March 15 at 4:30 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Pharmaceuticals
By Bruce Japsen
Abbott Laboratories Chairman and Chief Executive Miles White received a 2 percent raise last year, to $1.89 million, though his bonus and other stock awards dipped amid a turbulent year for the North Chicago-based drug and medical product giant.
Abbott, which failed to win Food and Drug Administration approval for certain prescription drugs, valued White’s total compensation package at nearly $25.6 million in 2010, down from $26.2 million in 2009, according to the company’s annual proxy statement filed Tuesday afternoon with the Securities and Exchange Commission.. The total includes stock awards, bonus, salary and other compensation. Get the full story »
March 14 at 1:39 p.m.
Filed under:
Pharmaceuticals
By Reuters
(Handout)
Prices for U.S. prescription drugs rose at a faster rate than costs for other medical goods and services in the last four years, according to a new U.S. government report.
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that the “usual and customary” price index for the top 100 commonly used drugs rose an annual average of 6.6 percent from 2006 through the first quarter of 2010, compared with a 3.8 percent average annual increase in the consumer price index for medical goods and services. Get the full story »
March 14 at 12:29 p.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Pharmaceuticals,
Regulations
Bloomberg News | A U.S. audit shows that Medicare spent some $3 million on Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs in 2007 and 2008. The purchases violate a 2005 ban on covering some drugs for the elderly.
March 14 at 6:23 a.m.
Filed under:
M&A,
Pharmaceuticals
By CNN
Warren Buffett. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
Warren Buffett’s investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, said Monday that it has agreed to buy the chemical company Lubrizol for $9.7 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway and Lubrizol said the deal was for 100 percent of all outstanding shares at $135 per share. That’s a 28 percent premium over Lubrizol’s closing price on Friday of $105.44 per share, and is 18 percent higher than the company’s highest-ever closing price, according to the companies.
The deal includes $700 million in assumed debt.
Berkshire described the deal as “one of the largest acquisitions in Berkshire Hathaway history.“ Get the full story »
By Reuters
Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil division, beset by an unstemmed tide of consumer product recalls, said Thursday that it had finalized a consent decree that would put three of its manufacturing facilities under supervision of U.S. health authorities.
McNeil said in a statement it had finalized the terms of a consent decree with the Food and Drug Administration for its facilities in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, and Fort Washington and Lancaster, Pa. Get the full story »
By Reuters
British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc has agreed to pay $68.5 million to resolve allegations by U.S. state regulators that its marketing of the multibillion-dollar antipsychotic drug Seroquel was deceptive.
The accord with 37 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., is the largest multistate, consumer protection-based pharmaceutical settlement on record, said Paula Dow, attorney general of New Jersey, which is among the settling states. Get the full story »
By Reuters
When it comes to protecting consumers, American politicians in China don’t always practice what they preach, unpublished U.S. diplomatic cables show.
In 2007, two U.S. congressmen private admonished a Chinese official about the spike in potentially harmful made-in-China products being shipped around the world, according to a cable from the U.S. embassy in Beijing obtained by WikiLeaks and provided to Reuters by a third party. Get the full story »
March 9 at 11:38 a.m.
Filed under:
Pharmaceuticals,
Updated
By Reuters
Hospira won approval for the first U.S. generic version of Sanofi-Aventis SA’s big-selling Taxotere cancer drug, sending Hospira shares up 2 percent.
U.S. sales of Taxotere, an infused chemotherapy known generically as docetaxel, were $1.2 billion last year, according to Hospira. JPMorgan analyst Chris Schott said recently that U.S. approval of generic Taxotere was the most important near-term catalyst for Hospira’s shares. Get the full story »
March 9 at 7:19 a.m.
Filed under:
M&A,
Pharmaceuticals,
Retail
By Bruce Japsen
A Walgreens on Michigan Avenue. (Bonnie Trafelet/Chicago Tribune)
Walgreen Co. said Wednesday it will sell its pharmacy benefit management business, which increasingly has conflicted with the drugstore giant’s push to get consumers to fill their prescriptions at the pharmacy counter.
The Deerfield-based company will sell Walgreens Health Initiatives for $525 million in cash to Catalyst Health Solutions Inc. of Rockville, Md. The deal is expected to close in June. Get the full story »
March 8 at 3:58 p.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Pharmaceuticals
By Reuters
Baxter International Inc. Chief Executive Robert L. Parkinson Jr. received compensation valued at $11.5 million in 2010, down 20 percent from the prior year amid a sharp reduction in his annual bonus and a tumultuous year for the medical-products company. Get the full story »
March 8 at 12:42 p.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Pharmaceuticals,
Recalls
By Reuters
Johnson & Johnson, which has been beset by a seemingly endless stream of product recalls, has recalled five lots of potentially leaky insulin pump cartridges that could lead to serious health problems and death.
It also has been warned by the Food and Drug Administration over manufacturing concerns for heart devices made at its Cordis unit’s San German, Puerto Rico facility. Get the full story »
March 8 at 11:46 a.m.
Filed under:
Pharmaceuticals
By Reuters
U.S. health officials cautioned against the use of Abbott Laboratories’ HIV drug Kaletra in premature babies because they could be at greater risk for serious and possibly fatal side effects.
In a warning issued on Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration said oral solutions of the drug given to premature babies could raise the risk of serious heart, kidney, or breathing trouble. Get the full story »
March 7 at 4:45 p.m.
Filed under:
Pharmaceuticals
By Reuters
The Supreme Court let stand a ruling that drug companies can pay rivals to delay production of generic drugs without violating federal antitrust laws.
The justices refused to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that upheld the dismissal of a legal challenge to a deal between Bayer AG and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd’s Barr Laboratories. Bayer paid Barr to prevent it from bringing to market a version of the antibiotic drug Cipro. Get the full story »
March 4 at 11:51 a.m.
Filed under:
Government,
Health care,
Pharmaceuticals
By Dow Jones Newswires
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will strengthen warnings on the anti-migraine and anti-seizure treatment Topamax and its generic equivalents after new data suggested a higher risk for cleft palates in babies born to women taking the drug.
The move represents a setback for health-care products giant Johnson & Johnson, which owns Topamax maker Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical LLC. The subsidiary last May pleaded guilty to promoting the drug for off-label uses and had to pay an $81.5 million fine. Get the full story »
March 4 at 9:45 a.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Pharmaceuticals
By Reuters
Pfizer Inc. said Friday that its experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug met the main goals of a late-stage clinical trial, a welcome boost for the world’s largest drugmaker as it seeks new products to offset those losing patent protection.
The drug, tofacitinib, is one of the most important in Pfizer’s pipeline. The company said the safety profile of the drug was consistent with that seen in the clinical program, and no new safety signals were seen. Get the full story »
