pharmaceutical companies

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Ailing Biotech Firms Need Shot in the Arm

Flatlining economy threatens breakthrough medical research

(Newser) - For the first time in years, the biotech industry is in desperate need of a lifeline, Bloomberg reports, as the economic crisis threatens to shove companies into bankruptcy and derail the development of potentially life-saving drugs. “I’m looking down the barrel of a gun,” admitted one CEO....

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...

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...

Many Cancer Trials Go Unpublished: Study

Negative outcomes often shelved because they don't boost careers

(Newser) - Fewer than 20% of cancer trial results are published in peer-review journals, a new study says. And industry-sponsored trials only achieve publication one time in 20. The reason? Scientists seeking success and media-hungry journals don't want to publish negative results, analysts say—even if they would aid other cancer studies....

Dems Get Higher Doses of Drug Company Donations
Dems Get Higher Doses of Drug Company Donations
ANALYSIS
Sep 23, 2008 4:43 PM CDT

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...

Pharma Under Fire Over Pricey Drugs for Kids
Pharma Under Fire Over Pricey Drugs for Kids
GLOSSIES
Jul 27, 2008 7:37 AM CDT

Pharma Under Fire Over Pricey Drugs for Kids

Lawmakers lash astronomical hikes in drugs for rare diseases

(Newser) - In the face of astronomical hikes in the price of drugs used to treat children, a congressional committee is looking into why companies have increased prescription costs as much as 18-fold when related research and marketing expenses are stable, according to lawmakers. One such company charges $69,000 for a...

Pharma, Tech Kill Early Gains
 Pharma, Tech Kill Early Gains 
MARKETS
Jul 21, 2008 3:40 PM CDT

Pharma, Tech Kill Early Gains

Pricier oil, Merck troubles outshine Bank of America's 'success'

(Newser) - The markets failed to hold on to early-session gains today as oil rose above $131 per barrel and the overall economic outlook remained downcast, MarketWatch reports. The Dow lost 29.23 points to close at 11,467.34, the Nasdaq fell 3.25 to 2,279.53, and the S&...

America: Land of Doggy Doping
 America: Land of  Doggy Doping 
GLOSSIES
Jul 10, 2008 7:07 AM CDT

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,...

Big Pharma Sickens Universities
 Big Pharma
 Sickens Universities 
OPINION
Jun 22, 2008 6:07 PM CDT

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...

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...

Deadly Heparin Found in 11 Nations
Deadly Heparin Found in
11 Nations
Apr 22, 2008 7:17 AM CDT

Deadly Heparin Found in 11 Nations

FDA traces tainted Chinese blood thinner that killed 81

(Newser) - The FDA has traced a contaminated blood thinner from a Chinese factory to 11 countries, the New York Times reports. Severe reactions to the contaminated heparin have been linked to the deaths of 81 Americans, but it wasn't immediately clear if the drug may have triggered fatalities in other countries....

Merck Used Ghostwriters to Draft Rosy Vioxx Studies

Company downplayed risks in medical articles on drug found to be a killer

(Newser) - Merck used its own ghostwriters to draft articles minimizing risks of its drug Vioxx, then found medical researchers to lend their names to the research, the Wall Street Journal reports. Merck, which pulled the painkiller from shelves four years ago over heart-attack risks, rejects the claims as "misleading."...

Doc: Merck Fudged Minutes of Meeting

Vytorin probe challeges firm's account of delay in trial results

(Newser) - Merck's "minutes" of a meeting of heart doctors discussing cholesterol drug Vytorin were created a month after the meeting and distorted the viewpoints of the experts, one panel member changes. The drug company submitted the document to congressional investigators probing its two-year delay in releasing a report saying the...

Feds ID Extra Drug in Baxter's Recalled Heparin

FDA unsure if chemical was behind reactions to blood-thinner

(Newser) - The Food and Drug Administration has identified the extra ingredient found in samples of Baxter’s blood-thinning drug heparin, the Wall Street Journal reports today. Some batches of the drug—recalled in January after reports of allergic reactions—contained over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate, but it is not certain that was the...

Heparin Supply Chain Shaky in China
Heparin
Supply Chain Shaky in China
Feb 28, 2008 2:07 PM CST

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...

Pfizer Pulls Lipitor Ads After Probe

Critics accused pharma giant of inflating doctor's CV

(Newser) - Pfizer said today it will drop its ads for cholesterol drug Lipitor due to criticisms of the TV spots, the New York Times reports. US lawmakers recently probed whether the campaign had inflated the credentials of artificial heart developer Dr. Robert Jarvik. "The way in which we presented Dr....

Vaccines, Medicines to Treat Addiction on the Way

Many resist pharmaceutical approach

(Newser) - It's been decades since scientists recognized that addiction is a disease, not just a lack of willpower, but only now are potential treatments coming online that address what Newsweek calls "a chronic, relapsing brain disorder to be managed with all the tools at medicine's disposal." The magazine surveys...

FDA Delay Cost 22,000 Lives: Doctor
FDA Delay
Cost 22,000 Lives: Doctor
Feb 15, 2008 7:53 AM CST

FDA Delay Cost 22,000 Lives: Doctor

Agency took a year to pull lethal heart surgery drug Trasylol

(Newser) - A prominent researcher who revealed widespread fatalities associated with the heart surgery drug Trasylol says 22,000 people died because of the FDA's delay in blowing the whistle on the drug after his study was published. Drugmaker Bayer also failed to disclose negative results of its own study. In a...

Merck Will Pay $650M to End Discount Probes

Drug company alleged to have kept Medicaid in dark on lowest prices

(Newser) - Drug company Merck will dish out $650 million to resolve lawsuits and probes into marketing schemes, the Wall Street Journal reports. Central to the investigations is the company’s “nominal pricing,” which slashed some drug prices by 90% for hospitals but hid the discounts from Medicaid, even though...

Eli Lilly Could Pay $1B Settlement
Eli Lilly Could Pay $1B Settlement
Jan 30, 2008 5:40 PM CST

Eli Lilly Could Pay $1B Settlement

Fine for illegally promoting antipsychotic drug Zyprexa would be biggest ever

(Newser) - Drug-maker Eli Lilly could pay more than $1 billion to state and federal authorities to settle an investigation into how the company marketed an antipsychotic drug, the New York Times reports. In 2000-03, Lilly pushed doctors to prescribe Zyprexa as a treatment for age-related dementia—though the drug is approved...

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