Hello, everyone, and how are you today? A spot of rain is falling on the Pharmalot campus this morning, but our spirits remain sunny, nonetheless. And why not? After all, as the Morning Mayor used to say: Every brand new day should be unwrapped like a precious gift. So while you tug on the ribbon, you can also peruse the tidbits assembled below. Hope your day is successful and do keep us in mind when you hear something fascinating …
Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $55 million to a 62-year-old South Dakota woman who blamed her ovarian cancer on the health care giant’s talcum powder, Bloomberg News reports. This was the second courtroom loss this year, and J&J is accused in more than 1,000 lawsuits in state and federal courts of ignoring risks and failing to warn consumers that its Shower-to-Shower product and Johnson’s Baby Powder have been linked in studies to ovarian cancer.
France intends to press its G7 partners — the US, Italy, the UK, Germany, Canada, and Japan — to launch an “irreversible” process to control the prices of new medicines, Reuters reports. This may not be so easy. As the news service notes, the G7 nations are home to most of the biggest drug makers, and while governments want to combat rising health costs, they may be reluctant to battle with their own pharmaceutical industries.
Eli Lilly is warning the Irish government that jobs will be lost at one of its plants in Ireland if the European Union does not offer an exemption from a forthcoming ban on a carcinogenic chemical, the Times writes. The drug maker, which employs 800 people in Ireland, uses the chemical to produce the Evista osteoporosis treatment for post-menopausal women. The drug is currently used by 1.7 million patients worldwide.
Biogen plans to spin off its hemophilia business as an independent, publicly traded company. The new entity, which will be run by John G. Cox, who is currently executive vice president of pharmaceutical operations and technology, will include two existing products — Eloctate and Alprolix — which generated combined revenues of $640 million during the 12-month period that ended on March 31.
Reckitt Benckiser apologized for selling disinfectants that killed or injured hundreds of people, five years after South Korea told the company to remove the products from shelves, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The backlog of generic drug applications at the US Food and Drug Administration is gradually declining, according to Regulatory Focus.
Bind Therapeutics is in a bind. The biotech filed for federal bankruptcy protection Monday after negotiations with a lender broke down and the workforce is being cut by 38 percent, the Boston Globe tells us.
Maine lawmakers last week overrode a veto from Republican Governor Paul LePage to make naloxone, the opioid and heroin overdose-reversal drug, more readily available through local pharmacies, the Wall Street Journal says.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals reported its experimental fasinumab drug to treat moderate-to-severe osteoarthritis pain was successful in a late-stage study, according to Pharma Times.
Catalent has resumed full production at its Beinheim softgel plant five months after French regulators suspended operations over quality-control problems, Outsourcing Pharma says.
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