot himself in the head. The ruling states: Laurie Stupak [B.J.'s mother] claimed that Roche was liable under negligence and strict liability for failing to warn that its prescription...

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Pfizer is to begin a big push into generics, and an equally important push to convince investors that this is a good idea. Sales at its existing generics unit are declining and there’s reason to believe that even if that can be reversed, it might not be much of a money-maker. (BNET first noted the generics push would happen back in February, shortly after the merger with Wyeth). The...

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AstraZeneca seems to be winning its war against the 10,000 plaintiffs who claim Seroquel causes weight gain and diabetes. A judge ruled that there was not enough evidence that Seroquel triggered a woman’s diabetes because she was already unhealthy by the time she started taking the drug. None of the cases alleging that AZ failed to properly warn patients about Seroquel’s side...

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The amount of money raised by biotech companies so far this year has finally, for the first time in 2009, exceeded the amount raised year-to-date in 2008. According to data from BioWorld Insight, biotechs raised $5.9 billion through June 4 this year, compared to $5.4 billion in the same period last year. That may not sound like much of a difference, but consider the hole biotech had to dig...

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DellaCamera Capital gathered what it claimed was more than 50 percent of Enzon’s shareholders into a hotel conference room in Midtown New York today to make the case for staging a coup against CEO Jeff Buchalter. The presenter, DellaCamera research chief Richard Mansouri, dropped some interesting new nuggets into the debate over whether Buchalter should be removed by his shareholders (the...

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The three companies at the forefront of the race for the new anti-obesity pill (Vivus, Arena and Orexigen) showed off their wares at the American Diabetes Association’s meeting in New Orleans, and Vivus and Arena got nice bumps in their stock. Orexigen, however, declined. The events were hailed — as they always are — as another step toward a fabled pharma goldmine that will...

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Wyeth has again found itself at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case on whether drug companies can be held liable for injuries suffered by patients who took their drugs. The Supremes on Monday asked the Obama administration for its position on American Home Products v. Ferrari, a case about whether thimerosal vaccines cause autism. In March, Wyeth lost a case on preemption. The court ruled...

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