Filed under: Pharmaceuticals

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Astellas Pharma building U.S. HQ in Glenview

Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal | Construction crews will begin excavating a site overlooking Interstate 294 in Glenview next month to prepare for an unusual event in this ailing commercial real-estate market: a new office building.

Astellas Pharma Inc., a Japanese pharmaceutical company, will break ground on a $150 million two-building campus that will be the new headquarters for North American and South American operations. GlenStar Properties of Chicago, which sold Astellas the land, has remained the project’s developer.

See Triblocal report on company’s move from Deerfield: TribLocal

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AstraZeneca settles charges over drug marketing

Dow Jones Newswires | The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday
confirmed a settlement under which AstraZeneca PLC  will pay about $520
million to resolve allegations the company improperly promoted the
antipsychotic Seroquel.

A  settlement has been expected since October, when
AstraZeneca booked a $520 million reserve to cover an agreement in
principle to resolve government probes of Seroquel sales and marketing
practices.

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Hospira profits dip without year-ago tax benefit

By Bruce Japsen | Hospira Inc. said today profits dropped 14 percent in the first quarter
of this year thanks largely to an unusual gain the company had from a
tax settlement in the same period a year ago.

The Lake Forest-based maker of medication delivery devices and generic
injectable drugs reported profits of $141.7 million, or 84 cents,
compared to $165.5 million, or $1.03 in the quarter a year before. Sales
rose 17 percent to $1 billion on improved sales of injectables, such as
the intravenous sedation treatment Precedex.

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BioSante shares surge on antibody deal

Dow Jones Newswires | BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it
entered into a deal which carries an option for “a major pharmaceutical
company” to get a non-exclusive license to use BioSante’s antibody
technology. Shares gained 11.68 percent to $2.39 in recent premarket
trading. The stock through Friday was up 48 percent in 2010.

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Judge rules for Abbott in retiree benefit suit

Dow Jones Newswires | A federal-court judge has ruled in favor of
Abbott Laboratories  and its former subsidiary Hospira Inc.  in a
case brought by former Abbott workers who alleged they lost benefits
after Hospira’s 2004 spinoff.

The plaintiffs in the long-running case — all Hospira employees –
failed to support their claims against the companies, U.S. District
Judge Robert Gettleman wrote in an order signed Thursday and posted
online Friday by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
Illinois.

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Baxter shares drop 13% on lower outlook

By Bruce Japsen | Shares in Baxter International Inc. dropped 13 percent today after the
company lowered its 2010 financial outlook, citing the loss of market
share of key plasma-derived therapies and the impact of the government’s
massive health overhaul.

The price of Baxter shares fell  $7.70 each to $51.25 in trading on the
New York Stock Exchange. Shares have recovered somewhat from a steep
drop of more than $10 a share when investors first got the news of the
lowered outlook during its first-quarter earnings call this morning.

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Health reform drags on Abbott profit

By Bruce Japsen | Abbott Laboratories’ first-quarter profits fell 30 percent thanks to
costs related to the coming implementation of health care reform and an
unusual gain from the sale of a drug venture a year ago, the company
reported Wednesday.

The North Chicago-based drug and medical product giant still reported
profits of $1 billion, or 64 cents a share, for the quarter ended March
31 compared to $1.4 billion, or 92 cents in the year ago quarter.
Earnings were off primarily because of the health overhaul as well as
the impact of an extraordinary gain of more than $500 million Abbott
reported in the first quarter of 2009 when it sold its stake of the
former TAP Pharmaceuticals to its Japanese partner.

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Akorn shares rise after generic pain drug cleared

By Kiah Haslett
|
Shares of pharmaceutical manufacturer Akorn, Inc. were up 12.58 percent to $1.80 in midmorning trading, after investors learned that Akorn received regulatory clearance to market a generic pain drug. Akorn is based in Lake Forest, Ill.

Chemical manufacturer Stepan Company was up 10.18 percent to $68.26 on the release of its record-setting first quarter earnings report, which exceeded analysts’ expectations.

Drug sales expected to slow in 2010

Associated Press | A health industry researcher says
pharmaceutical sales growth worldwide will slow this year due to
expiring patents for blockbuster drugs and tighter price controls
imposed by European governments.

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Hospira to buy Javelin Pharmaceuticals for $145M

From Reuters | Hospira Inc. said Monday that it will buy specialty drugmaker Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc.  for $145 million in cash. The deal will expand the medical suppliers’ pain management offerings.

Read the full story: Reuters.com

Despite lawsuit, CVS vies for Illinois contract

From Crain’s Chicago Business | An ongoing lawsuit against CVS Caremark Corp. is making things awkward for the company as it tries to secure a contract to manage drugs for the city of Chicago. The lawsuit says CVS fraudulently removed labels from prescription drugs for 400,000 Illinois workers,
retirees and their families, and then resold the drugs to the customers.

Get the full story: chicagobusiness.com.

Baxter names president of international

Tribune staff report | Baxter International today named Ludwig
Hantson president of its international operation and a corporate vice
presidentl. Hantson, 47, most recently was chief executive officer of
Pharma North America at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.

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Baxter drug progresses as Alzheimer’s treatment

By Bruce Japsen
|
An immune system drug produced by Baxter International Inc. helped
preserve “thinking” abilities and reduced the rate of brain “shrinkage”
in a small group of patients with Alzheimer’s disease who have been
studied for 18 months, new research released Tuesday shows.

As the pharmaceutical industry continues its search for drugs that could
mitigate the effects of Alzheimer’s, Baxter’s Gammagard showed in a
study of 24 patients that it is among those treatments working well
enough to warrant continued testing. The Deerfield-based company now
will expand its research to more than 350 patients in a final-stage U.S.
clinical trial. If the final-stage trial is successful, Baxter could
submit the product to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration within two
to three years, analysts have said.

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Walgreen Co. adds former Amylin CEO to board

Tribune staff report | Walgreen Co. named Ginger Graham to its board of directors Tuesday. Graham will become the 10th member of drugstore chain’s board on May 1.

Graham is the president and CEO of Two Trees Consulting and a senior lecturer of business administration at Harvard Business School. She’s also the former president and CEO of Amylin Pharmaceuticals and has also worked at heart device maker Guidant Corp. and drugmaker Eli Lilly.
 

Judge orders Abbott Labs to produce e-mails

Dow Jones Newswires | A U.S. judge has ordered Abbott Laboratories (ABT) to hand over to federal prosecutors some its chief executive’s email messages, as part of a federal probe into whether Abbott improperly marketed the anti-seizure drug Depakote for unauthorized uses.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia is investigating Abbott for “potential federal violations arising out of Abbott’s impermissible off-label marketing of Depakote as a treatment for agitation and aggression in the elderly, and health care fraud arising out of that allegedly improper use,” U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson wrote in an opinion dated March 10.

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