Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? We are doing just fine, thank you, despite the cloudy skies hovering over the relatively quiet Pharmalot campus. Our short person successfully arrived at the local schoolhouse for another day of learning. Our official mascots are happily snoozing by our feet. And the coffee kettle is brewing another delicious cup of stimulation — pecan pie is the flavor today. All that is left for us to do is dig in and pass along some items of interest. Speaking of which, here are some tidbits. Have a lovely day and please keep in touch …
Merck (MRK) is not seeking regulatory approval for a type of cholesterol-lowering medicine that has vexed other drug makers. The unsurprising decision comes after a large study found its drug cut the risk of heart attack and death by a modest 9 percent, and caused a buildup of the drug in fat tissue. Known as a CETP inhibitor, anacetrapib is supposed to raise HDL, or good cholesterol, while lowering LDL, or bad cholesterol. Other CETP drugs have flopped.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) says a $417 million verdict in a talc powder cancer case should be thrown out because three jurors were excluded by fellow panelists from the decision-making process, Bloomberg News tells us. The jurors were wrongly excluded from deliberations because they did not agree with the other nine jurors that baby powder was the cause of a patient’s ovarian cancer. And J&J wants a new trial.
About the Author Reprints
While DrugChannels observers there may be an incentive to ‘buy early,’ the law is potentially a disincentive to large price hikes – and the manufacturers have no incentive to abet this kind of ‘channel stuffing’ when delay would earn them more for less. “Just sayin’ ” ….