Pharmaceutical Companies

English is emerging as the common tongue of the global economy, and companies that fail to adopt an English-only policy could face a competitive disadvantage. So argues Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley in the May issue of the Harvard Business Review. In her article, Neeley notes that such companies as Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, and SAP have "mandated" English as their corporate lingua franca. "If you want to surpass your rivals, it's no longer a matter of choice," Neeley wrote.

Iran, Pakistan and other South Asian countries are a fast-rising force in the global methamphetamine market, with drug cartels thriving off the weak governance and law enforcement that have long fueled the region's heroin trade. This environment has allowed criminals to tap into the countries' relatively advanced pharmaceutical industries to get their hands on meth's two main ingredients: ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. The drug is more valuable than heroin, and some say, more addictive.

The Mississippi attorney general's office says it has recovered $6 million from three pharmaceutical companies that misreported the price of prescription drugs for Medicaid patients. In a statement released Monday, Attorney General Jim Hood says agreements were reached with Par Pharmaceutical Inc.; and Alpharma USPD Inc. and Purepac Pharmaceutical Co., now known as Actavis MidAtlantic LLC and Actavis Elizabeth LLC, respectively. In 2005, Hood's office filed fraud charges against dozens of companies.

English is emerging as the common tongue of the global economy, and companies that fail to adopt an English-only policy could face a competitive disadvantage. So argues Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley in the May issue of the Harvard Business Review. In her article, Neeley notes that such companies as Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, and SAP have "mandated" English as their corporate lingua franca. "If you want to surpass your rivals, it's no longer a matter of choice," Neeley wrote.

WASHINGTON — In the 1990s, the pharmaceutical industry repeatedly was named the most profitable industry in the world. More than a decade later, the industry tops a more dubious list: the No. 1 source of fraud-related settlements with the Department of Justice, an advocacy group says. Pharmaceutical companies made up eight of the government’s top 10 settlements related to fraud in the last year, according to the advocacy group Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund. An insurer and a hospital chain filled out the list.

WASHINGTON - Food and Drug Administration officials have finalized guidelines that make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to use medical journal articles to promote drugs for unapproved uses. The final guidelines, which have been criticized by some lawmakers as too lenient, allow companies to distribute articles about their products to doctors - even when they involve uses that have not been federally approved. The FDA document was posted online yesterday. For their part, companies like Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly said the guidelines merely...

PHILADELPHIA -- Boston and San Francisco remain the powerhouses of the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, but the Philadelphia and New York regions, which split New Jersey's cluster of drug companies between them, are closing in, a think tank's analysis shows. The Milken Institute study, commissioned by Philadelphia area biotech and economic development groups to evaluate the industry in the region and its prospects, was released yesterday at BIO 2005, the huge biotechnology conference that has drawn an estimated 18,000 people here this week.

Total payments to doctors for promoting pharmaceutical companies' products to their colleagues appear to be falling in Massachusetts, suggesting that new restrictions designed to distance doctors from industry are leading some to abandon the lucrative speaking circuit. Eli Lilly and Co., one of the nation's largest drug makers, paid health care providers here $866,919 in 2010 for speaking about their drugs, a 46 percent drop from 2009, according to an analysis by The Boston Globe and ProPublica, a nonprofit online investigative journalism organization.

FOR ALEX Beam’s enlightenment, “evidence-based medicine’’ assesses the efficacy of treatments for specific conditions and populations. The goal is to replace costly hunches with scientifically informed decisions. For example, cardiac stents are helpful for some patients. Other patients, with lesser blockages, may face risk from the surgery which does not justify the measured benefit. This is not a movement that stands in opposition to flipping coins, as Beam suggests. The alternative is medicine dominated by the economic interests of surgeons, pharmaceutical...

Iran, Pakistan and other South Asian countries are a fast-rising force in the global methamphetamine market, with drug cartels thriving off the weak governance and law enforcement that have long fueled the region's heroin trade. This environment has allowed criminals to tap into the countries' relatively advanced pharmaceutical industries to get their hands on meth's two main ingredients: ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. The drug is more valuable than heroin, and some say, more addictive.

The pharmaceutical industry is being squeezed by government spending cutbacks, brand name drugs facing new competition from low-cost generics, and investors clamoring for drug makers to divert research dollars to buy back shares, speakers told the annual meeting of the industry's largest trade group Thursday. Lamenting that the economic crisis has created huge deficits in Western countries, especially in Europe, Christopher A. Viehbacher, chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, called PhRMA, told more than 300 executives gathered at...

Merck has agreed to pay $950 million and has pleaded guilty to a criminal charge over the marketing and sales of the painkiller Vioxx, the company and the Justice Department said yesterday. Massachusetts' Medicaid program will receive nearly $10 million of that settlement, according to the state attorney general's office. The negotiated settlement, which includes resolution of civil cases, was the latest fraud case brought by federal and state prosecutors against major pharmaceutical companies.

East Tennessee State University has announced that a startup pharmaceutical research and development company will establish its laboratory at the school's Valleybrook campus. ETSU said in a news release Tuesday that BioCorp officials chose the university partly because it has a pharmacy school and a medical school. The company's focus will be research and developing all-natural, over-the-counter medications. BioCorp hopes to develop pharmaceutical treatments for breast cancer, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and hypothyroidism.

The Mississippi attorney general's office says it has recovered $6 million from three pharmaceutical companies that misreported the price of prescription drugs for Medicaid patients. In a statement released Monday, Attorney General Jim Hood says agreements were reached with Par Pharmaceutical Inc.; and Alpharma USPD Inc. and Purepac Pharmaceutical Co., now known as Actavis MidAtlantic LLC and Actavis Elizabeth LLC, respectively. In 2005, Hood's office filed fraud charges against dozens of companies.

WASHINGTON - Abbott Laboratories, long known for selling a mix of drugs, medical implants, and baby formula, said yesterday it will spin off its branded drug business and become two separate companies with more distinct identities. The split-up marks an abrupt shift for the 123-year-old company, which sells a broad range of products from stents to arthritis drugs to contact lens solution. While many pharmaceutical companies weathered losses as the patents on their blockbuster drugs expired, Abbott has continued to post double-digit sales growth, chiefly because of its anti-inflammatory...

Total payments to doctors for promoting pharmaceutical companies' products to their colleagues appear to be falling in Massachusetts, suggesting that new restrictions designed to distance doctors from industry are leading some to abandon the lucrative speaking circuit. Eli Lilly and Co., one of the nation's largest drug makers, paid health care providers here $866,919 in 2010 for speaking about their drugs, a 46 percent drop from 2009, according to an analysis by The Boston Globe and ProPublica, a nonprofit online investigative journalism organization.

Merck has agreed to pay $950 million and has pleaded guilty to a criminal charge over the marketing and sales of the painkiller Vioxx, the company and the Justice Department said yesterday. Massachusetts' Medicaid program will receive nearly $10 million of that settlement, according to the state attorney general's office. The negotiated settlement, which includes resolution of civil cases, was the latest fraud case brought by federal and state prosecutors against major pharmaceutical companies.

WASHINGTON - Abbott Laboratories, long known for selling a mix of drugs, medical implants, and baby formula, said yesterday it will spin off its branded drug business and become two separate companies with more distinct identities. The split-up marks an abrupt shift for the 123-year-old company, which sells a broad range of products from stents to arthritis drugs to contact lens solution. While many pharmaceutical companies weathered losses as the patents on their blockbuster drugs expired, Abbott has continued to post double-digit sales growth, chiefly...

FOR ALEX Beam’s enlightenment, “evidence-based medicine’’ assesses the efficacy of treatments for specific conditions and populations. The goal is to replace costly hunches with scientifically informed decisions. For example, cardiac stents are helpful for some patients. Other patients, with lesser blockages, may face risk from the surgery which does not justify the measured benefit. This is not a movement that stands in opposition to flipping coins, as Beam suggests. The alternative is medicine dominated by the economic interests of surgeons, pharmaceutical companies, and the makers of imaging...