The manufacturer of Mylan’s emergency allergy treatment devices has been accused of failing to investigate hundreds of complaints over three years that the EpiPen and EpiPen Jr. failed to work properly, a failure that resulted in the deaths of several people. [More]
pharmaceuticals
Maybe We Don’t Need To Take So Many Prescription Drugs
By 8.3.17
Do you take any prescription drugs? If so, you’re in the majority in this country. Drugs are life-saving or life-lengthening interventions most of the time, but can also interact with each other and cause further health problems. [More]
Amazon Also Wants To Sell You (Prescription) Drugs
By 5.17.17
When Amazon executives look around their virtual store, we imagine they must be tapping their chins and thinking, “Hmm, what else do people want?” The company already sells everything from books to riding mowers, and now, it’s reportedly getting very serious about the idea of expanding into the pharmacy business. [More]
Mylan Execs Decline To Testify At Senate EpiPen Hearing On $465M Settlement
By 11.21.16
Mylan CEO Heather Bresch has already made one trip to Capitol Hill to answer questions regarding the skyrocketing price of the emergency epinephrine injectors, but it looks like the company won’t be making a repeat outing to talk with lawmakers. [More]
Here’s How AstraZeneca Is Trying To Block Generic Crestor For 7 More Years
By 7.8.16
How long should a drug company be allowed to be the exclusive manufacturer and seller of their product? Crestor, a best-selling statin (cholesterol-lowering drug) that has enjoyed exclusivity for the last 12 years, is due to lose that protection today. AstraZeneca, the maker of Crestor, is fighting that decision, hoping to squeeze a little more time as the drug’s exclusive manufacturer before generics hit the market. [More]
Martin Shkreli Terminated From Another CEO Gig Following Fraud Charges
By 12.21.15
Things continue to unravel for Martin Shkreli, best known as the guy whose company bought the rights to a previously affordable, life-saving generic drug, then increased its price by 5,400% overnight. After being arrested last week in an unrelated securities-fraud investigation, the “pharma bro” has lost his spanking-new job as CEO of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals. [More]
One Day After Arrest For Securities Fraud, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli Resigns
By 12.18.15
A day after he was arrested as part of a securities-fraud investigation, Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli is no longer the company’s head executive. [More]
Pfizer To Buy Allergan For $160B, Create World’s Largest Drug Company
By 11.23.15
If the giant pharmaceutical companies of the world seem quite big enough to you already, well, that just means you probably aren’t a major investor in or CEO of one. But the major investors and CEOs do think bigger is better, and so to that end two of them are merging to create an even bigger drug behemoth and take it overseas. [More]
Pharmaceutical Companies Face $9B In Punitive Damages For Concealing Cancer Risks
By 4.8.14
A Japanese drug maker is facing higher punitive damages for allegedly concealing the cancer risks associated with a diabetes drug than those dished out in the past by federal juries. [More]
Doctor Accused Of Murder For Prescriptions That Led To Overdoses
By 3.5.12
The Los Angeles District Attorney revealed that a California doctor faces murder charges for allegedly pushing unneeded prescription drugs to patients, three of whom died of overdoses in 2009. She also faces 21 felony counts of writing fraudulent, purposeless prescriptions. Authorities says she prescribed tens of thousands of unneeded prescriptions to various patients, including methadone, Xanax, oxycodone to patients. [More]
Facebook Lets Users Post On Pharmaceutical Company Pages
By 8.16.11
Facebook is forcing pharmaceutical companies to open up and swallow public opinion. Before this week, the organizations were allowed to have closed walls that didn’t allow users to post. Thanks to a shift in policy, pharmaceutical companies now no longer receive the privilege. [More]
Science Tries To Give Men More Contraceptive Options
By 7.25.11
Guys who want to take control of birth control have limited options, but researchers are aiming to change that, focusing on hormones that reduce sperm counts. Men looking for alternatives to condoms and vasectomies may one day be able to pop pills that deprive their “boys” of swimming abilities. [More]
Studies: 2 New Drugs Can Slow Advanced Melanoma
By 6.6.11
Physicians apparently have two strong new weapons against melanoma, according to studies that show a pair of drugs are effective at slowing the cancer in its advanced stage. The drugs could be game-changers for doctors and patients who have long struggled to find effective ways to treat the type of skin cancer. [More]
Report: Google In Trouble For Advertising By "Rogue Online Pharmacies"
By 5.13.11
News broke earlier this week that Google had set aside $500,000 to settle a mysterious Department of Justice investigation of “advertising by certain advertisers,” and now a report indicates the badvertisers were “rogue online pharmaceuticals.” [More]
Price Of Premature Birth-Preventing Drug Goes From $10 To $1,500 Per Dose
By 3.15.11
After the Food and Drug Administration granted KV Pharmaceuticals sole rights to produce progesterone, a drug that prevents premature births in mothers, the company has begun charging $1,500 per dose of a drug that formerly cost $10. [More]
Hot Flash Spray Evamist Causes Boobs On Pets, Kids
By 8.2.10
I like FDA warnings like this new one about Evamist, because I can file the symptoms away and use them to impress someone with my Sherlock Holmes skills. Friend: “How did you know she used Evamist?” Me: “Note the tell-tale breasts on her grandchildren and her terrier.” [More]
Teva Pharmaceuticals: The Ubiquitous Company You've Never Heard Of
By 5.12.10
Generic prescription drugs are just that: generic. Most patients don’t think much about who actually manufactures them. It’s pretty likely, however, that you have something in your medicine cabinet manufactured by Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. A profile of the company in this past weekend’s New York Times is fascinating. Most interesting of all: while the company is sensibly frugal enough to make Captain Moneycat purr, they refuse to move manufacturing to China or India, as many of their competitors have. [More]
Johnson & Johnson Not Taking Refunds On Recalled Tylenol Very Seriously
By 5.3.10
When J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare Unit announced a recall of children’s Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl over the weekend, it also provided a toll free number you could call for more info. Ron Lieber at the New York Times called it on Saturday to find out how the refund process would work. What he got was a three minute recording telling him to throw the products in the trash, but nothing else. [More]
