Since January 1, the pharmaceuticals world watched three of its biggest names go gently into the good night. Yes, those names are still around, but they’re each preceded by another company name with an apostrophe and an S. As in Roche’s Genentech , Merck’s Schering and Pfizer’s Wyeth ….
AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit announced a recall of 4.7 million doses of its nasal spray version of the swine flu vaccine because tests showed a decline in potency. Report
Original Source of MedImmune recalls 4.7M doses of H1N1 vaccine
It’s been a good news-bad news kind of week for Merck and its cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia. First, the good news: FDA says it has finished reviewing the data on potential links between those drugs and an increased risk of cancer and cancer-related deaths. And on balance, it’s…
When Sanofi-Aventis agreed to buy consumer healthcare specialist Chattem earlier this week, the $1.9 billion deal set industry tongues a-wagging about OTC meds and their importance to pharma sales growth. Who’s well-positioned in the OTC market these days, and who’s likely to be playing catch-up in 2010? And who’s…
What if pharma threw a party in China but the government refused to come? Well, that’s just what might happen as a result of new rules that give domestic companies preference in government purchasing. The Obama Administration is up in arms about the regulations, saying that they amount to…
Pharma may be forced to cough up more cost cuts in the battle for healthcare reform. The New York Times reports that last-minute balking
The Amgen-Roche patent smackdown is finally finito. A U.S. District Court in Boston ruled that Roche’s anemia drug Mircera does in fact infringe Amgen’s patents. And the court entered a permanent injunction to keep Roche from selling the drug in the U.S. until mid-2014. The companies
Illinois advocacy groups are calling for an overhaul of antipsychotic drug use in nursing home residents. They want Gov. Pat Quinn’s nursing home task force to recommend tough new rules for the use of those drugs, including restrictions on doctors who prescribe them. Apparently, that task force plans to…
Remember that priority review that Cephalon snared for its stay-awake drug Nuvigil? Well, scratch that. The company says FDA officials need more time to consider the use of Nuvigil for drowsiness associated with jet lag. The action deadline is now March 29, rather than December 29 as previously scheduled….
You all know that Germany’s Ratiopharm is currently on the block, with a sale planned for early next year. What you might not know is that the company is set to beat its own goals for 2009 profits. Report
Original Source of Ratiopharm to surpass 2009 earnings goals