AstraZeneca Is Indicted By Serbia Over Bribes
Last August, AstraZeneca received a criminal indictment in Belgrade, Serbia, over allegations that local employees offered alleged bribes to physicians at the Institute of Oncology and Radiology, according to a filing made yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (see this). The indictment, however, had actually been previously disclosed when AstraZeneca reported earnings late […]
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Teva To Axe 1,500 Jobs, Mostly From Cephalon
Now that its $6.8 billion purchase of Cephalon has been completed, Teva Pharmaceuticals is planning to eliminate about 1,500 jobs, mostly from the ranks of the biotech, according to Yediot Aharanot. Such a move is hardly surprising, since acquisitions generally result in layoffs and Teva had already signaled that some $500 million in savings was […]
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Chinese Drug Exec Gets Suspended Death Sentence
While the pharma c-suite ponders stepped up regulatory interest in corruption, consider the penalty for bad behavior in China. A Shanghai court just sentenced the former ceo of Shanghai Pharmaceutical, a state-owned drugmaker, to a suspended death sentence for corrupt activities in which he amassed more than $8 million, the Associated Press reports. Wu Jianwen […]
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FDA Should Warn Smokers of Increased Danger of Chantix, Study Says
Scientists say the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should take warnings about the stop-smoking drug Chantix up a notch, citing data showing that the drug increases suicidal behavior and depression far more than other drugs and methods designed to help smokers quit. Chantix, also called varenicline, has been hotly debated since 2007, when experts […]
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How to Create a Pharma Website That Will Get You a Warning Letter
Given the increased scrutiny the FDA is applying toward websites devoted to individual prescription drugs, it may behoove the people who design these sites to include some basic info. Such as? Well, there are always tidbits about safety and efficacy. A helpful rule of thumb, for instance, is to ensure safety info is not minimized […]
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Lilly Wins First Trial Over Zyprexa Marketing
A California state court jury ruled late last week that Eli Lilly was not responsible for the death of a 20-year-old college student, who died from illnessess related to diabetes while taking the Zyprexa antipsychotic for mental illness. The family of Cody Tadai, who died in 2007, filed a lawsuit alleging the drugmaker hid the […]
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GlaxoSmithKline starts search for new directors
Ms Mann, founder of MWM Consulting, has already begun the search for up to two new non-executive directors to replace incumbents who are likely to retire at next May’s annual general meeting. The search is understood to be part of a wider process to revive GSK’s 15-strong board, which includes 12 non-executive directors. It is […]
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Drugmakers Tap Hospital Data For Clinical Trials
Finding patients for clinical trials is not so easy in the US, but a new test project beginning this month hopes to speed the process and lower costs. Called the Partnership to Advance Clinical Electronic Research, or PACeR, the effort is a collaboration between five large drugmakers, 13 hospitals across New York, clinical research organizations, […]
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How Not To Create A Prescription Drug Website
Given the increased scrutiny the FDA is applying toward websites devoted to individual prescription drugs, it may behoove the people who design these sites to include some basic info. Such as? Well, there are always tidbits about safety and efficacy. A helpful rule of thumb, for instance, is to ensure safety info is not minimized […]
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FDA OKs Xarelto But Adds A Black Box Warning
In a move that is a win for Bayer and Johnson & Johnson, the FDA has approved their Xarelto bloodthinner for atrial fibrillation, an action that was not expected so quickly, given that questions were raised by an advisory panel last month about moving patients off the treatment. For this reason, the FDA added a […]
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