The Canadian division of Taro Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:TARO) has announced a voluntary Type 1 recall on six lots of Taro-zoledronic Acid Injection. Type 1 recalls, according to Health Canada, refer to products that could cause serious adverse health consequences or death. It corresponds to Class 1 recalls from the FDA. Taro Pharmaceutical‘s consumer-level recall covers 5 mg/100…

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 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’ 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…

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,…

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 (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…

Astellas Pharma (TSE: 4503) plans to establish a biotech campus in South San Francisco, California, as the core of its West Coast R&D operations. Located near Genentech and Verily Life Sciences facilities, the site at 480 Forbes Boulevard will consolidate several Astellas business units and functions currently based throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The…

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”…

The FDA continues to pressure manufacturers and distributors for selling products with undeclared sildenafil and tadalafil. The agency recently announced that Wilmington Delaware–based Ultra Supplement LLC is voluntarily recalling lot number DAP272109 of Sustango capsules over the presence of tadalafil (Cialis). The company markets the product as a supplement for men. Sustango was available for…