One small step for Pfizer, another leap farther into generics for Big Pharma . The drugmaker has agreed to source 40 generic treatments–including a bundle of cancer meds–from the Indian firm Strides Arcolab, for sale in the United States. The drugs will be marketed by Pfizer’s relatively new Established…
Within the next several weeks Pfizer expects to cut 400 jobs from Monmouth Junction, N.J., and Merck plans to eliminate 500 jobs from Kenilworth, where Schering-Plough had its headquarters. Report
Original Source of Pfizer, Merck to cut 900 N.J. jobs
For those of you looking for signs–any signs–of just where Merck’s post-merger jobs axe might fall, check out the Wall Street Journal Health Blog’ s coverage of CEO Dick Clark ( photo ). And if you’re thinking sales, you’re right. At a Goldman Sachs event, Clark told the audience…
Glaxo goes to Hollywood.
After many a riposte, parry, counter-parry, and feint, AstraZeneca has prevailed in its long fencing bout with would-be generic challenger Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. The Israeli generics giant agreed to concede that AstraZeneca’s Nexium patents are valid and enforceable in return for a license to sell the drug in the…
The FDA is once again wading into the safety data on Amgen’s anemia drugs. An advisory committee will convene later this year to evaluate whether lower doses would help avoid increased cardiovascular risks for kidney patients, the agency announced in a New England Journal of Medicine commentary. It’s not…
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Strides Arcolab (BSE: 532531, NSE: STAR) announced a new collaboration, wherein Pfizer will commercialize off-patent sterile injectable and oral products in the United States through its Established Products Business Unit. These finished dosage form products will be licensed and supplied by Strides and Onco Laboratories Limited…
The FDA has canceled a meeting to review Eli Lilly’s antidepressant Cymbalta for a new use against chronic pain, sending the company’s stock downward. Report
Original Source of FDA cancels meeting on new Cymbalta use
Worried that the Obama administration would usher in a no-tolerance policy toward drug side effects? Well, you can rest easy now. An analysis of Obama’s FDA shows that the number of new “black box” warnings dropped by almost half in 2009–to 31 from 56 in 2008. The new FDA…
Yet another study is calling the efficacy of antidepressants into question. New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that only patients with severe depression truly benefit from the drugs. Those suffering from mild to moderate depression get little or no help from those drugs,…