
Horizon Pharma Reports 2Q Loss of $209.5M
DUBLIN (AP) _ Horizon Pharma Inc. (HZNP) on Monday reported a second-quarter loss of $209.5 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. The Dublin-based company said it had a loss of $1.29 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were 41 cents per share. The results surpassed Wall Street expectations.…
Kenya 1st in Africa to Use Generic of Current AIDS Drug
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Officials say Kenya is the first country in Africa to introduce a generic version of the current drug of choice for people living with HIV. Kenya’s government and the global health initiative Unitaid announced Wednesday that the East African nation will make the generic version of dolutegravir available for routine use.…
Top Eli Lilly Financial Officer to Retire in December
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Drugmaker Eli Lilly will end 2017 like it did 2016, with the departure of a top executive. The diabetes drug maker said Thursday that Chief Financial Officer Derica Rice will retire in December, ending a career with the Indianapolis company that started in 1990. Rice, 52, has served as CFO for 11…
Drug Firm Novartis Mulls Options for Alcon Amid Flat 4Q Net
GENEVA (AP) — Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis says it is considering options for its Alcon eye-care products division, and announced plans to increase its dividend by 2 percent and buy back $5 billion worth of shares this year. The Basel-based firm made the announcements Wednesday as it reported flat net income in the fourth quarter,…
Official: Bristol-Myers Squibb to Pay to Settle Allegations
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. will pay $19.5 million to settle allegations that it promoted the anti-psychotic drug Abilify for unapproved uses and misled doctors about its dangers, it was announced Thursday. California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced the settlement of a state business code violations lawsuit on the same day that the final agreement…
Pfizer Lowers Cost of Prevnar Vaccine for Some Charity Use
Clarification: In the story below about the drug company Pfizer reducing the price of its pneumonia vaccine for refugees and others in humanitarian crises, The Associated Press reported that the vaccine requires a series of three doses. The vaccine, called Prevnar 13, requires at least three doses in young children, but just one in adolescents and adults.
Study: Skin Patch Could Help Kids with Peanut Allergies
A wearable skin patch may help children who are allergic to peanuts by delivering small doses of peanut protein, according to a new study that calls for the therapy to be further explored. The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that nearly half of those treated with the Viaskin Peanut patch for one year were able to consume…
Novo Nordisk Takes Beating After Slashing Full-Year Growth
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk says it has lowered its long-term guidance for 2016 due to a difficult U.S. market, sparking a nearly 14 percent drop in share prices in early Friday trading in Copenhagen. The group says the U.S. market environment “has become significantly more challenging” adding it “no longer deems it achievable”…
Cancer Drug Sales Boost Bristol-Myers Squibb Performance
NEW YORK (AP) — Bristol-Myers Squibb stock is up more than 7 percent after the drugmaker reported strong drug sales and raised guidance for the year. The biopharmaceutical company said global revenues for the third quarter were driven by sales of the cancer drug Opdivo, which tripled to $615 million from a year ago. Sales of Eliquis,…
Roswell Park to Conduct Trial of Cuban Lung Cancer Treatment
Lilly Misses 3Q Forecasts as Sales Slip on Key Drugs
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Eli Lilly’s profit slipped 3 percent in the third quarter and the drugmaker fell well short of Wall Street expectations as competition and a loss of patent protection chopped revenue for some key products. Company shares started sliding early Tuesday after Lilly also reaffirmed its forecast for 2016 earnings and gave its…
Novartis Profit Slips as Key Drug Goes Generic
GSK Names Emma Walmsley as New Chief Executive
LONDON (AP) — Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline says Emma Walmsley will be the company’s new chief executive, replacing Andrew Witty when he retires next March. Walmsley currently runs the company’s consumer healthcare division, established as part of a deal in which GSK swapped its cancer-drug unit for Novartis’s vaccine business. She joined GSK in 2010 from L’Oreal, where she…
Valeant, Attempting to Normalize Operations, Names New CFO
NEW YORK (AP) — Valeant Pharmaceuticals replaced Robert Rosiello as chief financial officer as the embattled company attempts to normalize operations amid a host of ongoing investigations and class action lawsuits. The Canadian company named Paul Herendeen, former Zoetis chief financial officer, to fill the post immediately on Monday. Valeant has been under fire for…
Novartis Korea Executives Charged with Bribing Doctors
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Prosecutors have indicted a former chief executive of the South Korean unit of Novartis and five other former and current company managers over allegations that they illegally paid doctors 2.6 billion won ($2.3 million) in return for prescribing the company’s drugs. In response, the Swiss pharmaceutical company expressed regret through a…
Valeant, Down 70 Pct This Year, Plunges on WSJ Report
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Valeant, already down 70 percent this year, are plunging in premarket trading on a report that it hid from insurers its ties to a mail-order pharmacy that sold its drugs. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that prosecutors are looking into the possibility that the Canadian pharmaceutical, already subject to…
Pfizer Beats Street 2Q Forecasts Despite Big Drop in Profit
NEW YORK (AP) — Higher expenses offset a big jump in sales from an acquisition, as Pfizer Inc.’s second-quarter profit plunged 23 percent. The biggest U.S. drugmaker still beat Wall Street’s expectations. Pfizer on Tuesday reported net income of $2.02 billion, or 33 cents per share, down from $2.63 billion, or 42 cents per share,…
AstraZeneca Says 2Q Earnings Fell 22 Percent
LONDON (AP) — Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca says second-quarter earnings fell 22 percent after sales of its blockbuster cholesterol drug Crestor dropped sharply after a generic alternative came on the market in the United States. Core operating profit, which excludes one-time items such as restructuring costs and impairments, dropped to $1.41 billion from $1.81 billion in the second…
Pharmaceutical Giant GSK Invests in British Sites
LONDON (AP) — Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline announced plans Wednesday to invest some 275 million pounds ($360 million) into three plants in Britain, sweeping aside concerns about growth following the country’s decision to leave the European Union. Chief Executive Andrew Witty said that Britain’s “competitive corporate tax system” and skilled workforce influenced the decision to invest…
Quebec Team to Begin Zika Vaccine Tests on Humans
MONTREAL (AP) — A Quebec City-based research team has received the green light to begin testing a Zika vaccine on humans in collaboration with U.S.-based partners. The researchers based at Universite Laval are the first in Canada to be authorized by Canada’s federal health agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct clinical tests. The…
UN: World Drug Abuse, Deaths Pretty Stable Over Recent Years
VIENNA (AP) — An estimated quarter of a billion people between the ages of 15 and 64 years, abused at least one drug in 2014 but that figure and the number of drug-related deaths have remained relatively steady over recent years, according to a U.N. report published Thursday. At the same time, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime…
Valeant Loses Money in 1Q, Cuts Outlook, Shares Plunge
Biogen’s MS Drug Fails to Meet Goals in Study
Valeant Defaults on Some of Its Debt
NEW YORK (AP) — Valeant has defaulted on some of its debt because it has yet to file its first-quarter report. The embattled Canadian drug company said Friday that it now has 60 days to file the report with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian Securities Regulators for the quarter that ended March 31. Valeant…