According to reports, Biogen has taken steps to scale back costs following the release of its Aduhelm Alzheimer’s disease drug. The company has moved to sublease more than 260,000 square feet at multiple locations in Massachusetts as it looks to cut $1 billion in costs, The Boston Globe reported. Across from its Cambridge, Massachusetts, headquarters, the…
Fresenius Kabi plans to add 2D barcodes to its pharmaceutical portfolio
Fresenius Kabi has announced a three-year plan to add GS1 Data Matrix barcodes to its pharmaceutical portfolio. GS1 Data Matrix barcodes are also known as 2D barcodes. The company manufactures a range of vials, syringes, IV products and parenteral nutrition products. The Lake Zurich, Illinois–based company says the decision will reduce the need for manual data entry…
Democrats’ drug pricing plan attracts pushback from Republicans
Democrats’ climate change/anti-inflation bill that the Senate passed over the weekend includes a drug pricing plan. In particular, the Inflation Reduction Act legislation would give Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices. The legislation is now headed the House. A group of Republican physicians wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and…
Pfizer to scoop up Global Blood Therapeutics for $5.4 billion
After a banner year in 2021, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is on a spending spree. The company plans to acquire Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) (Nasdaq:GBT) for $68.50 per share. The total sale price of acquisition, if it moves forward, would be roughly $5.4 billion. Global Blood Therapeutics’s therapeutic focus is primarily on sickle cell disease. In March,…
How fentanyl has transformed the opioid crisis
In the 1990s, growing use of painkillers such as Percocet and Oxycodone helped seed the opioid epidemic. Afterward, demand for heroin increased, exacerbating the problem. More recently, a surge in synthetic opioid fentanyl use has worsened the crisis. According to the CDC, more than 100,000 Americans now die from drug overdoses yearly. Of those, approximately…
AstraZeneca installs Michel Demaré as non-executive board chair
AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) has appointed Michel Demaré as the chair-designate of its board. Demaré will replace Leif Johansson, the current chair of the board of AstraZeneca, who plans to retire in April 2023. There will be a managed handover period in the coming months. Demaré joined AstraZeneca’s board of directors in September 2019 as an independent…
Senate Finance Committee chair says Abbott, Merck aren’t complying
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) wrote a letter demanding compliance from Merck and Abbott. The letter demands that Merck and Abbott complay with the Senate Finance Committee’s investigation into the tax practices of Big Pharma. According to a news release from the Senate Finance Committee, the two companies have, to this point, “stonewalled”…
Expert answers to nitrosamine impurity questions
The presence of toxic nitrosamine impurities in drug substances and drug products has become a significant focus for the pharmaceutical industry following their identification above permitted limits in common drug products prescribed for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heartburn. To learn more about the situation, we interviewed David Elder – CMC consultant –…
Baxter recall of drug compounding software is Class I
The FDA issued a notice today announcing that the recall of the Baxter Abacus software is Class I, the most serious kind. Baxter designed its Abacus order entry and calculation software to perform calculations for compounding liquid doses of medications. When connected to a compounded that mixes doses according to the calculation, the software can…
Novartis restarts production of radioligand therapy
Novartis announced recently that it has restarted radioligand therapy (RLT) production at two different sites. Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis on June 30 said that it restarted production in “early June” at its Ivrea, Italy, and Millburn, New Jersey, sites, according to a news release. The company had halted production in May due to what it cited…