Drugs, Pharmacy | featured news

...These recent quality lapses at big drug companies show that contamination and shoddy practices extend well beyond the loosely regulated compounding pharmacies that have attracted attention because of their link to an outbreak of meningitis... [S]everal industry observers and former plant employees said that the recent quality issues were troubling and that manufacturers had been reluctant to fix problems because stopping production was simply too costly in a business where profits were driven by volume.

Drugstore operator Walgreen Co. says its fiscal fourth-quarter profit jumped 69 percent, boosted in part by a gain from the sale of its pharmacy benefits management business.

A South Carolina judge ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay the state $327 million in civil penalties after a jury concluded earlier this year the company misled doctors about the safety and effectiveness of antipsychotic Risperdal.

Nationwide shortages of popular drugs used to treat ADD and ADHD are sending parents scrambling, with some combing multiple pharmacies for the Adderall and Ritalin that keep their kids calm.

The deal could still collapse, people briefed on the talks said, but if it goes through it would be valued at nearly $5 billion.