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NEWS ABOUT: pharmaceutical industry

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Big Pharma Seeks Big Profits in Developing Nations

Drug Makers See Future in New Markets

(Newser) - The pharmaceutical industry is turning away from the US shores that helped fill its pockets and toward the developing world, the Economist reports. Massive growth has made markets like India and China too attractive to ignore, despite lower income levels and weaker patent laws. And many companies fear Barack Obama's... More »

Non-Profit Pharma Puts Cures Over Cash

Institute for OneWorld Health finds cheap, new uses for partially developed meds

(Newser) - Combating diseases that afflict only the poor doesn't plump the profit margins of pharmaceutical companies; now comes one that sets out to do just that as a non-profit, Good Magazine reports. Using grants to look at long-forgotten compounds, fund clinical trials, and distribute affordable meds to the world’s poorest... More »

Dems Get Higher Doses of Drug Company Donations

McCain's scorn, growth of government programs behind shift in support

(Newser) - Pharmaceutical firms have been a stalwart Republican ally—$22 million of the industry’s $30 billion in contributions went to GOP congressional candidates in 2002—but drug makers are increasingly supporting Democrats, Jeanne Cummings reports in Politico. Programs such as President Bush’s prescription-drug plan mean half of pharmaceutical sales... More »

Drugs Shrinking Psychiatrists' Talk Time: Study

Cost-conscious managed care also seen behind decline

(Newser) - Psychiatry is increasingly focused on prescribing drugs and less on psychotherapy, a study published in the Archives of General Psychology finds. A reluctance by insurance firms to pay for therapy is one factor, HealthDay reports, along with the wide variety of drugs now available to treat various conditions. More »

Bristol-Myers Makes Bid for Icahn's ImClone

Offers 29% premium for biotech partner; shares soar

(Newser) - Already a 17% shareholder, Bristol-Myers Squibb laid down a $4.5 billion offer to buy the  rest of ImClone shares, the Wall Street Journal reports. The $60-a-share offer, sent to ImClone chairman Carl Icahn today, is a 29% premium on yesterday's closing price and makes Bristol the second pharma giant... More »

America: Land of Doggy Doping

The business of pet pharmacology is booming

(Newser) - Americans spent $49 billion on their pets last year, with an ever-growing percentage paying for treatment of  behavioral issues with tailor-made psychotropics, reports James Vlahos in the New York Times Magazine. Frustrated owners are feeding dogs drugs like Reconcile—beef-flavored Prozac—-for "mental illnesses that eerily resemble human ones,... More »

Big Pharma Sickens Universities

It's too easy for drug companies to skirt lax academic regulations

(Newser) - Weak legislation allows professors to collect huge under-the-table payments from Big Pharma, and it’s time to fight back, Dan Greenberg writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Pharmaceutical companies pay professors to shill drugs and lend their names to industry research, and the only oversight is an honor-system mechanism... More »

Deal Delays Generic Lipitor Until 2011

Pact with Indian drug maker stands to net billions for Pfizer

(Newser) - Pfizer has struck a deal with an Indian generic drug maker to delay a cheaper version of Lipitor in the US until November 2011. The agreement limiting generic versions of the cholesterol-lowering drug will translate into billions more in profits for Pfizer, the New York Times reports. Lipitor, the world's... More »

Court Tosses $32M Verdict Against Vioxx

Says evidence insufficient that it contributed to Texan's death

(Newser) - A Texas appellate court threw out a $32 million verdict against Merck today, citing a lack of evidence that Vioxx contributed to a man’s fatal heart attack. Lionel Garza was taking the painkiller when he died in 2001 at age 71, but was also a smoker with high blood... More »

FDA Finds Contaminant in Blood Thinner

Substance discovered in heparin, linked to 19 deaths nationwide

(Newser) - The FDA has found a contaminant in samples of heparin, a blood thinner produced mainly in China linked to 19 deaths and nearly 800 allergic reactions in the US, the New York Times reports. The contaminant may be a counterfeit form of heparin added to reduce its manufacturing cost. The... More »

Heparin Supply Chain Shaky in China

Troubles could trace back to vulnerable raw materials

(Newser) - With at least four US patients dead and hundreds suffering complications from the blood-thinning drug heparin, the New York Times follows the supply chain back to Chinese slaughterhouses that deal with the pig intestines that provide raw material for the drug. Though companies say the chain is secure, the Times... More »

Antidepressants Mostly Useless, Study Finds

Prozac and others make a difference only in most extreme cases

(Newser) - Big Pharma swallowed a bitter pill yesterday as Prozac and other antidepressants were found in a UK study to be largely ineffectual in all but the most extreme cases of depression. The meta-analysis of 47 clinical trials submitted to the FDA with licensing applications for six popular antidepressants concluded that... More »

Prices Jump for Top Drugs

Drug giants collect now against expected future losses

(Newser) - Drug companies have slapped a series of huge price hikes on some prescription drugs ahead of drug patent expirations, the Wall Street Journal reports. GlaxoSmithKline has raised the price of antidepressant Wellbutrin 44.5%, while Sanofi-Aventis hiked Ambien's price 70%. Wholesale prices for the top 50 drugs increased an average... More »

FDA Approved Wrong China Firm

Hundreds ill, 4 dead after using heparin from factory never inspected

(Newser) - The Chinese facility that supplied the active ingredient of the blood-thinner heparin, linked to hundreds of adverse reactions and four US deaths, was never inspected by the FDA because the agency confused it with another plant of the same name, the Washington Post reports. The company was given approval based... More »

Merck Recalls 1M Doses of Vaccine for Kids

Drug company finds contamination at its Pennsylvania factory

(Newser) - Merck is recalling almost a million doses of a childhood vaccine after it found evidence of contamination at one of its factories, the AP reports. The pharmaceutical giant says no children have been harmed after taking Hib, which prevents meningitis and pneumonia, but the company is recalling its 10 lots... More »

Big Pharma Faces Big Plunge

Profits will drop as patents expire, and chemical-based therapies are eclipsed by biotech

(Newser) - Patent protections on some of the pharmaceutical industry's best-selling drugs, like Lipitor, Plavix and Singulair, are due to expire in the next several years, and drug manufacturers have little in the pipeline to replace them. The drug companies will lose billions—as much as half their combined revenue—to generic... More »

Court Blocks New Patent Rules

Judge grants injunction for drug giant GlaxoSmithKline

(Newser) - A Federal judge has blocked the US Patent and Trademark Office from implementing tough new patent rules with a temporary injunction in a suit brought by GlaxoSmithKline. The Wall Street Journal reports the new rules would have limited the number of times patent holders may make minor changes to existing... More »

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