Pharmalot... Pharmalittle... Good Morning

Good morning, folks. How are you today? Some gloomy clouds are hovering over the Pharmalot corporate campus, but these are minor distractions as we look forward to another busy day. We imagine you are doing the same. So no need to waste time - please join us as we down a cup of stimulation and get set to make phone calls, read documents and prepare for some meetings. Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest. We will update the roster, by the way, as the day progresses. Hope all goes well and let us know if you hear of anything interesting...

Sanofi To Shut Plant And Eliminate 337 Jobs (Missouri Journal)

Novartis Considers Lucentis Price Cut In The UK (InPharm)

FDA Warns Of Cancer Risk With Celgene's Revlimid (Dow Jones)

J&J Cuts Weldon Salary To $1M After He Relinquishes CEO Job (Dow Jones)

Par Investor Pushes For Sale Of The Company (Reuters)

Pfizer Touts Pristiq Study Results For Depression (Wall Street Journal)

Pfizer Expands Into Indonesian Generic Market (Jakarta Post)

Genzyme Boosts Capacity After Ireland Plant Is OK'd (InPharm)

Charles River CEO Downplays Asset Transfers (Outsourcing Pharma)

Merck Argues Merit Of Lawsuit Against Kentucky AG (Legal Newsline)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Please check this post for updates

steaming coffee pic thx to dleggett on flickr

5 Comments

May 8, 2012 - 8:18am
Marion Merrell Dow- Hoechst-Marion-Roussel-Rhone Poulenc-Rorer-Aventis-Sanofi Aventis-Sanofi-closure of Missouri plant.

This is all the same company. Anybody spot a trend?

May 8, 2012 - 5:44pm
re Pfizer's wonderful study results of Pristiq, did anyone notice that not once did it mention any citings of suicidal ideation? Being in the middle of major research on psychotropics vs placebo and suicidal ideation so common in anti-depressants and the elimination of publishing of trials with bad results, I am now so super-sensitive to the lack of reporting of suicidal ideation, hence suicides and suicide attempts so common in patients who take psychotropics, that I even consider people who refuse to include this info in their media reports as potential murderers. Or just folks who don't care if people live or die. Did you see Max Gomez, MD's report last night on CBS-TV on the wonderfulness of anti-depressants with no mention at all of the possibility of suicidal ideation?

CBS-TV? I used to work for CBS. I used to think they were responsible.

May 8, 2012 - 5:57pm
Betsy, have you checked out suicidal ideation and the atypical antipsychotics, the last decades' blockbusters?

Lilly totally hid the number of suicides in its Zyprexa clinical trials, and the buzz has been more about deaths it causes such as profound hyperglycemia. But check out deaths from the patient's own hand...

May 8, 2012 - 6:02pm
That's what suicide is - - death from the patient's own hand.

Lilly hid lots of info about deaths from its other "suidicals" as in Prozac, said she with a shudder.

Big pharma would not like it if we denigrated their wonderful products, so let's not. Let's just let people kill themselves without spreading the word. Anyway, I only read tomes about this, and the word I'm spreading is not my own but that of the experts who are deeply involved in clinical trials.

May 8, 2012 - 8:52pm
I think Johnny Mandel expressed it best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXx1S6O-T30