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J&J Sales Rep Denied Overtime Pay By CourtEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An appeals court upheld a decision in favor of Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit alleging the drugmaker misclassified sales reps as exempt from overtime pay. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that Patty Lee Smith, a former sales representative for J&J’s Ortho-McNeil unit, wasn’t due overtime because she wasn’t exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA’s overtime compensation requirement doesn’t apply to employees who work as outside salespeople, but the law does require employers to pay overtime for hours worked beyond 40 hours a week, un...
Source: Pharmalot - February 3, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Fair Labor Standards Act Johnson & Johnson Overtime Sales Reps Source Type: blogs

Pharmalot… Pharmalittle… Good MorningEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A snowy day here on the Pharmalot corporate campus, but it is winter, after all. So what better way to greet such weather than with a warm cup of stimulation? The water is boiling as we write. Meanwhile, here are a few items to help you slog through the day. Hope it’s a good one… Pfizer Profits Misses Estimates (Reuters) Roche Profits Hurt By Genentech Deal (PharmaTimes) FDA Approves Drug For Hand Disorder (Bloomberg News) Indian Court Stays Decision To Revoke Humira Patent (Business Standard) Takeda Profit Falls Due To Acquisitions (Bloomberg News) Ironwood IPO Price Gets A Haircut (Bloomberg News) Suit Agains...
Source: Pharmalot - February 3, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Abbott Laboratories Humira Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Johnson & Johnson Pfizer Xiaflex Source Type: blogs

Cephalon, Like Big Pharma, Looks to Global Generics for GrowthEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Cephalon said this morning it will buy the Swiss generic drug maker Mepha in a deal that will double the size of the U.S. company’s international business and enlarge its hand in generics. The price-tag was set at about $590 million. It seems like everybody wants to get into the global generics business these days. Sanof-Aventis has been making acquisitions to that end, and Pfizer created a new “established products” unit and cut a few deals with Indian manufacturers to grow its generics business. Cephalon, whose biggest seller Provigil will face its own generic competition in 2012, will gain 120 products...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - February 1, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: James A. White Tags: Drugs Generics Global M&A Source Type: blogs

Five Drugs To Watch (Assuming FDA Approval)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Which drugs will be worth watching this year? Assuming FDA approvals come through as planned - and handicapping that possibility is trickier than ever (see here) - Barron’s compiled a list with the help of a few analysts. The presumption is that, once approval occurs, these meds will likely become blockbusters, that old-fashioned term for the biggest of sellers. And so, in no particular order, here they are… Victoza - the recently approved diabetes drug from Novo Nordisk; Xarelto* - a clotbuster from Bayer and Johnson & Johnson; Prolia* - an osteoporosis treatment from Amgen; Qnexa* - the Vivus obesity pill; Pr...
Source: Pharmalot - February 1, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Bayer Dendreon Johnson & Johnson Novo Nordisk Provenge Qnexa Victoza Vivus Xeralto Source Type: blogs

Biogen Idec, Genzyme and the Struggles of Big BiotechEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Biogen Idec has invested heavily in drug research. Genzyme has snapped up smaller companies. Neither approach has worked particularly well, this morning’s WSJ notes, and both companies under pressure from activist shareholders to beef up their performance. Perennial activist Carl Icahn yesterday gave notice that he intends to nominate three directors to Biogens board, following up his success last year in landing two director slots on the board. The company it would evaluate the Icahn candidates, according to Reuters. Icahn and affiliates hold less than a 6% stake in the company, Biogen says. There’s more on ...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 29, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: James A. White Tags: Biotech Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

Selling a Health Business in the Developing World? Call AbbottEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
On Abbott’s earnings call today, an analyst asked CEO Miles White about the company’s short-term M&A strategy. “Is your plate full?” the analyst asked, according to a transcript from Thomson Reuters. The company cut a deal last fall to buy Solvay’s vaccines business for about $7 billion. That followed a January deal to buy Advanced Medical Optics, an eye-care company, for more than $1 billion. But there are still some deals that would interest the company, White said: I wouldn’t tell you we’re so busy at capacity that we can’t do anything else. … We’re keepin...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 27, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs Global M&A Vaccines Source Type: blogs

Antidepressants Tied To Lactation ProblemsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Women who take several widely used antidepressants may experience delayed lactation after giving birth and may need additional support to achieve breastfeeding goals, according to a study to be published in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The drugs in question are SSRIs, such as Glaxo’s Paxil, Pfizer’s Zoloft and Eli Lilly’s Prozac. “The breasts are serotonin-regulated glands, meaning the breasts’ ability to secrete milk at the right time is closely related to the body’s production and regulation of the hormone serotonin,” the Uni...
Source: Pharmalot - January 27, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Antidepressant Eli Lilly GlaxoSmithKline Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Lactation Paxil Pfizer Prozac SSRI Zoloft Source Type: blogs

Icarus on TwitterEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
If you Twitter, follow Icarus at www.twitter.com/madgifts. Our Twitter feed gets updated with all the new Icarus Organizational blog posts, the Links of Interest, latest Madness Radio shows, plus additional bits and pieces of data from the Icaristasphere. read more (Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness)
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - January 22, 2010 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Icarus Project Tags: campus organizing community tools & amp; tech Source Type: blogs

Pharmalot… Pharmalittle… The Weekend NearsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
And it’s getting closer every minute. Already, we can imagine the long naps that beckon. But what about you? Any interesting plans? Whatever you do, we hope you have a nice time. While you ponder, here are a few items to help you through the end of the week. Enjoy, everyone, and see you soon… Novartis Pushes Fund For Neglected Worm Disease (Bloomberg) Glaxo’s Hussain Discusses Flex Pricing In Diverse Markets (Financial Times) J&J Withdraws European Filing For Epilepsy Drug (PharmaTimes) Glaxo & Genmab Win EU Backing For Leukemia Drug (Reuters) Mississippi Urged To Require Prescriptions For Cold ...
Source: Pharmalot - January 22, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Genmab Genzyme GlaxoSmithKline Johnson & Johnson Mississippi Pompe Disease Source Type: blogs

GSK CEO on Big Deals: ‘Paying a Premium … to Fire People’Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
GlaxoSmithKline CEO Andrew Witty swung by Health Blog HQ this week. Given all the M&A action in the industry in the past year (Pfizer-Wyeth & Merck-Schering Plough, to name a few biggies), we asked him about GSK’s acquisition strategy. “We’re not in the market for traditional, large-scale, premium acquisitions,” he said. He didn’t focus on the pipeline drugs or growing franchises that acquirers often cite. Instead, he waded into the ramifications of making a big acquisition at a moment when many segments of the industry are contracting. “People are buying companies and taking ...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 21, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

Now Pfizer & Teva Are (Reportedly) Bidding Against Each OtherEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We’ve been writing for a while now about the narrowing gap between generics companies and big pharma. The latest sign comes from the German business paper Handelsblatt, which reports that Pfizer and Teva are the key final bidders for Ratiopharm, the German generics shop. (Here’s Reuters’s English report on the Handelsblatt story.) Both would-be buyers are emblematic of the shifting landscape. Pfizer, the world’s biggest pharma company, is facing the expiration of the patent on Lipitor, the biggest selling drug of all time. The company has been moving away from the blockbuster-drug model and towards...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 19, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs Generics M&A Source Type: blogs

Medical Device Interoperability WorkshopEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There is a FDA (CDRH) Workshop on Medical Device Interoperability scheduled for January 25 - 27 at the FDA’s White Oak Campus in Silver Springs, MD. Here’s a link to the meeting’s official web site, which includes a number of downloadable files on the agenda, meeting logistics and background. There is little question the workflow automation and intelligence offered by interconnecting medical devices can improve patient safety. There’s also little doubt that there is significant market demand for such solutions. For example, if hospitals could purchase PCA pumps and SpO2 monitors that were interope...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - January 18, 2010 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Tim Gee Tags: Events Standards & Regulatory connectivity FDA Source Type: blogs

What J&J Did Wrong With Tylenol CapletsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Not a good week to be a Johnson & Johnson executive. The health care giant and two of its units were charged by the US Justice Department with paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to Omnicare, the nation’s largest pharmacy that specializes in dispensing drugs to nursing home patients, so its Risperdal antipsychotic would be widely prescribed. You can read about that here. That may not resonate as widely, however, as the news that J&J was also tagged by the FDA for failing to vigorously and properly follow up complaints that certain batches of its Tylenol Arthritis Relief Caplets had a musty smell. What went ...
Source: Pharmalot - January 16, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Johnson & Johnson Kickbacks OmniCare Risperdal Tylenol Source Type: blogs

Johnson & Johnson Charged With Kickback SchemeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The US Attorney in Boston says Johnson & Johnson paid tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks - in the form of special rebates and other payments - so Omnicare, the nation’s biggest provider of pharmacy services to nursing homes, would put more patients on its Risperdal schizophrenia med (the Justice Department statement). The US Department of Justice, which recently reached a settlement with Omnicare (see here), allege Omnicare pharmacists recommended that nursing home patients with signs of Alzheimer’s disease be given Risperdal. The charge was made in a whistle-blower case brought by a former Omnicare ...
Source: Pharmalot - January 15, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Antipsychotics Johnson & Johnson Nursing Homes OmniCare Risperdal Source Type: blogs

Bipolar Diagnosis Has Jumped In Young Kids: StudyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The number of children aged 2 to 5 who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed antipsychotics has doubled over the past decade, suggesting the practice is becoming more prevalent, according to a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Reuters reports. The data could play a role at the upcoming murder trials of the parents of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley, who died of an overdose of mood-stabilizing meds in 2006, Reuters writes. A child psychiatrist, Kayoko Kifuji, diagnosed Riley with bipolar disorder and ADHD when she was 30 months old, and placed her on Depakote, an...
Source: Pharmalot - January 15, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Antipsycotics AstraZeneca Bipolar Disorder Eli Lilly Johnson & Johnson Joseph Biederman Kayoko Kifuji Rebecca Riley Risperdal Seroquel Zyprexa Source Type: blogs

Tylenol Recall: What’s That Smell?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
J&J said today that it’s recalling certain lots of Tylenol, Motrin and Rolaids. The issue: “an unusual moldy, musty, or mildew-like odor” according to the press release. There’s a complete list of the lots being recalled at the bottom of the release. In a “small number of cases,” the pills were associated to problems such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, the company said. The issue is apparently related to a trace amount of a chemical in wood pallets that are used to transport and store product packaging materials. (The chemical is called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole.) This has been a pro...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 15, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs FDA J&J Source Type: blogs

Up And Down The Ladder… Job ChangesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Hired someone new and exciting? Promoted a rising star? Finally solved that hard-to-fill spot? Share the news with us and we’ll share with it others. That’s right. Send us your announcements and we’ll find a home for them. Don’t be shy. Everyone wants to know who is coming and going, especially with all the layoffs. Despite the downsizing, there is movement. Here are some of the latest changes. Recognize anyone? And here is something we hope to make a regular feature. Send us a photo (something nice, please) and we will spotlight a different person each week. This time around, we note that Concert Pharmaceuticals h...
Source: Pharmalot - January 15, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized ACRO Association of Clinical Research Organizations Brent Saunders Fleishman-Hillard General Atlantic Heidrick & Struggles JDP Therapeutics MDS Patheon Concert Pharmaceuticals Pharminox Prologue Talecreis Biothera Source Type: blogs

video post: kearns to LA city council announcing elder HIV/AIDS summit & new media training feb 12 (2083)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
chers— if this works, share my joy of this unhistoric moment of major insignificance, la la la namaste —rk after the jump [december 15, 2009] good morning president garcetti, distinguished council members. i have given the clerk copies of my prepared remarks. my name is richard kearns. i am a 58-year-old gay man living with AIDS in los angeles for more than 20 years, an angelino poet advocate. i am delighted to announce to you this morning that on friday, february 12th, 2010, upstairs in the tom bradley conference center, on the 27th floor, we will hold, the LA city grassroots elder HIV/AIDS advocacy summit &a...
Source: aids-write.org - January 11, 2010 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: 2010 hiv/aids summit & training 2-2010 HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office McCAB McNC aging and HIV/AIDS ahf aids.org americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids awo call to action b Source Type: blogs

A Little Bit More On the Job Cuts at Merck & PfizerEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A post today over at Pharmalot drew our attention to notices of job cuts that Merck and Pfizer had announced on a New Jersey government Web site. Both companies have said they’ll cut thousands of jobs as part of the big mergers both completed last year, and these announcements account for a small fraction of those — 500 cuts for Merck, starting on Feb. 9, and 400 for Pfizer, starting on Jan. 31, according to the posting. Still, it seemed worth learning more, so we checked in with both companies. The Merck announcement refers to cuts in the company’s U.S. sales organization, a Merck spokeswoman told the He...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 7, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

FDA To Review J&J And Amgen Anemia MedsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The agency plans to hold an advisory committee meeting because studies have found that high dosages of Amgen’s Aranesp and Epogen and Johnson & Johnson’s Procrit boost the risk of heart attacks, strokes and blood clots in anemia patients with kidney disease. The purpose of the meeting, which hasn’t been scheduled yet, is to determine the appropriate dosages. Known as erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, or ESAs, the drugs boost hemoglobin levels in anemics, but the drugmakers have been plagued by cardiovascular risks that caused sales to decline. As it turns out, using large doses to cause hemoglobin t...
Source: Pharmalot - January 7, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Amgen Anemia Aranesp Bob Temple Epogen Johnson & Johnson Procrit Source Type: blogs

Novartis-Alcon: Not Really a Consumer-Health DealEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Novartis said today that it’s looking to buy out the balance of Alcon, the big eye-care company. Novartis already has a 25% stake, and if the deal goes through as announced, Novartis will have invested about $50 billion to acquire all of Alcon. Given Alcon’s prominent place in the contact lens aisle of your neighborhood pharmacy, it’s tempting to label this deal as a drug-maker’s bid to get into the consumer-health business — like Sanofi-Aventis’s recent (much smaller) agreement to buy Chattem, maker of Gold Bond powder and Selsun Blue shampoo. But take a look at Alcon’s recent qua...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - January 4, 2010 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

Deals from Pfizer, Novartis and AstraZeneca. Also: Snake Oil.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A few quick drug-industry items: Novartis is buying closely held Corthera for $120 million. That gives the company the rights to a drug called Relaxin, which is in late-stage trials for acute heart failure. Current Corthera shareholders could get hundreds of millions more in milestone payments if the drug pans out (always an iffy proposition). Novartis is also likely to expand its stake in Alcon soon, WSJ’s Deal Journal said yesterday. The company already has purchased a quarter of the company from Nestlé and is likely to buy another 52%, maybe more. Alcon sells eye-care products, and the buy is a diversification p...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - December 23, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

R&D Spending: Numbers for Pfizer, J&J, Merck, Lilly and BristolEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
U.S. investment in R&D fell slightly this year, and is expected to start growing again next year, according to a new report out from the Batelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit group that looks at that sort of thing. A story in this morning’s WSJ has more on the issue; Health Blog readers may be particularly interested in some numbers from the report on R&D spending at big U.S. drug companies. Of course, company-by-company figures like these don’t tell the whole story, in part because of the effects of consolidation. For example, Pfizer’s R&D spending may climb next year because of the Wye...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - December 22, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs J&J Pfizer Research Source Type: blogs

Why Drug Companies Want to Sell Foot PowderEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Sanofi-Aventis said today that it’s spending $1.9 billion to buy Chattem, a U.S. company that makes drug-store staples like Selsun Blue shampoo and Gold Bond foot powder. Why is a fancy drug maker that spends billions of dollars a year on R&D interested in shampoo and foot powder? For an answer, take a look at Abbott’s third-quarter earnings: Sales of prescription drugs were down compared with the year-earlier period, hurt by generic competition, but sales in the unit that sells Similac baby formula and Ensure drinks were up 10%. With drugs representing tens of billions of dollars of annual revenues set to...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - December 21, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

Merck and J&J Land Deals; Biogen Idec, Not So MuchEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
You want deals? We’ve got a couple, plus one that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. The dead deal is Biogen Idec’s $420 million bid for Facet Biotech; Facet which said this morning that Biogen’s hostile tender offer for the company had failed to attract a majority of Facet shares. Facet had opposed the deal, claiming Biogen was trying to underpay for the full rights to daclizumab, a multiple-sclerosis treatment in development by the companies. “We are moving on,” Biogen spokeswoman Amy Reilly told the WSJ. Facet said it was continuing to solicit interest from third-party suit...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - December 17, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: James A. White Tags: Biotech Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

kearns to LA city council: HIV/AIDS elder summit & new media training in bradley conference center set for valentine’s weekend (2076)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
[december 15, 2009] good morning president garcetti, distinguished council members. i have given the clerk copies of my prepared remarks. my name is richard kearns. i am a 58-year-old gay man living with AIDS in los angeles for more than 20 years, an angelino poet advocate. i am delighted to announce to you this morning that on friday, february 12th, 2010, upstairs in the tom bradley conference center, on the 27th floor, we will hold, the LA city grassroots elder HIV/AIDS advocacy summit & new media training “new tricks for old dogs & their allies” sponsored by councilmember rosendahl & the city AIDS coord...
Source: aids-write.org - December 17, 2009 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: 2009 hiv/aids summit & training 2-2010 HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office aging and HIV/AIDS ahf americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids beingALIVE-la black msm gay hiv/aids black w Source Type: blogs

kearns to LA city council: HIV/AIDS elder summit & new media training in bradley conference center set for valentine’s weekend (2076)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
[december 15, 2009] good morning president garcetti, distinguished council members. i have given the clerk copies of my prepared remarks. my name is richard kearns. i am a 58-year-old gay man living with AIDS in los angeles for more than 20 years, an angelino poet advocate. i am delighted to announce to you this morning that on friday, february 12th, 2010, upstairs in the tom bradley conference center, on the 27th floor, we will hold, the LA city grassroots elder HIV/AIDS advocacy summit & new media training “new tricks for old dogs & their allies” sponsored by councilmember rosendahl & the city AIDS coord...
Source: aids-write.org - December 16, 2009 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: 2009 hiv/aids summit & training 2-2010 HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office McCAB McNC aging and HIV/AIDS americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids beingALIVE-la black msm gay hiv/aids Source Type: blogs

Premature Ejaculation: Counting The SecondsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This is the sort of condition that doesn’t come up at dinner parties, or too many other places, we imagine. Yet the recent push to develop a med to treat the problem is getting more press, not surprisingly. The New York Times, for instance, ran a quickie round-up this weekend (see here). Johnson & Johnson, for instance, is developing a pill called Priligy, and Sciele Pharma is working on a spray (see here). But as the Times notes, a key issue is whether premature ejaculation will be seen as a truly serious disorder. The International Society for Sexual Medicine defines it as the inability to delay ejaculation fo...
Source: Pharmalot - December 14, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Johnson & Johnson Premature Ejaculation Sciele Pharma Source Type: blogs

kearns announces elder HIV/AIDS advocacy summit & new media training top floor LA city hall feb 12, 2010 (2074)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
will be making announcement during public comments at LA city council meeting tuesday, december 15, 2009 text of jpeg after jump SAVE THE DATE! LA City Grassroots Elder HIV/AIDS Advocacy SUMMIT & new media TRAINING February 12, 2010 Tom Bradley Center (26th & 27th floors) LA City Hall 200 N. Spring Street Los Angeles, CA 90012 hosted by - LA 11th district City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl - the City of LA AIDS Coordinator’s Office - richard kearns publisher of http://AIDS-write.org & http://havvacc.wordpress.com [seal of city of los angeles ) FOR MORE INFORMATION: contact rk@aids-write.org or call 310-48...
Source: aids-write.org - December 14, 2009 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: 2009 hiv/aids summit & training 2-2010 HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office McCAB McNC aging and HIV/AIDS ahf americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids beingALIVE-la black msm gay hiv Source Type: blogs

Eli Lilly Isn’t Planning to Buy Its Way Around the Patent CliffEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Eli Lilly knows a thing or two about the patent cliff: Between now and 2013, patent protection will expire on drugs that account for more than half of its current revenue, this morning’s WSJ notes. Plenty of big pharma players face this kind of problem, and many companies have looked to buy their way out of trouble — witness this year’s big Pfizer-Wyeth and Merck-Schering Plough deals. But Lilly emphasized at its annual analyst day yesterday that it didn’t plan to go down that road. Instead, the company is relying largely on its own pipeline of experimental drugs. Analysts are wary of the strategy, ...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - December 11, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

Boston Scientific-Guidant Deal: Not the Worst of the Decade!Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Sure, Boston Scientific’s acquisition of Guidant may have been poorly timed and financially painful. But at least we can say, according to a wildly unscientific poll, that it wasn’t the worst deal of the decade. Our colleagues over at the WSJ’s Deal Journal today asked readers to weigh in on the worst of the worst — six deals gone bad, plucked from the past decade. Here’s what Deal Journal said about the Boston Scientific-Guidant deal: Matthew Dodds, an analyst at Citigroup, dubbed it The Money Pit. … What went wrong? Within months of deal closing, Boston Scientific issued recalls or...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - December 10, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: M&A Medical devices Source Type: blogs

Pfizer, Merck, Abbott and Lilly Deals in SEC Insider Trading ProbeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
All that drug-industry deal making we’ve been watching for the past couple years has caught the attention of the SEC. The agency is investigating Pfizer’s takeover of Wyeth and Merck’s deal for Schering-Plough as part of a broader inquiry into insider trading, the WSJ reports. The SEC is also asking about Abbott’s acquisition of Advanced Medical Optics (a device company), and Eli Lilly’s purchase of ImClone. Some deals outside the health-care industry are also under investigation. The investigations “are part of an effort to better understand how people meet and communicate with one anot...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - December 10, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

FDA May Strengthen Antipsychotic Labels For KidsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An FDA official says the agency is considering strengthening the labels to warn about weight gain and diabetes amid concerns the impact could be stronger in children compared to adults, Dow Jones writes. Tom Laughren, who heads the FDA’s division of psychiatric products, says the agency asked drugmakers to provide all their info on metabolic side effects such as increases in blood glucose, which can cause diabetes, and blood cholesterol levels which can lead to cardiovascular problems over time. The labels already mention weight gain and related problems, but Laughren says the FDA is considering putting all the info...
Source: Pharmalot - December 9, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Abilify Antipschyotics AstraZeneca Bristol Myers Squibb Eli Lilly Geodon Johnson & Johnson Pfizer Risperdal Seroquel Thomas Laughren Tom Laughren Zyprexa Source Type: blogs

Human Genome Sciences Shows Public Offerings Work, TooEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
With big pharma eager to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at companies with promising experimental drugs, it’s easy to forget that there’s another route for up-and-coming drug makers: Selling shares to the public. We were reminded of this fact by Human Genome Sciences, which said that a public offering expected to close next week will bring the company nearly $400 million. That’s on top of more than $350 million the company made in an August offering. Of course, the markets aren’t throwing money at just anyone these days. Human Genome has several promising drugs in advanced stages of developmen...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - December 3, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

Fed Probe Into Johnson & Johnson Reaches Zero HourEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Will federal prosecutors indict the health care giant for off-label marketing of its Natrecor heart drug? Lawyers for J&J are scheduled to meet next week with Assistant Attorney General Tony West and other Justice Department attorneys in Washington, D.C., for some serious haggling, Law.com reports, adding that a handful of former execs are also under scrutiny. Unlike Pfizer, which agreed to pay $2.3 billion to settle similar charges, J&J is resisting the notion that its Scios subsidiary engaged in illegal marketing.The government hasn’t made any final decisions, but Law.com writes that lawyers familiar with...
Source: Pharmalot - December 3, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Johnson & Johnson Natrecor Off Label Marketing Scios Source Type: blogs

Clinical Trials, Doctors And Conflicts Of InterestEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Recruiting and enrolling patients in clinical trials is just one behind-the-scenes link in the complicated process that results in medications winning regulatory approval and the subsequent marketing to doctors. But like a lot of steps in that process, the clinical trial machinery is coming under scrutiny as questions arise over the extent to which doctors are compensated for their participation. The issue has been the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Senate Finance Committee’s Chuck Grassley, who has probed undisclosed conflicts among various academic researchers who simultaneously receive industry and fed...
Source: Pharmalot - December 2, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy at Seton Hall Law School Chuck Grassley Clinical Trials Conflicts of Interest Source Type: blogs

UK Charges Former J&J Exec With CorruptionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Robert John Dougall, 44, a former vice president for market development at J&J’s DePuy unit, was charged in connection with payments made or inducements given to medical professionals working in the Greek public health care system between 2002 and 2005, according to the UK Serious Fraud Office. The investigation remains ongoing and no further details were provided. Two years ago, Johnson & Johnson disclosed that unspecified foreign subsidiaries may have made improper payments in some unnamed countries related to the sale of medical devices. And J&J acknowledged the payments may fall within the jurisdic...
Source: Pharmalot - December 1, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized DePuy International Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Johnson & Johnson Michael Dormer Robert Dougall UK Serious Fraud Act Source Type: blogs

Device Maker Bets $525 Million on Recycling Medical DevicesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Stryker, a big medical device company, said today that it’s spending $525 million to buy a company called Ascent Healthcare Solutions that helps hospitals recycle medical devices designed for a single use. The medical device industry has been wary of this practice in the past, questioning whether devices designed for a single use can be properly sterilized and whether they can hold up for multiple uses. So it’s interesting to see a big device company diving into the business of encouraging hospitals to re-use devices. But the practice — which can save hospitals money even as it allows them to trumpet th...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - November 30, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

Lipitor & the Era of Mega-Blockbusters. (Also: Fungi.)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Two years from today, if everything goes according to plan, Lipitor will go generic. That’s likely to be the end of an era when big drug makers built their businesses around mega-blockbuster drugs that treat common, chronic conditions. In its magazine section this weekend, the Financial Times traced the long arc of the cholesterol drug, which has earned more than $80 billion for Pfizer. Lipitor is a statin, a class of drugs with roots in a fungal byproduct discovered decades ago by a Japanese researcher named Akira Endo. (For more, check out this 2006 WSJ profile of Endo and his work.) Endo worked for the Japanese d...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - November 30, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs Generics M&A Pfizer Source Type: blogs

Glaxo Sued Over Zinc Levels In Poligrip AdhesiveEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
File this one under getting a grip. A Colorado woman is suing the drugmaker because she suffers from a copper deficiency her lawsuit claims is caused by an abundance of zinc found in the Poligrip she used to secure her dentures, The Denver Post writes. Zinc used in the denture cream is absorbed by the body and can cause copper depletion, which can cause neurological damage in extremities, the paper continues. The suit filed by Rae Ann Schmaltz, by the way, is actually one of dozens across the country against denture-cream makers, and is spawning such web sites as denturecreamlawsuitcenter.com. The manufacturers - Procter &...
Source: Pharmalot - November 30, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Block Drug Dentures Fixodent GlaxoSmithKline Poligrip Procter & Gamble Zinc Source Type: blogs

Pharmalot… Pharmalittle… Good MorningEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Welcome to the working week. Hope your long weekend - those of you who are stateside, at least - was a good one. Ours was quiet, thanks. So, no complaints. Now, though, the routine returns. And that means deadlines, projects and meetings. To help you along, here are a few interesting items to help you ease back in. So grab a cup of stimulation and get started… Serge Weinberg May Be Next Sanofi Chairman (Reuters) Canada Extends Patient Access To Avastin (The Star) Glaxo To Provide Anti-Doping Gear To The Olympics (USA Today) Daewoong Threatens Pfizer Over Scrapped Deal (AsiaPulse) $50M Of Meds Overseas Diverted From U...
Source: Pharmalot - November 30, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Avastin Canada Celgene Daewoong Diversion Genentech GlaxoSmithKline Johnson & Johnson Olympics Pfizer Revlimid Roche Sanofi Aventis Serge Weinberg UK Velcade Source Type: blogs

Icarus at Rethinking Psychiatry INTAR ConferenceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Icaristas Sam Kendakur, Will Hall, and Bonfire Madigan Shive presented at the Rethinking Psychiatric Crisis: Alternative Responses to First Breaks conference in New York City. They joined more than 200 researchers, people with psychiatric diagnoses, policymakers, clincians, advocates, and family members from several countries including Finland and the UK to discuss effective hospital, labeling, and force alternatives. Check out the slideshow here, and more info at the International Network Towards Alternatives for Recovery website. read more (Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness)
Source: The Icarus Project - Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness - November 27, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Icarus Project Tags: alternative treatments events icarus organizational icarus press mad science photography research theory & amp; philosophy Source Type: blogs

Reports: Private Equity Eyes Siemens Hearing Aid UnitEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There’s more buzz this morning about private equity’s interest in health care. This time, the reported target is Siemens’s hearing aid business. Sure, hearing aids may not sound like a sexy, go-go business. But apparently they’re the sort of solid money-maker that private capital likes these days — the unit could fetch up to 3 billion Euros ($4.5 billion or so), according to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters. KKR and BC Partners are potential buyers, the stories say. Bloomberg says Siemens is likely to exit the hearing aid business, and may do so via an IPO or a sale. Both stories cite unnam...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - November 27, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Global M&A Medical devices Source Type: blogs

Meeting Announcement -The Adequacy of Assisted Reproductive Technology OversightEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I received this comunication from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT —The Adequacy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Oversight Monday, December 14, 2009 8:30 am – 3:00 pm Mandarin Oriental Hotel Washington, DC Given the rather high profile incidents in infertility therapies that came to light in 2009, the leaders in reproductive medicine are asking questions about how best to prevent such incidents from occurring again. While little factual information is available on the specific incidents, we can and should assess where general oversight of the field is, and seek ways to i...
Source: docinthemachine - November 24, 2009 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: info at docinthemachine.com (Steven F Palter, MD) Tags: FDA Medical Societies Medicine-general & other Women's Health infertility Source Type: blogs

The Proteus Effect: How Our Avatar Changes Online BehaviorEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The other day, a commenter asked whether people “truly represent themselves for who they are, do they take on different personality characteristics while in their online persona, and how is their level of tolerance for disagreement affected?” One way to examine this question is to look how people provide based upon their choice of avatar — the pictorial representation of themselves in an online environment (such as virtual reality game). Yee & Bailenson (2007) did just that and have some answers: Across different behavioral measures and different representational manipulations, we observed the effec...
Source: World of Psychology - November 24, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: John M Grohol PsyD Tags: Brain and Behavior General Personality Psychology Research Technology Amp Attractiveness Avatars Behavioral Changes Behavioral Measures Commentor Digital Environments Disagreement Laboratory Settings Laboratory Studies Mani Source Type: blogs

Does Pfizer CEO Regret Sale of Consumer Products to J&J?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In an interview with the Financial Times, J&J CEO Bill Weldon gets to gloat about running the mother of all diversified health companies at a moment when many big drug makers are looking to diversify. He notes that the pendulum of opinion swings back and forth on the value of diversification: “For years we were criticised; in todays environment were praised.” And he cites conversations with Pfizer’s CEO about the 2006 sale of Pfizer’s consumer health business to J&J for $16.6 billion. “Jeff [Kindler] has told me numerous times his regrets” about the sale, Weldon told the F...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - November 23, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs J&J M&A Pfizer Source Type: blogs

New Program for Centers of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery Launched at International Congress of the AAGLEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
BREAKING NEWS: First description- full free slideshow with audio of project and podcast I am honored to share with you on docinthemachine.com my Presidential Report from the CGE of the launch of the Center of Excellence Program of the AAGL CGE. With 38 years leadership in Gyn Minimally Invasive Surgery the AAGL is unique qualified to share its educational mission by verifying those Centers that meet these standards. The AAGL Global Society for Gynecologic Minimally Invasive Surgery Launches Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery Program at Annual Meeting November 16-20, 2009 in Orlando, Flo...
Source: docinthemachine - November 23, 2009 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: info at docinthemachine.com (Steven F Palter, MD)Steven F. Palter, MD Tags: Endoscopic Surgery Medical Societies Medicine-general & other Podcasts Technology Women's Health education videos Source Type: blogs

Which Drug Companies Could Be Private-Equity Targets?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The recent $4 billion private-equity buyout of IMS Health raises an irresistible question: What other health-care companies might catch private equity’s eye? A Bloomberg News story out this morning takes a stab at answering the question, and comes up with a list that includes a few solidly profitable drug makers that have market caps between $1 billion and $3 billion and relatively low debt burdens. Endo Pharmaceuticals, which sells pain drugs, was cited as a possible target by a Credit Suisse analyst, Bloomberg notes. The company generated $339 million in free cash flow last year. It had $371 million in debt as of ...
Source: WSJ.com: Health Blog - November 23, 2009 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Jacob Goldstein Tags: Drugs M&A Source Type: blogs

Come Again? A Spray For Premature EjaculationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Before you get ahead of yourself, the spray has not yet been approved by the FDA. But the treatment did delay premature ejacualtion by as much as five times - or an average of 108 seconds - in a study of 256 men. Those whose penis tips were numbed out took an average of 2.6 minutes to ejaculate, compared with eight-tenths of minute for those given a placebo. Premature ejaculation is defined by the International Society for Sexual Medicine as the inability to delay ejaculation for more than 1 minute after vaginal penetration. Supposedly, up to one-third of US men. The product actually is a special mix of two anesthetics an...
Source: Pharmalot - November 23, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Erectile Dysfunction Johnson & Johnson PE Premature Ejaculation Sciele Pharma Shionogi Source Type: blogs

4 Quick Mindfulness TechniquesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Image Microforum Italia This is Thanksgiving week … the week some of us are very thankful that we don’t live in the same city as our relatives. So I’m calling in the experts. My friend, Elisha Goldstein, who writes the “Mindfulness and Psychotherapy” blog on Psych Central, offers readers like myself, who are having difficulty with a formal meditation practice, several quick tips for mindful living that can be implemented throughout the day. He writes in his post, “Hectic Life? Quick Tips for Mindful Living” that “even without the time and place in life to set up some formal p...
Source: World of Psychology - November 23, 2009 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Therese J. Borchard Tags: Brain and Behavior General Health-related Mental Health and Wellness Psychology Stress Amp Nbsp Array Bob Stahl Elisha Goldstein Hectic Life Jack Kornfield Mash Potatoes Meditation Practice Merlot Mindful Living Mindfulne Source Type: blogs