Monthly Archives: March 2009

Nine Pharmas Warned for Selling Unapproved Pain Drugs

By George Koroneos | Published: March 31, 2009
FDA, this morning, sent warning letters to nine pharmaceutical companies that are manufacturing and marketing 14 unapproved pain tablets. The drugs in question are prescription unapproved products that include high concentrate morphine sulfate oral solutions and immediate release tablets containing morphine sulfate, hydromorphone, or oxycodone. The letters stated that the drug firms must cease and desist [...]
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M&A Round-up • 3/25/2009

By George Koroneos | Published: March 25, 2009
The latest round of merger and acquisition activities courtesy of our friends at Pharm Exec Europe: • Just days after its purchase of Genentech, Roche has made another acquisition, albeit a much smaller one, of the German firm Innovatis. Roche will pay EUR 15 million for the cell analytics company. • Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) is to [...]
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Pharm Exec Scores Neal Award

By George Koroneos | Published: March 20, 2009
Time for a little back patting. Pharmaceutical Executive’s own Joanna Breitstein was awarded a Neal Award for Best Single Article for her work on the malaria story “Fight Resistance.” The Neal Awards are the top editorial honors for business publication, and Pharm Exec was selected from more than a thousand entries. The magazine was also [...]
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Pharma Layoff Rundown • 3/18/2009

By George Koroneos | Published: March 18, 2009
While most of the pharma industry was buzzing about the massive M&A deals, a handful of smaller firms (and one mega merger) announced layoffs. • Cytos Biotechnology announced on Tuesday that it had to cut its 135-person team by 57 employees. This move is being done to slow its cash burn rate and to make up [...]
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Gilead Buys CV Therapeutics (Update 1)

By Walter Armstrong | Published: March 16, 2009
The morning’s other big M&A news comes out of the Bay Area biotech industry, where Gilead Sciences announced that it will purchase CV Therapeutics for $1.4 billion. The sudden move frees Palo Alto-based cardiovascular company CV Therapeutics from the hostile embrace of Astellas Pharma, ending a messy $1.1 billion takeover attempt. With the acquisition, Gilead, [...]
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