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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: drug companies

drug companies stories: 54 news summaries

1 - 20 of 54 Stories | 1 2 3 Next >>

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 Drugmakers 
 Hike Prices 
 Ahead of Reform 

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

Nov 16, 09 7:08 AM CST
(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... More »

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Merck • pharmaceutical companies • drug companies • prescription drugs • health care reform • pharmaceutical industry

 Big Pharma Flouts Laws 
 on Off-Label Uses 

Billions in fines don't stop illegal promotion

Nov 9, 09 8:19 AM CST
(Newser) - Back in 2004, a unit of drug giant Pfizer pleaded guilty to marketing a drug, Neurotonin, for unapproved uses, paid $430 million in fines, and promised to clean up its act—which it had no intention of doing. "At the very same time Pfizer was in our office negotiating... More »

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marketing • drug companies • Pfizer • prescription drugs • Eli Lilly • settlement • off label drug use • Bristol Myers Squibb

(Newser) - Pfizer will shell out $2.3 billion—a record for a health care fraud settlement—over deceptive marketing of its drugs, the Los Angeles Times reports. Pfizer and one of its subsidiaries marketed four drugs based on off-label uses specifically prohibited by the FDA. The settlement with the Justice... More »

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Department of Justice • fraud • Health and Human Services • marketing • drug companies • Pfizer • civil lawsuits • Lyrica • fines • criminal prosecution • Bextra

 Drug Giants Target Cancer 

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

Sep 2, 09 2:16 AM CDT
(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... More »

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cancer • pharmaceutical companies • drug companies • Pfizer • cancer research • prescription drugs • pharmaceutical industry • cancer drug

(Newser) - The Obama administration is thwarting poor countries' access to affordable drugs in order to win Big Pharma's support for health care reform, according to Doctors Without Borders and other NGOs. As the Los Angeles Times reports, governments from Asia to Latin America are feeling pressure from Washington on their use... More »

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drug companies • generic drugs • health care reform • Doctors Without Borders • HIV/AIDS • pharmaceutical industry • Obama administration • NGOs

Pharma to Push Obama Plan in $150M Ad Blitz

Drug companies get behind health care reform, to Congress' concern

Aug 9, 09 6:12 AM CDT
(Newser) - Drug companies have authorized their lobbyists to spend up to $150 million on TV ads supporting Barack Obama's health care reform plan—a surprisingly large sum that suggests the industry still has a deal with the White House on capping pharma's costs, reports the New York Times. A few spots... More »

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advertising • White House • drug companies • health care reform • pharmaceutical industry • advertising budgets

Pharma Ghostwriters Penned Medical Papers on HRT

Drug firms may play bigger role than thought in medical lit

Aug 5, 09 7:20 AM CDT
(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,... More »

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cancer • pharmaceutical companies • drug companies • pharma • medical research • lawsuit • Wyeth • side effects • hormone therapy

(Newser) - Animal rights militants have torched the home of the CEO of drug giant Novartis and stolen his mother's ashes from a Swiss cemetery, say company officials. Employees' cars have also been vandalized and attacked with crude explosive devices, reports the Wall Street Journal. More »

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drug companies • animal rights • Novartis • grave robbing • animal testing • arson

(Newser) - An outside panel reporting to the Food and Drug Administration recommended today that the maximum daily dosage of Tylenol be reduced and the Extra Strength variety of the painkiller be available only by prescription, Bloomberg reports. The panel of advisers, whose suggestions are nonbinding, noted acetaminophen’s effect on the... More »

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drug companies • Vicodin • painkiller • liver • ibuprofen • Food and Drug Administration • Advil • Tylenol • acetaminophen • Percocet • women's issues

(Newser) - Big Pharma has offered the feds a discount of up to $80 billion on drugs for programs like Medicare, the Washington Post reports. The pledge, which comes at a crucial moment in the health-reform debate, may be a pre-emptive strike before President Obama pushes for a proposed $100 billion... More »

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Congress • Medicare • drug companies • pharma • health care reform • discounts • Obama administration

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

Agency received over 130 reports of loss of smell sense

Jun 16, 09 12:47 PM CDT
(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... More »

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medicine • FDA • pharmaceutical companies • drug safety • drug companies • smell • allergy • sense of smell • nasal passages • medication • cold • warning • Zicam • Matrixx

Swiss Pharma Won't Donate Swine Flu Vaccine to Poor

Novartis defies WHO calls to give free doses to poor


Jun 15, 09 4:58 AM CDT
(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 "... More »

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pharmaceutical companies • drug companies • GlaxoSmithKline • Novartis • World Health Organization • flu shot • Tamiflu • flu medications • pharmaceutical industry • pandemic • swine flu

'Disease of Kings' Becomes Middle Class Scourge

Gout is not just for Henry VIII anymore

Jun 13, 09 10:28 AM CDT
(Newser) - It used to be called the “disease of kings” because only aristocrats could pig out enough to get it. But these days, gout, an extremely painful arthritis of the foot and other joints, is spreading like wildfire through America’s ever-widening middle class, the New York Times reports.... More »

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FDA • health • drug companies • Henry VIII • gout

Obama Seeks Another $313B in Health Cuts

He wants to reduce Medicare payments
to hospitals

Jun 13, 09 9:19 AM CDT
(Newser) - In an effort to pay for his ambitious health care plans, Barack Obama today proposed another $313 billion in cuts to government health care spending over the next decade, the Wall Street Journal reports. That brings the total cuts proposed to nearly $950 billion, just shy of the $1... More »

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Barack Obama • health care costs • hospitals • Medicare • drug companies • universal health care • Medicaid • health care reform

 Spending on 
 Health Care 
 Lobbying Up 41% 

Drug, insurance companies oppose public insurance

Jun 12, 09 11:45 AM CDT
(Newser) - As the health care debate heats up in Washington, insurance and drug companies are keeping their lobbyists busy. So far this year, those industries have increased their lobbyist spending by 41% as they fight a proposed public insurance plan, USA Today reports. That's $35 million in the first quarter for... More »

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Congress • insurance companies • Washington DC • Merck • drug companies • lobbying • lobbyists • health care reform • public insurance

(Newser) - Porn might be the best way for older men to boost their testosterone levels, but don’t tell that to a drug company that peddles a cure for “low T,” Newsweek reports. Solvay Pharmaceuticals makes a “testosterone foam” that claims to combat such maladies as “lost... More »

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steroids • men • drug companies • pornography • testosterone • aging • prescription drugs • middle age • AndroGel

Colon Cancer Drug Flunks Important Test

Avastin's effects on early-stage disease don't meet expectations

Apr 22, 09 8:07 AM CDT
(Newser) - Clinical trials to determine the drug Avastin’s effects on early-stage colon cancer were a big disappointment for drug firm Genentech, the New York Times reports. The drug, which is typically used in late-stage cancer, didn’t significantly cut the recurrence rate among 2,700 subjects in the early stages,... More »

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study • drug companies • cancer research • cancer treatment • Genentech • Roche • Avastin • clinical trials

RealAge Quiz Offers Data to Big Pharma

Popular website uses health info to pitch drugs to users

Mar 26, 09 6:41 AM CDT
(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... More »

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Internet • health • pharmaceutical companies • drug companies • Oprah Winfrey

FDA OKs Drug
for Kids Despite Justice Probe

Firm wooed docs to illegally prescribe antidepressant: feds

Mar 21, 09 9:42 AM CDT
(Newser) - The FDA has approved an antidepressant called Lexapro for kids, just weeks after the Justice Department accused its maker of marketing it illegally—for kids. Prosecutors say Forest Laboratories for years sweet-talked pediatricians into prescribing Lexapro and the similar Celexa by offering spa visits, event tickets, and fishing trips, even... More »

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FDA • antidepressant • drug companies • children • pediatricians • teenager • kickbacks

Pharma Infiltrates Harvard's Ivory Tower

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

Mar 3, 09 10:11 AM CST
(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... More »

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Harvard Medical School • pharmaceutical companies • drug companies • professor • Harvard • medical ethics

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