pharmaceutical companies

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Drugmakers Hike Prices Ahead of Reform

9% rise, in a year of falling prices, will add $10B to drug spending

(Newser) - Bracing for health care reform, drug companies have been raising prices at the fastest rate in almost 20 years—even as they pledge to support Washington's goal of cutting the nation's drug bill. The pharmaceutical industry is scrambling to get the price base as high as possible before legislation to...

Drug Giants Target Cancer
 Drug Giants Target Cancer 
Sep 2, 2009 2:16 AM CDT

Drug Giants Target Cancer

Scientific advances, potentially huge profits attract Big Pharma to cancer fight

(Newser) - Major drug companies are tying their fortunes to cancer like never before, the New York Times reports. The firms—inspired by advancements in science as well as the high prices cancer drugs command—are pouring unprecedented resources into the search for new cancer drugs. The drug giants hope cancer treatments...

Pharma Ghostwriters Penned Medical Papers on HRT

Drug firms may play bigger role than thought in medical lit

(Newser) - Ghostwriters funded by a drug firm were deeply involved in writing papers supporting therapies that helped the firm’s sales boom, court papers show. The 26 scientific papers, published in medical journals from 1998 to 2005, highlighted the benefits of hormone replacement therapy over the risks, a boon to Wyeth,...

Anti-Smoking Chantix, Zyban Pose Suicide Risk: FDA

Smokers with mental illnesses should avoid them, agency says

(Newser) - The Food and Drug Administration is warning smokers about serious mental-illness risks of two smoking-cessation drugs, as reported suicides among their users increase. Chantix and Zyban must now carry the agency’s strongest warning label, the New York Times reports. The FDA isn’t trying to scare patients, an official...

FDA: Get Off Smell-Killing Zicam Nasal Spray, Now

Agency received over 130 reports of loss of smell sense

(Newser) - The Food and Drug Administration is calling on consumers to stop using Zicam nasal treatments because they can permanently kill the sense of smell, the Wall Street Journal reports. Zicam is an over-the-counter cold and allergy medication sold in several forms; customers should reject internasal products that contain zinc. The...

Swiss Pharma Won't Donate Swine Flu Vaccine to Poor

Novartis defies WHO calls to give free doses to poor

(Newser) - Swiss pharma giant Novartis is defying the World Health Organization by refusing to donate swine flu vaccines to the world's poor, despite the designation of H1N1 as the first pandemic in 40 years, reports the Financial Times. Last week the WHO's director general called on drug companies to show "...

Companies Leak Drugs Into US Drinking Water

(Newser) - Federal regulators have consistently looked away as Big Pharma and other manufacturers poured at least 271 million pounds of drugs into waterways that supply US drinking water, the AP reports. Records kept unintentionally by the FDA and EPA show that 22 compounds, some considered dangerous by scientists, have leaked into...

RealAge Quiz Offers Data to Big Pharma

Popular website uses health info to pitch drugs to users

(Newser) - More than 27 million people have gone online to take a quiz called RealAge, which promises to determine your "biological age" and then suggests recommendations on how to feel "younger." But most users are unaware that the site makes its money by selling test results to...

Roche Gets Genentech in $46.8B Biotech Deal

(Newser) - Swiss drug giant Roche has succeeded in its quest to own biotech firm Genentech outright, and will purchase the 44% of shares it does not already own for $95 each, the San Francisco Chronicle reports today. The $46.8 billion deal comes after months of haggling, wherein Roche offered as...

Pharma Infiltrates Harvard's Ivory Tower

Med school is in ethics crisis, say some students and profs

(Newser) - The tentacles of big pharma have made their way into the upper echelons of academia, the New York Times reports: Harvard Medical School is packed with professors with industry ties, and that has students concerned. With 149 profs connected to Pfizer and 130 to Merck, fears that the influence of...

Scientists Map Common Cold's Genome
Scientists Map Common Cold's Genome
Feb 12, 2009 4:43 PM CST

Scientists Map Common Cold's Genome

Makes creating a cure possible, but still pricey and unlikely

(Newser) - Researchers have completed a “family tree” for the common cold, paving the way for an eventual cure to one of mankind’s most stubborn ailments, the New York Times reports. Scientists mapped the genomes of the 99 variations of rhinovirus, which causes most colds, and have cataloged the weaknesses...

Novartis Acquires Plavix Rival
 Novartis Acquires Plavix Rival 
Feb 12, 2009 8:22 AM CST

Novartis Acquires Plavix Rival

Novartis acquires worldwide rights from a San Francisco biopharmaceutical firm

(Newser) - Novartis AG will pay a San Francisco biopharmaceutical company $75 million—with the potential for an additional $500 million—for the worldwide rights to an experimental anticlotting drug the Swiss drug firm hopes will rival Plavix, reports the Wall Street Journal. Market leader Plavix rang up $8.22 billion in...

FTC Challenges Payments to Delay Generics

Deal to keep generic drug off the market is anti-competitive, regulators say

(Newser) - The Federal Trade Commission, pledging to oppose “pay-for-delay” agreements, filed suit against a brand-name testosterone-replacement drug manufacturer for paying three competitors to delay introductions of generic versions, the Washington Post reports. Nearly half of settlements between brand-name drug-makers and their generic counterparts in 2006 and 2007 resulted in such...

Pfizer Deal's $22.5B in Loans Hasn't Unlocked Credit

$22.5B loan in deal to acquire Wyeth comes at 7-9% interest, and lenders can walk

(Newser) - Think Pfizer’s $68 billion deal to buy Wyeth, financed in part with $22.5 billion in loans, means credit markets have thawed? Think again, the Wall Street Journal reports. Pfizer’s lenders—including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman, and Citigroup—are charging high interest (7%-9%, with loans due in...

Pfizer Snaps Up Wyeth for $68B
 Pfizer Snaps Up Wyeth for $68B 
Jan 26, 2009 6:11 AM CST

Pfizer Snaps Up Wyeth for $68B

Merger would be largest pharma deal since GlaxoWellcome-SmithKline 2000 merger

(Newser) - The world’s largest drugmaker, Pfizer, is poised to become even more gargantuan after it agreed early this morning to buy rival Wyeth for $68 billion, reports the Wall Street Journal. In the first major merger to hit Wall Street in months, Pfizer will borrow $22.5 billion from four...

Pfizer in Talks to Buy Wyeth
 Pfizer in Talks to Buy Wyeth  




Jan 23, 2009 5:49 AM CST

Pfizer in Talks to Buy Wyeth

Sources say drug maker plans $60B acquisition of rival Wyeth

(Newser) - Pfizer is seeking to create a Big Pharma behemoth with the acquisition of rival Wyeth, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. The deal, expected to be worth around $60 billion, would make Pfizer—already the world's biggest drug company—big enough to redraw the map of the industry, although sources...

Eli Lilly to Pay $1.4B, Plead Guilty in Marketing Scheme

Company promoted drug for unapproved uses

(Newser) - Eli Lilly will plead guilty to a federal misdemeanor and pay $1.42 billion to settle investigations into its marketing of an anti-schizophrenia drug, Reuters reports. The company promoted Zyprexa to the elderly as an anti-dementia pharmaceutical, though studies questioned its effectiveness in treating Alzheimer’s. “Eli Lilly had...

Drug Ads Losing Power, Study Says

Most patients don't ask for drugs by name

(Newser) - Maybe it's the extensive warnings at the end of drug commercials, but few Americans request prescription drugs by name, a new study shows. In Colorado, only 3.5% of patients—half the number of 2003—requested specific medicine from doctors. This is despite more than $5 billion pharmaceuticals pay to...

Pfizer to Can 800 Researchers
 Pfizer to Can 800 Researchers 
Jan 13, 2009 12:19 PM CST

Pfizer to Can 800 Researchers

Company must cut R&D spending ahead of Lipitor patent expiration

(Newser) - Pfizer will eliminate the jobs of up to 800 researchers in 2009, starting today, the Wall Street Journal reports. The pharmaceutical giant is attempting to cut costs ahead of a $30 billion reduction in revenue expected in 2011 when its patent on the popular cholesterol drug Lipitor expires. But the...

Drug Companies Agree to Stop Docs' Free Goodies

Critics charged stacks of free trinkets were attempt to influence doctors' decisions

(Newser) - The piles of freebies drug companies lavish on doctors will go the way of the VHS tape as of tomorrow, the New York Times reports. The industry, facing criticism that it is trying to unduly influence doctors' decisions, has voluntarily decided to stop handing out pens, stethoscope holders, bandages, T-shirts,...

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