Pfizer To Pay $60M To Settle Bribery Probe
The big drugmaker has reached an agreement in principle with the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission to pay at least $60 million resolve a foreign bribery investigation, and a final deal could be struck by the end of the year, according to The Wall Street Journal. The disclosure comes […]
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Troubled Boehringer Unit Suspends Manufacturing
Five months after reluctantly acknowledging that quality-control problems had caused severe shortages of several medicines, Ben Venue Laboratories has disclosed plans to “voluntarily and temporarily†suspend production and distribution at its Bedford, Ohio, facility. “A recent internal review of documentation indicated that routine preventive maintenance and requalification of some manufacturing equipment did not occur at […]
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100 Years Ago – Bayer Once Promoted Heroin Use in Children
It’s not news that Bayer, the venerable German drug company, made its first fortunes in the late 1890s when it commercialized both aspirin and heroin as cough, cold and pain remedies. Many people have seen the sepia images of vintage Bayer’s “Heroin” brand medicine bottles. But it’s less widely known that Bayer promoted heroin for […]
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Sex-Pill Makers Jailed as China Plays ‘Whac-a-Mole’ With Phoney Producers
China jailed eight sex-pill makers and raided more than 1,400 drug dens this month as the government stepped up its fight to control an estimated $3 billion of fake drugs in the world’s fastest-growing pharmaceuticals market. China criminalized the manufacture of counterfeit medicines this year and raised maximum penalties to the death sentence to try […]
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Novartis Workers End Their Strike… For Now
Earlier today, about 1,000 Novartis workers in Switzerland held a brief strike to protest the planned closing of a plant in the town of Nyon, where about 320 people are employed. The move came after the drugmaker last month plans to eliminate another 2,000 jobs, including 1,100 in Switzerland, which is a blow to a […]
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Pfizer Strikes A Deal With Feds Over Foreign Bribes
The big drugmaker has reached an agreement in principle with the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve a foreign bribery investigation, and a final deal could be struck by the end of the year, according to an SEC filing (see page 34). The disclosure comes three months after […]
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Pfizer Move To Block Generic Lipitor Attracts FTC
There is nothing like a deal with a pharmacy benefit manager to generate intrigue. The recent arrangements that Pfizer struck with several PBMs and health plans to block prescriptions for generic versions of its best-selling Lipitor cholesterol pill are prompting all sorts of reactions, from outrage to confusion. Some pharmacists, for instance, are angry because […]
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Novartis Pays $150M To Settle Pricing Fraud
In the latest instance of pharmaceutical fraud, the Sandoz unit of Novartis earlier this week agreed to pay $150 million to settle lawsuits filed by the states of Florida and California, as well as a whistleblower, to settle charges that it deliberately misreported pricing information in order to hike reimbursements from Medicaid. This is only […]
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Novartis staff on strike over job cuts
Employees working at the Nyon-Prangins site of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis went on strike on Wednesday over the firm’s decision to close the factory and slash over 300 jobs. “Production has stopped. This morning, the machines were no longer working and there is also strong mobilisation in the research division,” Jean Kunz from Swiss union […]
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Stem cell trial halted
The world’s first official trial using human embryonic stem cells in patients has been halted. Geron, based in California, made the sudden announcement that it was halting further work in this field. In a statement the company said in the “current environment of capital scarcity and uncertain economic conditions” it had decided to concentrate instead […]
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