Drugs, Drugmaker | 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.

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3 billion in fines - the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history - for criminal and civil violations involving 10 drugs that are taken by millions of people. The Justice Department said Monday that GlaxoSmithKline PLC will plead guilty to promoting popular antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin for unapproved uses. The company also will plead guilty to failing to report to the government for seven years some safety problems with diabetes drug Avandia, which was restricted in the U.S. and banned in Europe after it was found in 2007 to sharply increase the risks of heart attacks and congestive heart failure.

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said Wednesday it will no longer wait for Human Genome Sciences to consider an acquisition offer and instead appealed directly to the Rockville firm’s shareholders to accept its $13-per-share asking price.

Officials at drugmaker Merck & Co. say they will take more time to decide what to do about an experimental blood thinner that gave disappointing results in a second big study....

Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc is close to buying Swiss-based Actavis for around $7 billion, marking the latest deal between generics companies racing to achieve economies of scale, three sources familiar with the matter said.

If you want the FDA to approve more innovative, new drugs based on promising but early clinical results, you have to give the FDA a way to revoke those approvals later on, should larger trials prove that those drugs aren't as safe or effective as they first seemed. This is why the FDA should be congratulated for the way it has handled the Avastin breast cancer saga, and why I hope we will see the FDA handle more cases like this one, not less.

Pfizer hopes to have an over-the-counter version of the world’s best-selling drug after it loses patent protection.

The maker of the painkiller Darvon is pulling the drug off the market at the request of public health officials who say the 50-year-old pill causes potentially deadly heart rhythms.

Pfizer Inc, the world's biggest drugmaker, has agreed to buy King Pharmaceuticals Inc for $3.6 billion, expanding its presence in the market for pain drugs.

It wasn't what you would call a casual get-together.  A popular New York blogger attended a brunch with fellow "frazzled moms." They took in tips from a style expert and listened to a nurse extol the virtues of Mirena, a birth control device sold by Bayer Healthcare.  The nurse was on Bayer's payroll.