[1]pic thx to faruk aites on flickr creative commons
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. The weekend respite went by rather quickly, yes? Well, it generally does. Nonetheless, we hope you enjoyed yourselves and prepared for another round of meetings, deadlines and whatever else may be lurking. To cope we are not only brewing cups of stimulation and purchased a new coffee kettle. Given our intake, we were overdue. So please join us. Meanwhile, here are some tidbits. Have a smashing day and do stay in touch…
Charlie Munger, who is Warren Buffett’s business partner, says Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ strategy of buying drugs and boosting prices may be legal, but is “deeply immoral” and “similar to the worst abuses in for-profit education,” Bloomberg News [2] writes. As chairman of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, he added, “I could see the price gouging,” and believes the strategy isn’t sustainable. “It’s deeply wrong,” he said. Meanwhile, short seller Andrew Left backed away from hints he would issue new revelations today about Valeant, The Wall Street Journal [3] says.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Mylan failed to properly disclose real estate deals involving the company and its lead outside director, The Wall Street Journal [4] says. Last summer, the paper raised questions about a lack of disclosure surrounding real-estate transactions involving Mylan and Rodney Piatt, who is the company’s vice chairman, lead independent director and compensation-committee chief.
A Pfizer plant in China that was inspected by FDA in order to ship drugs to the US kept a second set of quality and manufacturing records that didn’t match official ones, Bloomberg News [5] writes, citing an FDA review of the facility. During an April inspection, FDA reviewers wrote that employees hid quality failures, used expired manufacturing materials or ones that hadn’t been recently checked, and retested failing products until they passed.
Remember Dan Vasella? The former Novartis ceo has reportedly purchased a luxury duplex in Monaco for about $24 million, according to The Local [6]. Vasella has not been in the news since early 2013, when Novartis scrapped a plan to pay him as much as $78 million so he would not work for rivals. The package was withdrawn after details of the payout emerged just days before a Swiss referendum on executive compensation.
Shire agreed to buy Dyax for at least $5.9 billion in cash in order to gain a promising treatment for hereditary angioedema, or HAE, a rare disease that can be debilitating and sometimes fatal, Bloomberg News [7] reports.
Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to buy Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth up to $2.07 billion in order to gain access to a heart failure treatment, Reuters [8] notes.
Three of Europe’s top drug makers – GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and Sanofi – face health checks this week at high-profile presentations designed to show they can overcome looming market threats, Reuters [9] points out.
The White House issued a 187-page report designed to improve biosafety following a series of safety breaches at federal labs charged with handling dangerous pathogens such as anthrax, bird flu and smallpox, Reuters [10] says.
Sun Pharma may discontinue certain non-strategic businesses as part of its integration process with Ranbaxy Laboratories, which it acquired in a $4 billion deal last year, The Economic Times [11] reports.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice, which is seeking documents related primarily to its “good laboratory practices” in a bioanalytical lab, according to Reuters [12].
The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence says that Celgene’s Abraxane will not be routinely funded for treating pancreatic cancer on the National Health Service, because of the cost, Pharma Times [13] says.
India’s National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority capped prices of as many as 18 new brands of essential medicines, including treatments for diabetes, blood pressure and pneumonia, The Economic Times [14] tells us.
Mylan Labs, which made a hostile takeover bid for Perrigo, said a US court denied Perrigo’s attempt to block the potential closing of Mylan’s proposed offer before shareholders, The Wall Street Journal [15] writes.
Sanofi’s mass recall of faulty auto-injectors will cost the drug maker about $110 million, according to InPharma Technologist [16].