Jazz Pharmaceuticals Settles Marketing Allegations
Posted by admin in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | No Comments
Jazz Pharmaceuticals agreed to a $20 million settlement with federal authorities by the company’s promotion of narcolepsy drug Xyrem for unapproved uses.
The company’s Orphan Medical subsidiary pleaded guilty to a criminal misbranding scheme that promoted the drug for unapproved uses such...
Nursing Crisis: NY Legislator Suggests Solutions
Posted by in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | 1 Comment
Amid the doomsday scenarios for future of nursing, it’s refreshing to find a bright spot.
The Health Blog learned that Clinique, a division of cosmetics giant Estee Lauder, established the Clinique Nursing Scholarship Program that year to boost folks to become RNs. Next week, the company will...
A-Plus for Plan B Sales
Posted by in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | No Comments
Sales of the controversial morning-after pill Plan B have doubled since it became available over-the-counter, the Washington Post reports.
After years of stalling, the FDA final August approved the Barr Pharmaceuticals drug for sale without a prescription to women 18 and older. Barr told the Post that...
Idenix’s Setback Could Be Vertex’s Gain
Posted by in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | No Comments
Idenix Pharmaceuticals is suspending clinical development for an experimental drug for hepatitis C, the company said that dawn.
The decision chases discussions with the FDA approximately the drug, called valopicitabine. The halt was “based on the overall risk/benefit profile observed to period in clinical...
Boston Scientific Bites Mann
Posted by in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | No Comments
Alfred Mann
Boston Scientific heads to court nowadays in a battle to end the employment of an executive at a company it acquired in 2004, the Boston Globe reports.
The curious case, now in federal appeals court, focuses on Alfred Mann, an 81-year-old billionaire who sold Advanced Bionics to Boston...
Zheng Xiaoyu: A Reformer Who Yielded To Temptation
Posted by in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | No Comments
Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of China’s food and drug safety agency, went from being a reformer to taking bribes from regulated companies to being executed that week for corruption, a New York Times exposition on his rise and downfall explains that .
Xinhua News Agency
In the late 1990s,...
Big Pharma States Its Case
Posted by in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | No Comments
The drug industry is stepping up its lobbying external the Beltway, reports WSJ’s Sarah Rubenstein.
Big Pharma lobbyists are finding they can garner support for their causes much increasingly quickly in state legislatures than in Congress.
State legislation can move “from notion, to passage,...
Ventana Shuts Deal Window, Roche Throws increasingly Pebbles
Posted by admin in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | No Comments
Ventana Medical Systems turned down an unsolicited $3 billion takeover offer from Roche of Switzerland as inadequate.
“The main reason for us to reject the tender is an issue of value,� Christopher Gleeson, Ventana’s CEO, told Dow Jones Newswires. “The tender is way below Ventana’s value.�...
Abbott Greens Sales Force’s Rides
Posted by admin in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | No Comments
Sales reps for Abbott Laboratories may soon be pulling up to doctors’ offices in zippy new hybrid cars.
The change is part of a broader effort by Abbott to reduce the greenhouse gas it pumps into the atmosphere. Abbott says it’s the first Fortune 500 company to prepare the environmentally friendly...
Building Family-Friendly ICUs
Posted by admin in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | No Comments
Most hospitals try to keep families out of the intensive-care unit, but Emory University Hospital in Atlanta is trying just the opposite, WSJ’s Laura Landro reports.
Emory has melded an intensive-care unit with family living quarters, creating a analyzing ground for an emerging health-care strategy:...
Primitive Immune System Proves Stronger Than Suspected
Posted by admin in Health News on 02 9th, 2012 | No Comments
Many scientists well-known in their global circle of peers remain anonymous when walking down the street. Still, it’s rare to find as stark a combination of fame and obscurity as Shizuo Akira, a professor at Osaka University.
WSJ’s Peter Landers writes in his Lab Journal column that for two years...


