It’s often said that drugs don’t work if you don’t take them — but the issue of medication nonadherence is at epidemic levels in the U.S. According to a New York Times report from earlier this year, around 125,000 people die in the U.S. every year because they didn’t take prescribed medications for long enough…
Fumes From Irish Viagra Plant Reportedly Making Men Aroused
Residents from the town of Ringaskiddy, County Cork, Ireland claim that men are getting aroused from emissions from a nearby Pfizer facility. Nearly all of the world’s supply of Viagra is manufactured in Ringaskiddy — which the locals say is having an effect on the men who live there. “One whiff and you’re stiff,” a…
One Company Poised To Flood US Market With Generic HIV Medications
Later this month, several key patents for HIV medications are set to expire. The sudden opening up of the market could be a boon for companies ready to flood the US market with billions of generic HIV pills. Recently, Bloomberg profiled one such company in India called Laurus Labs Ltd. With a manufacturing facility the…
National Report Calls On Government To Negotiate With Manufacturers To Lower Drug Costs
A recent report from the National Academy of Sciences is urging the U.S. government to make major changes in the pharmaceutical market to lower the price of prescription drugs. The report, called “Making Medicine Affordable: A National Imperative,” was written by 17 expert doctors, lawyers and economists, who derided the government and the pharma industry…
A Fitbit-Style Technology Could Soon Shake Up The Way Doctors Monitor Treatment
There’s no doubt that FItbits have changed the fitness industry by giving athletes a tool to monitor their progress and health. Now that same technology could soon help patients take pharmaceuticals and improve how doctors monitor treatment. Recently at the AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, Sven Stegemann, director of Pharmaceutical Business Development…
Fire Cuts Off BASF’s Production Of Vitamins A And E
A fire at a BASF facility has forced the German chemical giant to declare a force majeure for vitamin A and E products. The fire occurred at manufacturing facility in Germany for aroma ingredients. The company had already declared a force majeure for certain citral and isoprenol-based products due to the accident. But because those…
Editor’s Note: The Clock Is Ticking
All signs point to serialization again taking center stage in pharma in 2018. While the U.S. FDA offered the industry a yearlong sedative by delaying enforcement of the first phase of the Drug Supply Chain and Security Act (DSCSA) until next November, conventional wisdom is that it was a one-and-done move by the agency. That…
Big Pharma CEOs Say Amazon Could Be Exactly What The Drug Market Needs
Several pharmaceutical executives commented this week that the drug distribution market is “ripe for disruption” and could benefit from Amazon entering the fray. According to a report in CNBC Allergen’s CEO, Brent Saunders, said on a third-quarter earnings call this week, “Just like science is disrupted with gene therapy or novel treatments, I think the…
FDA Hires Top Mylan Exec
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has hired a former executive from Mylan Pharmaceuticals as a senior communications advisor. According to a report in The Hill, Nina Devlin, who was the head of global communications at Mylan, took over the role on Oct. 15. Devlin served in that role when Mylan was mired in allegations…
The High Cost Of Wasting Liquid Medicines — By The Numbers
That extra bit of every eye drop that always rolls down a patient’s cheek says a lot about the problem of waste in the pharmaceutical industry. As it turns out, some of the medicine is supposed to get wiped away, because the bottle releases drops that are too big for the human eye. It isn’t…