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Health care products maker Johnson & Johnson is recalling another lot of Tylenol products due to a musty odor which has already triggered five other recalls of the company’s over-the-counter medicines.
The latest recall involves more than 34,000 bottles of Tylenol 8 Hour Extended Release, which were distributed throughout the U.S. All of the bottles are from a single lot. Get the full story »
Medtronic Inc. has won U.S. approval for a new generation of implantable defibrillators designed to cut back on inappropriate shocks delivered by the devices, the company said on Monday.
A defibrillator is designed to shock a dangerously irregular heartbeat back to its normal rhythm. Get the full story »
A jury began deliberating Friday morning on whether Abbott Laboratories should pay GlaxoSmithKline hundreds of millions of dollars over allegations of unfair HIV drug pricing. Get the full story »
Customers at a Walgreens in Vernon Hills, Ill. (Lane Christiansen/Chicago Tribune)
Expanding further into the fast-growing business of online retail, Walgreen Co. said Thursday it will buy Drugstore.com for more than $400 million.
The deal comes just weeks after the Deerfield-based drugstore giant said it would shed its pharmacy benefit management business for more than $500 million. That deal, Walgreens said, would help it better focus on its primary business of serving customers’ daily health and living needs. Get the full story »
Abbott Laboratories improperly hiked the price of one drug to help it preserve sales growth of one of its other HIV blockbusters, an attorney for GlaxoSmithKline told a jury. Get the full story »
Abbott Laboratories and its top selling rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira are strong enough to withstand looming competition from a new pill developed by Pfizer Inc., analysts say, despite investor fears that have hobbled Abbott’s shares. Get the full story »
CHICAGO — It has been called a lot of things over the years: grass, Mary Jane, wacky weed. Now, researchers are suggesting a new moniker for marijuana: alternative investment.
A report out this week on the U.S. medical marijuana market estimates the unconventional business already generates $1.7 billion in economic activity a year. But that market could grow fivefold in short order, researchers say, as the list of states that legalize pot for treating a variety of illnesses grows and as more patients try it — and switch. Get the full story »
Abbott Laboratories has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by CVS Caremark Corp., Rite Aid Corp. and other retailers who accused it of unfairly boosting the price of HIV drugs, a company spokeswoman said. Get the full story »
Bristol-Myers Squibb may win U.S. approval as early as this week for the first drug shown to extend survival for patients with a deadly form of skin cancer. Get the full story »
The pharmacy of a Walgreen's store in New York. (JB Reed/Bloomberg)
Buoyed by an increase in the number of prescriptions it fills, Walgreen Co. this morning reported a 10 percent increase in its second-quarter profits.
The Deerfield-based drug store giant said earnings grew to $739 million, or 80 cents a share, compared to $669 million, or 68 cents a share, in the quarter ended Feb. 28. Revenues rose 8.9 percent to $18.5 billion.
Still, the price of Walgreen Co. shares fell $2.76, or 6.6 percent, to $39.21 a share on Tuesday because some analysts were unhappy with the company’s profit margins and higher expenses in the quarter. Selling, general and administrative expenses jumped 8 percent in the quarter to $4.1 billion. Get the full story »
Six former and current employees of Bayer AG’s U.S. health care arm filed a $100 million gender discrimination lawsuit Monday, claiming the U.S. unit discriminates against its female employees in terms of pay and promotion, as well as pregnancy leave. Get the full story »
Mylan Inc. has sued the Food and Drug Administration to get generic versions of Pfizer Inc.’s Lipitor on the market in late June and block India’s Ranbaxy from receiving 180 days of marketing exclusivity for its version of the medicine.
Ranbaxy is expected to launch its generic Lipitor Nov. 30 under a settlement with Pfizer and remain free of multiple competitors for 180 days, as the first company to apply to sell a cheaper version of the world’s best selling prescription medicine. Get the full story »
In the wake of the crisis in Japan, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is advising consumers to beware of inadvertently buying fake iodide products that are supposed to help protect against radiation.
Products to watch out for include fake tablets and liquids purporting to be iodide, as well as dietary supplements and other products that say they protect against radiation, said the spokesperson adding there are only three FDA-approved potassium iodide products that protect against radiation. Get the full story »
After a year in which Johnson & Johnson’s product quality control was deemed such a shambles that the U.S. government will oversee some plants, the board had praise for Chief Executive William Weldon and awarded him almost $29 million in overall compensation.
The once golden reputation of the diversified health care giant was tarnished by seemingly endless recalls of widely used consumer products as well as recalls of medical devices and products from other units in 2010. Get the full story »
