Pharmalot, Pharmalittle: Teva expects FDA to speed review of its generic EpiPen

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. The usual weekend respite went by quickly, did it not? As our short person exclaimed: “Oh, no!” Well, these things happen. And of course, this can mean only one thing — time to resume the usual routine again. So time to fire up the coffee kettle and rummage through the menu of tidbits below. Have a smashing day and do keep in touch …

Teva Pharmaceuticals says the US Food and Drug Administration may be interested in speeding another review of its application for a generic version of the EpiPen, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. “The FDA has come back to us and we will have a meeting with them very, very quickly,” Sigurdur Olafsson, head of global generic medicines for Teva, told analysts. “I think everybody understands that there is an opportunity.”

Sanofi is teaming with Verily Life Sciences, a unit of Google parent Alphabet, to develop high-tech tools for managing diabetes, the Wall Street Journal writes. The new company, Onduo, will initially focus on type 2 diabetes, the more common form of the disease. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Although high-profile, STAT has reported that Verily has run into difficulties executing its vision.

As the Zika virus spreads and concern mounts about the world’s preparedness for outbreaks, GlaxoSmithKline is proposing forming a unit specifically to develop vaccines for diseases in markets offering little potential profit, Bloomberg News writes. The drug maker is willing to provide a facility, staff, and technology, and would welcome funding from the US, the UK, the World Health Organization, and other public entities.

Around 500 Indian sales representatives, who were earlier employed with Ranbaxy Laboratories but now work for Sun Pharmaceutical, plan a nationwide strike on Sept. 26, the Business Standard informs us. The sales reps plan to protest non-payment of salaries and other issues such as “arbitrary transfers” following Sun’s $3.2 billion deal two years ago to acquire Ranbaxy, which was plagued by manufacturing problems and paid fines to US authorities. 

A federal judge in Baltimore dismissed a $1 billion lawsuit against Johns Hopkins University, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the Rockefeller Foundation, the Baltimore Sun reports. The lawsuit pertains to experiments conducted by the US government in the 1940s in which hundreds of Guatemalans were deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhea to study ways to treat sexually transmitted diseases. However, lawyers can refile the case.

GlaxoSmithKline is selling its portfolio of anesthetics and thrombosis products to Aspen for about $372 million as it continues to focus its strategy on so-called core therapeutic areas, PharmaTimes says.

Perrigo is being targeted by Starboard Value, which criticized “operational and financial missteps’’ since the company rebuffed a Mylan takeover offer last year, Bloomberg News says.

An online petition is decrying shortages in India of a Novartis drug for treating thalassemia, although the drug maker says the problem has been resolved, the Indian Express tells us.