pharmaceutical companies

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Pharma Exec Convicted in Sensational Opioid Case

John Kapoor's Insys Therapeutics used illegal tactics to sell its fentanyl spray

(Newser) - A pharmaceutical company founder accused of paying doctors millions in bribes to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray was convicted Thursday in a case that exposed such marketing tactics as using a stripper-turned-sales-rep to give a physician a lap dance. John Kapoor, the 76-year-old former chairman of Insys Therapeutics, was...

Professor Accused of Selling Student's Research for $1.5M

University of Missouri is suing pharmacy professor

(Newser) - The University of Missouri system is suing a pharmacy professor at its Kansas City campus over allegations he stole and sold a student's research, claiming that the school is the rightful owner of work it believes could be used to make a billion-dollar drug. The university has filed a...

Sanders Demands to Know Why Drug Went From Free to $375K

The medication, Firdapse, treats a rare neuromuscular disease

(Newser) - Calling it corporate greed, Bernie Sanders wants a pharmaceutical company's justification for why it charges $375,000 per year for a drug that used to be free. "I am profoundly concerned that Catalyst's actions will cause patients to suffer or die," the Vermont senator and possible...

Pharma Exec on 400% Drug Price Jump: 'Moral Requirement'

Nirmal Mulye defends move, says he's in the drug business 'to make money'

(Newser) - The founder and president of a pharmaceutical company that last month raised the price of an "essential" antibiotic from $474.75 per bottle to $2,392 per bottle tells the Financial Times the 400% increase was not only justifiable but morally imperative. "I think it is a moral...

Trump Tweeted Pfizer Should Be 'Ashamed.' Pfizer Responds

After meeting between Trump and Pfizer CEO Ian Read, company says it will defer price hikes

(Newser) - Last week, Pfizer jacked up the price for several dozen prescription drugs; this week it received a dressing down from President Trump. Now, per the Wall Street Journal , the pharmaceuticals giant has responded to his criticism with a postponement on those price hikes after the company said CEO Ian Read...

Company Sold $1.3B of a Drug That's Not Hugely Effective

Inside New York state's pushback against Orkambi

(Newser) - Only 28,000 of the planet's 7 billion people are eligible to take the cystic fibrosis drug Orkambi. And yet that tiny population enabled drugmaker Vertex to make roughly $1.3 billion in sales off the product. How does that math work out? The annual price of the drug...

'Pharma Bro' Faces High-Stakes Sentencing

Prosecutors want Shkreli to get 15 years

(Newser) - Is "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli a master manipulator who conned wealthy investors or a misunderstood eccentric who used unconventional means to make those same investors even wealthier? A federal judge in Brooklyn will have to weigh the conflicting portrayals of the former pharmaceutical company CEO on Friday at his...

Search for Alzheimer's Treatment Is Dealt a Blow

Pfizer announced R&D on new drugs will cease

(Newser) - The Alzheimer's Association estimates that more than 5 million Americans are living with the disease—and that by 2050, that count could triple. But Pfizer on Saturday announced it's getting out of the Alzheimer's game, at least when it comes to researching potential new drugs. The company...

Company Says Its Treatment for Blindness Will Cost $850K

Spark Therapeutics reveals Luxturna gene therapy will cost $425K per eye

(Newser) - It's a gradual and cruel fate: an inherited form of vision loss that typically ends in blindness and has had no cure. But for those with mutations in a gene known as RPE65 comes a balm. The FDA in December approved Luxturna, a new gene therapy that can treat...

Lawyer Guilty of Helping Shkreli Cover Up Fraud

Verdict sends a powerful message, prosecutor says

(Newser) - A lawyer accused of helping Martin Shkreli cover up financial fraud was convicted on Wednesday, a result a prosecutor said should send a "powerful message" through the legal profession. After an 11-week trial, Evan Greebel was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn of conspiring to commit securities fraud...

The Intentions Were Good. Then the Drug's Price Exploded

'The Washington Post' takes a look at the path Daranide has taken

(Newser) - It's a rare genetic illness and, in the Washington Post's telling, a "frightening" one. And it's one whose symptoms many sufferers were able to control for free, or a pittance. That's changed in an extreme and dramatic fashion in recent years, making the drug Keveyis...

Feds Approve Pill With Digital Tracking System

Tiny chip communicates with smartphone app

(Newser) - In an unprecedented step to ensure that patients with mental disorders take the medicine prescribed for them, the Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug in the United States with a digital ingestion tracking system. The drug Abilify MyCite was developed by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Abilify was...

Pharma Billionaire Allegedly Paid Doctors to Push Fentanyl

Insys founder faces charges including bribery, racketeering

(Newser) - Sarah Fuller died a little more than a year after she was prescribed a fentanyl spray for her chronic neck and back pain, but her mom doesn't just blame the opioid. She points the finger at "a drug company who couldn't care less about a human life....

Why Insurance Companies Are Saying No to Generic Drugs

And yes, it might be hurting your pocket

(Newser) - It flies in the face of conventional wisdom: insurance companies that won't pay for a generic medicine, essentially forcing patients to opt for pricey brand-name drugs. And yet that's exactly what's happening, report ProPublica and the New York Times . It's "befuddling," says one 41-year-old...

This Drug Just Got the FDA's OK—and an $89K Price Tag

Marathon Pharmaceuticals to sell deflazacort for $89K

(Newser) - A drug sold for years overseas to treat a rare form of muscular dystrophy was OKed Thursday by the FDA to be sold in the US, but it comes at a high price. The Wall Street Journal reports the now-FDA-approved deflazacort will be offered by Marathon Pharmaceuticals for $89,000...

Pfizer Bans Use of Its Drugs in Executions

This is a milestone in anti-capital punishment campaign

(Newser) - Drug giant Pfizer says that since it is in the business of "saving and improving" lives, it has taken steps to make sure its products are not used to execute people. "Pfizer strongly objects to the use of its products as lethal injections for capital punishment," the...

Report: Doctors Getting Pharma Money Prescribe More Brand-Name Drugs

New analysis finally proves the 'prevailing wisdom'

(Newser) - It certainly seems like doctors who take money from pharmaceutical companies would prescribe more brand-name drugs, but there's never been proof of that. That is until an extensive analysis by ProPublica , which found that the more pharmaceutical money a doctor accepts, the more brand-name medicines they prescribe to patients....

Martin Shkreli Celebrates Price Hike in Newly Released Emails

'$1 bn here we come'

(Newser) - Documents and emails released Tuesday by congressional investigators show "pharma bro" and Internet villain Martin Shkreli "giddily rubbing his palms together at the prospect of all the money Daraprim will generate," as NPR puts it. Shkreli and his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, acquired the drug Daraprim—frequently used...

It's Not Just Shkreli Who's Been Hiking Drug Prices

Lots of drugmakers did it around Jan. 1—some up to 20%, per analyst reports

(Newser) - Martin Shkreli attracted no small amount of scorn for jacking drug costs, but he's far from alone. Plenty of other drugmakers have been guilty of hikes, many just since late December, claiming they need to do so to fund "risky" research, the Wall Street Journal reports. Analysts...

Hepatitis-Curing Pill Costs 250 Times More in US Than India

And that's limiting access to Americans with the disease

(Newser) - It's starting to seem like America is an expensive place to get a disease. Bloomberg reports sofosbuvir—a Hepatitis C "miracle cure"—that retails for $1,000 per pill in the US is currently going for $4.29 in India, and that price is continuing to drop....

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