October, 2024

article thumbnail

STAT+: Teva fined $503 million for disparaging a rival and using patents to thwart competition

STAT

Teva Pharmaceutical, the world’s largest generic drugmaker, was fined $503 million by European antitrust regulators for delaying competition to a blockbuster multiple sclerosis medicine. The European Commission found the company had artificially extended the patent protection of Copaxone and systematically spread misleading information about a rival product.

article thumbnail

The 2024 PharmaVoice 100

PharmaVoice

This year’s PharmaVoice 100 encompasses the industry’s ongoing revolutions and leaders who are not only navigating these changes, but at times, forging new paths for others to follow.

363
363
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

Pharmacies must contact labetalol patients following manufacturing mix-up

The Pharmacist

Pharmacies must contact all patients dispensed a specific batch of the beta blocker labetalol that may contain the wrong medication, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has instructed. If batch traceability is not possible, all patients dispensed this product in the last six months must be contacted. In a class two medicines recall […] The post Pharmacies must contact labetalol patients following manufacturing mix-up appeared first on The Pharmacist.

126
126
article thumbnail

Upskilling and reskilling: Key to driving innovation in India’s pharma sector

Express Pharma

India’s pharmaceutical industry, the third largest globally by volume, plays a key role in improving global healthcare outcomes. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation and underscored the importance of adaptability. In this evolving landscape, upskilling and reskilling have become essential as technological advancements, regulatory changes, and the demand for innovative healthcare solutions continue to grow.

article thumbnail

Navigating Payroll Compliance: Future-Proofing Payroll in an Evolving Regulatory Landscape

Speaker: Jennifer Hill

Payroll compliance is a cornerstone of business success, yet for small and midsize businesses, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of federal, state, and local regulations. Mistakes can lead to costly penalties and operational disruptions, making it essential to adopt advanced solutions that ensure accuracy and efficiency.

article thumbnail

Handling Drug Patent Abandonment: Opportunities and Challenges

Drug Patent Watch

The pharmaceutical industry is known for its complex regulatory environment and lengthy product development processes. One often overlooked aspect of this industry is the potential benefits of abandoned and expired patents. These patents can provide opportunities for companies to bring new products to market at a lower cost and with reduced development time.

105
105

More Trending

article thumbnail

STAT+: Drug may make chemotherapies less effective in cancer patients with obesity — but many doctors are in the dark

STAT

A drug used to combat fungal infections in cancer patients comes with a big caveat — research shows the medicine can last twice as long as in people with obesity. This means chemotherapies may be less effective when interacting with the medicine, but some clinicians, and their patients, are unaware of that possibility. The information, however, is not in the label because the drug — originally manufactured by Merck — was never fully tested in this population.

article thumbnail

STAT+: Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, long in shortage, are now listed as available by FDA

STAT

All doses of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes and obesity treatments are listed as available on the Food and Drug Administration’s drug shortage list as of Wednesday, raising the possibility that the medications could soon be taken off the list entirely, a development that could affect compounding pharmacies and patients relying on compounded drugs.

article thumbnail

5 questions about the next U.S. dietary guidelines, and the ‘impossible restriction’ on them

STAT

Here’s the paradox: The most influential set of rules for the foods we eat are the ones most of us ignore. But they still matter for millions of  Americans. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, reviewed and issued by the federal government every five years, have broad impact on what goes into federal nutritional assistance programs, from WIC for women and young children to school lunches to meals for veterans or seniors.

299
299
article thumbnail

Opinion: Fecal transplants are saving lives — but are now at risk

STAT

Twenty years ago, a respected colleague asked me to perform a “poop transplant” on a local schoolteacher with multiply recurrent C. difficile infection.  I was incredulous and skeptical, but my colleague (a friend but a forceful one) persisted until I ultimately acquiesced.  Soon I was in a hazmat suit blenderizing stool and performing my first (subsequently named) fecal microbiota transplant, or FMT.

300
300
article thumbnail

From Diagnosis to Delivery: How AI is Revolutionizing the Patient Experience

Speaker: Simran Kaur, Founder & CEO at Tattva Health Inc.

The healthcare landscape is being revolutionized by AI and cutting-edge digital technologies, reshaping how patients receive care and interact with providers. In this webinar led by Simran Kaur, we will explore how AI-driven solutions are enhancing patient communication, improving care quality, and empowering preventive and predictive medicine. You'll also learn how AI is streamlining healthcare processes, helping providers offer more efficient, personalized care and enabling faster, data-driven

article thumbnail

STAT+: Warren wants close FTC scrutiny of drug distributors buying cancer medical groups

STAT

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is urging the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize recent deals from McKesson and Cardinal Health to buy oncology practices, saying those transactions pose “clear, anticompetitive risks.” McKesson, Cardinal Health, and Cencora are the three dominant wholesalers that distribute drugs and medical products.

261
261
article thumbnail

Opinion: I’m the director of the Center for Medicare. Here’s how we executed the first round of drug price negotiation

STAT

The historic Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has fundamentally improved the affordability of and access to prescription drugs for millions of people with Medicare. The law laid out aggressive timelines for implementing the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. As the director of Medicare, my team and I worked thoughtfully and diligently to stand up the program — on time and successfully.

article thumbnail

STAT+: Two generic drugmakers pay $49 million to settle price-fixing charges

STAT

Two generic drugmakers, Apotex and Heritage Pharmaceuticals, have agreed to pay a combined $49 million to settle allegations they fixed prices on numerous medicines, the first such agreements since state attorneys general began probing price-fixing in the generics industry a decade ago. In 2016, a number of states filed what eventually became the first in a trio of lawsuits against many of the largest generic companies for allegedly coordinating efforts to fix and maintain prices for dozens of m

Diabetes 297
article thumbnail

STAT+: Health tech investments are picking up steam. Here are 5 VC leaders behind the biggest recent deals

STAT

Health tech investments are showing signs of resilience following the perilous lows of 2022 and 2023: Just this past month, two startups that analysts believe might be getting ready for IPOs raised more than $100 million in late-stage funding rounds. And deal volume hit a record high in the second quarter, largely from early-stage deals, according to a Silicon Valley Bank analysis.

Diabetes 277
article thumbnail

Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide

Managing HR tasks like payroll, compliance, and employee data can overwhelm small businesses. That’s where a Human Capital Management (HCM) solution comes in. Our eBook, Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide , shows how an HCM system automates tedious processes, ensuring your business stays compliant and efficient. You’ll learn how to simplify payroll, eliminate costly errors, and empower your employees with self-service tools.

article thumbnail

STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about disappointing Lilly sales, a Roche Alzheimer’s therapy, and more

STAT

Hello, everyone, and how are you today? We are doing just fine, thank you, especially since the middle of the week is upon us. After all, we have made it this far, so we are determined to hang on for another couple of days. And why not? The alternatives — at least those we can identify — are not so appealing. And what better way to make the time fly than to keep busy.

Diabetes 214
article thumbnail

Opinion: ‘Do no harm’ is hurting 400 million long Covid patients worldwide

STAT

Imagine, for a moment, that you wake up one morning with a debilitating illness that won’t let go. Weeks and months pass, but the crushing fatigue, constant headaches, and aching muscles remain. You can’t think straight. Simply showering or doing the dishes leaves you floored for days at a time, and the unpredictable symptoms — shortness of breath, dizziness, a racing heart — ebb and flow without warning.

364
364
article thumbnail

STAT+: UnitedHealth was top insurer collecting billions in questionable Medicare payments, federal watchdog finds

STAT

A federal watchdog found that Medicare Advantage insurers collected billions of dollars in dubious payments from Medicare in a single year by using home visits and medical chart reviews to diagnose patients with conditions for which they received no follow-up care.    A report released Thursday by the Office of Inspector General for the Health and Human Services Department concluded that insurers collectively received an estimated $7.5 billion in payments last year from so-called

article thumbnail

STAT+: For the behemoth UnitedHealth, a new threat to Medicare profits

STAT

For the nation’s largest health insurer, the evidence of abuse was stunning and unmistakable: UnitedHealth Group reaped billions from the federal Medicare program by diagnosing patients with serious chronic illnesses, and then delivering no follow-up care. The findings in the federal report reveal that UnitedHealth repeatedly sent clinicians into patients’ homes and pored over their medical charts to add diagnoses for illnesses such as vascular disease, heart failure, and diabetes.

Diabetes 363
article thumbnail

Position Your Pharmacy for Expansion

Speaker: Chris Antypas and Josh Halladay

Access to limited distribution drugs and payer contracts are key to pharmacy expansion. But how do you prepare your operations to take the next step? Meaningful data: Collect and share clinical data regarding outcomes, utilization, and more Reporting: Limited distribution models require efficient tracking and reporting systems Workflows: Align workflows with specific pharma and payer contractual requirements For in-depth, expert insights on pharmacy expansion, watch this webinar from Inovalon.

article thumbnail

STAT+: Chickenpox, shingles, Alzheimer’s? Evidence mounts for a viral cause of dementia

STAT

Pascal Geldsetzer believes in open access, in disseminating science as quickly as it happens. Even so, last summer, as he uploaded the surprising results of his latest study to the MedRxiv preprint server, the Stanford University epidemiologist was feeling something other than the usual excitement. “I was scared to put this up because it’s such a different approach from what’s generally done in epidemiology and medicine,” he said.

363
363
article thumbnail

Is it time to freak out about bird flu?

STAT

If you’re aware of the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cattle — you may have seen some headlines or read something on social media — perhaps you are wondering what the fuss is about. Yes, there have been nearly a couple dozen human cases, but all have had mild symptoms. The virus does not decimate herds in the way it does poultry flocks; most — though not all — of the infected cows come through the illness OK.

363
363
article thumbnail

STAT+: Inside UnitedHealth’s strategy to pressure physicians: $10,000 bonuses and a doctor leaderboard

STAT

The emails from UnitedHealth Group managers were filled with exclamation marks and pleasantries about the weather. But the underlying message to doctors in late 2020 was persistent and urgent: Hit your targets to see more patients. We need to bring in more money. At the time, deaths from Covid-19 were surging, and no vaccine was available.

article thumbnail

STAT+: Medicare Advantage insurers ramped up use of technology to deny claims, Senate investigation shows

STAT

The nation’s three largest Medicare Advantage insurers increasingly refused to pay for rehabilitative care for seniors in the years after adopting sophisticated technologies to aid in their coverage decisions, a Senate investigation found. UnitedHealth Group, Humana, and CVS Health targeted denials among older adults who were requesting care in nursing homes, inpatient rehab hospitals, and long-term hospitals.

article thumbnail

Best Practices to Streamline Compensation Management: A Foundation for Growth

Speaker: Joe Sharpe and James Carlson

Payroll optimization can be one of the most time-consuming and complex factors of small business management. Yet, organizations that crack the code on streamlining employee compensation often discover innovative avenues for growth. With the right strategies in place, outsourcing and streamlining payroll processes can result in substantial time and resource savings.

article thumbnail

In children, Covid is tied to higher risk of type 2 diabetes 

STAT

It may be time to add Covid-19 infection to the list of possible risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes at a young age.  An observational study published Monday in JAMA Network Open found that children and adolescents were one-and-a-half times more likely to be diagnosed with the metabolic disorder in the months after having Covid-19 compared to similar kids who weathered other respiratory infections.

Diabetes 363
article thumbnail

130,000 U.S. cancer cases went undiagnosed in Covid pandemic, study finds

STAT

When the U.S. health care system pivoted to meet Covid-19 in 2020, routine health visits and screenings where many cancer cases would have been caught didn’t happen. It wasn’t ideal, but many health experts thought that as the country opened back up, screenings would help “catch up” to these missed cases. A new paper published Monday in JAMA Network Open suggests that didn’t happen as quickly as experts had hoped.

363
363
article thumbnail

STAT+: 7 children developed blood cancer after Bluebird Bio gene therapy for rare neurological disease

STAT

Newly published data show that seven out of 67 children who received Bluebird Bio’s gene therapy for a devastating neurological disorder in clinical trials have since gone on to develop blood cancers.  That means four additional patients have developed blood cancers since June 2022, when concerns about three cancer cases prompted the Food and Drug Administration to hold a hearing of outside advisers before approving the treatment, marketed as Skysona.

Hospitals 363
article thumbnail

Sammy Basso, progeria advocate, has died at 28

STAT

We generally don’t think of rare-disease advocacy as funny. But of the many qualities apparent to anyone who met Sammy Basso, a biologist and spokesperson for the progeria patient community, who died suddenly on Saturday at 28, perhaps the most disarming was his ability to find laughter in almost anything. One April Fool’s Day, he posted a video about his doctors putting him on a diet — an absurdity for someone whose genetic disorder prevented him from gaining weight.

364
364
article thumbnail

Enhance Healthcare Efficiency With Top Payroll & HCM Services

Running a healthcare facility requires precision and care, not just for patients but also for your staff. Our guide, "A Buyer’s Guide to Payroll & HCM Services," helps healthcare providers choose the best provider. Efficient payroll management ensures timely, accurate payments, critical for maintaining staff morale and trust. Compliance support helps navigate complex healthcare regulations and avoid costly fines.

article thumbnail

Men won all the science Nobels this year. There’s an even bigger problem.

STAT

Since the Nobel Prizes were created in 1901, just 24 women have received awards in the sciences. This year, that number stayed the same: All seven laureates in physics , chemistry , and physiology or medicine were men.  Some scientists have expressed frustration about the lack of women in this year’s awardees, particularly the omission of two women who contributed to the work honored for the prize in physiology or medicine.

362
362
article thumbnail

Rwanda to receive experimental vaccines, therapeutics to combat Marburg outbreak

STAT

Experimental vaccines and therapeutics to combat the deadly Marburg virus will begin arriving this weekend in Rwanda, where they will be used in clinical trials expected to begin soon, a U.S. government official confirmed on Friday. There are currently no licensed vaccines or drugs to prevent or treat Marburg, a cousin of the Ebola family of viruses that transmits and causes illness in the same way as Ebola.

Vaccines 363
article thumbnail

STAT+: A pariah in science, the ‘CRISPR babies’ researcher gains support from a U.S. cryptocurrency entrepreneur

STAT

On June 17, He Jiankui received an email that wasted no time getting to the point: An American cryptocurrency entrepreneur had learned about the Chinese scientist’s recent proposal to use CRISPR gene-editing technology on human embryos to lower their future risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and he was offering funding and other help to turn those plans into a new commercial venture. He rose to international infamy in 2018, when it came to light that he

363
363