Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another luscious summer day. A warm sun and cool breeze are enveloping the Pharmalot campus, where our short people — and the official mascots — are all sleeping in. Lucky them. As for us, we are diligently foraging for the usual retinue of interesting items. On that note, here are some tidbits. Hope you have a productive day and do keep in touch. We enjoy your notes and whispers …
Hundreds of drug and device makers continue to pay doctors as promotional speakers and advisers after they’ve been disciplined for serious misconduct, according to an analysis by ProPublica. These include doctors whose state boards have sanctioned them for harming patients, unnecessarily prescribing addictive drugs, bilking federal insurance programs, and sexual misconduct.
Pfizer agreed to pay up to $1.57 billion plus royalties for a small-molecule antibiotics business from AstraZeneca, which will boost its portfolio of older products, some of which have lost patent protection, the Wall Street Journal tells us. For AstraZeneca, the deal is part of a wider strategy to focus on oncology, respiratory, and cardiovascular/diabetic diseases.
Mylan chief executive Heather Bresch received nearly $19 million in total compensation last year, up from nearly $2.5 million in 2007, a 671 percent increase, NBC News reports, citing regulatory filings. During the same period, the drug maker raised EpiPen prices, with the average wholesale price going from $56.64 to $317.82, a 461 percent increase. For more on Bresch, read this STAT profile.
Nancy Retzlaff, the Turing Pharmaceuticals executive who testified before Congress with Martin Shkreli, filed a lawsuit against the drug maker, accusing one of his friends of sexually assaulting her in a hotel room in March, the New York Times writes. The friend, who was a cofounder of the company, resigned after an internal investigation, which, she says, led the company leaders to retaliate against her.
The US Food and Drug Administration granted a priority review for a PARP inhibitor being developed by Clovis Oncology to treat ovarian cancer, Bloomberg News says.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals’s new chief financial officer, Paul Herendeen, is getting a big pay bump as part of his move from Zoetis, the animal health products maker, the Wall Street Journal writes.
Pfizer will lay off 104 employees as it closes four distribution sites in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, and King of Prussia, Pa., that it acquired when it took over Hospira, BioPharma Dive writes.
About the Author Reprints
It would seem that the new CFO of Valeant does indeed know how to calculate a proper ‘risk-reward’ decision. I think I had questioned his judgment earlier but now it seems I was mistaken; sadly, not a novel event.