Life SciencesRSS

  • May 9, 2007

    China's Ex-FDA Head To Go On Trial For Corruption

    The former head of China’s State Food and Drug Administration will go on trial Tuesday of next week for allegedly taking bribes to approve untested medicines and loosen quality checks in the country.

  • May 9, 2007

    Clinton Unveils Pact To Slash AIDS Drug Prices

    While developing countries continue to break AIDS drug patents, former President Bill Clinton has negotiated a new deal with two pharmaceutical giants in an attempt to provide poor nations with cheaper versions of drugs needed to combat the deadly disease.

  • May 9, 2007

    District Court Denies Abbott's Motion To Dismiss

    A federal district judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses Abbott Laboratories Inc. of publishing inflated average wholesale prices for their drugs as a way to bilk Medicare.

  • May 8, 2007

    Purdue Pharma Settles With States Over OxyContin

    Drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma has agreed to pay 26 states and the District of Columbia $19.5 million to settle allegations that it encouraged doctors to prescribe OxyContin for unapproved uses and did not adequately disclose the potential for abuse of the drug.

  • May 8, 2007

    Senate Drug Importation Amendment Squashed

    An effort to allow U.S. consumers to purchase prescription from countries that charge lower prices suffered a blow Monday on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

  • May 8, 2007

    Top Companies Join In Push For Health Care Reform

    Chief executives from around 40 of the country’s leading pharmaceutical, insurance and food companies have teamed up to push for a major health care overhaul, spurred by concerns about the costs of benefits and the effect of those costs on the companies’ competitiveness.

  • May 8, 2007

    Medicis Settles Off-Label Marketing Charges

    Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. has agreed to pay $9.8 million to settle charges that it illegally marketed the topical skin preparation Loprox to children.

  • May 8, 2007

    Chevron Nears Iraqi Kickback Settlement: Report

    Chevron Corp. may be inching closer to a settlement that will likely see the oil company shelling out a fine without admitting any wrongdoing for illegal kickbacks allegedly paid to the government of Iraq in order to secure lucrative oil deals.

  • May 8, 2007

    Philippines Seeks To Invalidate Pfizer Patent

    A federal appeals court ruling last month which invalidated a patent covering Pfizer Inc.’s blockbuster hypertension drug Norvasc has spawned an effort to invalidate the patent in the Philippines.

  • May 7, 2007

    Thailand Makes IP Blacklist For Compulsory Licenses

    The office of the U.S. Trade Representative has added Thailand to its annual list of the most serious offenders of intellectual property laws, citing the country’s recent decisions to issue compulsory licenses for several patented pharmaceutical products.

  • May 7, 2007

    Study: Bill Could Drive Up Drug Costs by Billions

    An association representing pharmacy benefit managers has released a study warning that a bill recently introduced to Congress would loosen antitrust laws and hand the independent drugstore lobby a “license to collude,” thus driving up health care costs by billions of dollars.

  • May 7, 2007

    Lundbeck Loses U.K. Patent Case Over Cipralex

    Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S suffered a blow Friday when a British court ruled against it in a patent dispute with three generic makers over a patent for its top-selling antidepressant drug, Cipralex.

  • May 7, 2007

    U.K. Plaintiffs Dismissed From Hemophilia Case

    A federal appeals court panel has affirmed a lower court ruling that the United Kingdom, and not the United States, is the proper venue for a product liability suit brought by HIV-infected hemophiliacs against a handful of major drug companies.

  • May 7, 2007

    Hospital Operator Seeks Transfer Of Antitrust Suit

    A hospital operator that has been targeted in an antitrust suit alleging it conspired to “destroy” an affiliated doctor’s radiology practice has asked that the case be transferred to federal court.

  • May 4, 2007

    Judge Excludes Accutane Maker's Own Assessments

    The manufacturer of the acne drug Accutane scored a victory Wednesday, when Judge James S. Moody, Jr. granted its hotly contested motion to exclude any evidence related to “causality assessments” that address Accutane’s potential to cause inflammatory bowel disease.

  • May 4, 2007

    PTO Issues Memo On KSR Decision To Examiners

    Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in KSR v. Teleflex, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has advised its examiners to not toss out the teaching-suggestion-motivation test altogether.

  • May 4, 2007

    Brazil Breaks Patent On Merck's AIDS Drug

    Brazil’s president has signed a compulsory license that overrides Merck & Co. Inc.’s patent on HIV/AIDS drug Efavirenz so that the country can import a generic version of the drug from India.

  • May 4, 2007

    Lawmakers, Unions Fight FDA Plan To Close Labs

    In a continued effort by lawmakers, labor unions and advocates to stop the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from closing six of its 13 field laboratories, two senators have proposed an amendment that would halt the plan until a study looks at the possible impacts.

  • May 3, 2007

    AstraZeneca Warns Against "Procedural Chaos"

    AstraZeneca has filed a motion with the court overseeing the multidistrict products liability litigation over Seroquel in Florida, asking for permission to begin case-specific discovery, and warning “procedural chaos” will ensue if the requested relief is denied.

  • May 3, 2007

    Teleflex Ruling Doesn't Win Vonage New Trial

    A federal appeals court has rejected Vonage Holdings Corp.’s claim that a patent infringement victory for rival Verizon Communications Inc. should be vacated because of a recent landmark ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.