From Bloomberg News | GlaxoSmithKline Plc lawyers, in a trial seeking at least $1.5 billion in damages, told jurors that Abbott Laboratories had an illegal monopoly over HIV drugs. Get the full story>>
Abbott Labs
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Abbott wins appeal of Humira patent enfringement
Abbott's Humira drug. (Handout)
Turning back a threat to sales of Abbott Laboratories’ most lucrative drug, a federal appeals court Wednesday overturned a lower court ruling that claimed the North Chicago drug giant used Johnson & Johnson’s technology to make a blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug.
Humira is Abbott’s largest-selling product and one of the world’s top-selling drugs, generating more than $5 billion in annual sales as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and psoriasis among other autoimmune disorders.
The ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Texas overturned a $1.67 billion verdict against Abbott from Marshall County. At the time of the lower court ruling last year, observers said it was known for being friendly to plaintiffs. Get the full story »
Feb. 7 at 12:41 p.m.
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Filed under: Advertising/Marketing, Government, Litigation, Pharmaceuticals Justice Dept. takes over Abbott probe
The U.S. Justice Department plans to take the lead in lawsuits accusing Abbott Laboratories of illegally promoting anti-seizure drug Depakote for uses not approved by regulators, including dementia.
The Justice Department filed notices last week in federal court in western Virginia saying it would intervene in at least three lawsuits against Abbott that were previously confidential under laws designed to protect would-be whistleblowers who come forward with information about alleged health-care fraud. The lawsuits were made public as a result of the department’s intervention. Get the full story »
Abbott closes all Chicago facilities due to weather
Abbott’s Chicagoland operations, including its day care center, will be closed today due to weather conditions. Employees should not report to work unless otherwise directed by their supervisors. Get the full story »
Lake County braces for Abbott cuts
Lake County officials are bracing for the loss of more than 1,000 jobs at the Abbott Laboratories headquarters near North Chicago. Today, one county board member called the job losses “tragic,” and the chairman said he was “upset, disturbed and alarmed.”
The job cuts in Lake County are more than half of the company’s national cuts slated for the next two years. The blow could be particularly hard in Lake County because Abbott Inc. is its second largest employer — with about 15,700 workers, according to statistics compiled by Lake County Partners. Get the full story »
Abbott to cut 1,900 jobs in restructuring
Abbott Laboratories said Wednesday that it would cut 1,900 jobs, or 6 percent, of its U.S. workforce in the wake of a series of disappointments in its drug development pipeline, triggering a restructuring of pharmaceutical commercial and manufacturing operations.
Of the cuts, about 1,000 would be in manufacturing operations in Illinois where the largest concentration of Abbott’s estimated 90,000 employees around the world are at its sprawling headquarters in the northern Lake County suburbs of Chicago. The company said about half of the job cuts would take place now with the remainder over the next several years. Get the full story »
Abbott’s Acculink stent trial met goals, FDA says
Abbott Laboratories’ RX Acculink carotid stent appears to work as well as surgery in opening clogged neck arteries in patients who are not at high risk for complications from the surgical procedure, U.S. health regulatory staff concluded.
The device is already approved for patients who need to have their neck arteries opened up, but would face greater risk of side effects if they underwent a procedure to scrape off built-up fatty deposits that can cause strokes. Get the full story »
Abbott withdraws EU application for psoriasis drug
The European Medicines Agency said Monday it was notified by Abbott Laboratories Limited of its decision to withdraw its application for a centralized marketing authorization for the medicine Ozespa, briakinumab, 100 mg solution for injection. Get the full story »
Abbott under FDA scrutiny for psoriasis drug
Abbott Laboratories this morning said it will hold off seeking U.S. approval of an experimental psoriasis treatment following feedback from federal regulators who have concerns about the drug.
Abbott would not disclose exactly what the concerns of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are. The agency, however, has in recent years stepped up its scrutiny of the safety and efficacy of drugs and increasingly orders more study in clinical trials, particularly for safety risks to the heart.
The news hit the company’s stock. The price of Abbott’s shares lost 1 percent of their value or 49 cents, dipping to $46.88 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Get the full story »
Abbott absorbable heart stent gets European OK
Abbott Laboratories’ said its experimental dissolvable heart stent has received approval in Europe, a key milestone in the development of the next-generation heart device for patients in the U.S. and around the world.
The North Chicago-based drug and medical device giant said it is the first-ever government regulatory approval of an absorbable stent. Get the full story »
India rejects Abbott patent of Kaletra AIDS drug
Abbott Laboratories was refused copyright protection on its AIDS drug Kaletra by India’s patent office, allowing Cipla Ltd. and other generic-drug companies to continue selling copies. Get the full story »
Abbott, AstraZeneca end Certriad development pact
Abbott Laboratories and British drug giant AstraZeneca have decided to stop developing the drug Certriad, a pill that combines drugs already on the market.
Such combination pills are developed as a convenience to consumers by having several different drugs in one pill, but criticized by consumer groups, health plans and employers as a way for the drug makers to extend patents and continue charging high prices. Critics say the ingredients generally used in the pills have cheaper generic copies or similar less expensive rivals already on the market.
The Certiad product included a combination of a statin and a fenofibrate. There are already generic statins and fenofibrates on the market. Get the full story »
Abbott recalls millions of diabetes test strips
By Andrew Zajac
Abbott Laboratories Wednesday announced a recall of as many as 359 million glucose test strips used to monitor diabetics’ blood sugar because they may give falsely low readings.
The strips may not absorb enough blood quickly enough to give a proper reading, which can lead users to try to raise sugar levels unnecessarily, or to fail to treat elevated glucose levels, the company said in a statement. Get the full story »
Dec. 9, 2010 at 6:57 a.m.
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Filed under: Advertising/Marketing, Computers, Pharmaceuticals, Software Abbott, others using iPad in medical sales
Medical-sector companies are passing out thousands of iPad tablet computers to salespeople to spruce up their pitch to doctors, and at the same time giving Apple Inc. a crucial foot in the door to business customers.
Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp. are among the drug and medical-device firms making the move, while others say they are testing out the devices. Get the full story »
