House Votes to Repeal Medical Device Tax in Health Law
Republicans in the U.S. House joined with 37 Democrats to pass a bill repealing a medical-device tax, chipping away at the 2010 health-care law in a victory for companies including Medtronic Inc. (MDT) (MDT) and Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX) (BSX) The Republican-led House voted 270-146 yesterday to pass the repeal measure. The 2.3 percent excise […]
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Johnson & Johnson plans $600 million charge linked to Risperdal sales
Johnson & Johnson said on Friday it expects to take a special charge of about $600 million in the second quarter to bolster reserves for a potential settlement of civil lawsuits related to how it marketed schizophrenia treatment Risperdal and other drugs. The hefty charge would also fund potential settlements for litigation involving marketing of […]
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Congress Probes Timing of Vertex Stock Sales
Source Last week, US Senator Chuck Grassley asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission to probe various stock sales made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals executives and a board member during a three-week stretch last month in which positive study results were disclosed and then unexpectedly revised. Interim results of a Phase II study of a combination […]
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Predicting Side Effects with Computer Modeling
Source Anticipating side effects is a difficult undertaking for all concerned, but what if a computer could predict the likelihood that drugs would cause certain adverse events being given to patients in clinical trials? Well, a group of scientists from Novartis and the University of California, San Francisco, apparently have developed such a test, which […]
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US court rules failure to report 483s can mislead investors
A US appeals court has judged failure to report FDA Form 483s can mislead investors in its revival of a case against KV Pharmaceutical.
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CHTP cuts executive pay 25 percent, suspends bonuses to pay for trials
Drug developers typically turn to investors to finance clinical work on drug candidates. Chelsea Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CHTP) executives and directors are slashing their own paychecks to help pay for that work themselves. Corporate officers and directors for Chelsea have volunteered to take a 25 percent cut in compensation until the Charlotte, North Carolina company gets phase […]
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Merck staff mull further strike action
Merck Serono’s employees will meet this evening to discuss whether or not to strike tomorrow. The strike would be to protest plans to close the biotech firm’s Geneva headquarters. Five-hundred jobs could go in the process with around 750 relocated. Momentum has been gathering since the announcement was made two months ago that over 1,000 […]
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Sanofi slashes data centers from 26 to 3
Sanofi, the global pharmaceutical company, has implemented virtual storage systems to help reduce its 26 data centres around the world to just three, saving bundles in the process. Sanofi is using EMC VPLEX systems to help manage 4,000 applications, in a move to increase utilisation and improve efficiency and agility across its IT environment. The […]
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Opiate addiction: How prescription painkillers pave the way to heroin
The use of prescription painkillers recreationally is at epidemic levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What is it about the pills that makes them so dangerously addictive and a potential gateway for heroin? The surprising answer, at least to many non-medical professionals, is that the common painkillers that doctors and dentists […]
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More Drugs Leaching Into Water Supplies?
Source Yet another study suggests that pharmaceuticals finding their way into the water supply may be linked to a troubling issue. A team of researchers has discovered that fish show autism-like gene expression after exposure to water containing antidepressants, such as Prozac and Effexor. The results may suggest an environmental trigger for autism, although the […]
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