Pharmalot… Pharmalittle… The Weekend Nears
5 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // January 29th, 2010 // 7:31 am
And so another week draws to a close. We hope you survived. What will you do this weekend? Errands? Taxes? How about something relaxing? While you contemplate, another day beckons, so here are a few items to help you get by. Whatever you do this weekend, we hope you have time for something refreshing. Enjoy, everyone, and see you next week…
Novartis Warns Countries Over Cancelled Vaccine Orders (AFP)
Merck Helicopter Pad Site Approved (nj.com)
Judge Rules Drugmakers Overcharged New York (Bloomberg News)
Alberta, Canada To Save Millions On Generics (Edmonton Journal)
Mississippi Senate Panel OKs Rx For Cold Meds (Associated Press)
photo thx to tipiro on Flickr creative commons
Condor
Okay — I couldn’t resist, overnight — I riffed on “Apolypse Now“, a Mel Brooks scene, Sikorsky’s offerings and VW’s (circa 1970s), in my graphics, links and text, to make fun of “New” Merck’s newest helipad, mentioned above. [Great digging, Ed!]
It will be at the legacy Schering-Plough world headquarters, in Kenilworth — and will be reserved, according to Merck’s own zoning board testimony, “exclusively for use by top executives and board members.” Barf.
Meanwhile, 16,000 more drive home (for the last time, perhas), crawling through the GSP traffic. . . smells like “victory“, no?
Namaste
Condor
Dag — missed a “ca” in Apocalypse, above.
Going too fast — blew the joke.
Namaste
Anonymous Patient
Novartis Swine Flu -
Vasella says this:
“If you want an effective vaccine industry you have to be consequent, because the next time that there will be a pandemic — and there will be another one — the governments who have been reliable partners will be treated preferentially,” he added.
No doubt there will be another one Dan, it will come from the same place the last one came from - your company!
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/112398
Novartis applied for a patent on a ‘Split Influenza Vaccine with Adjuvants’ on November 4, 2005. The U.S. patent office granted the patent to Novartis on February 19, 2009. Think about it. Why would Novartis apply for a patent for a specialized vaccine for an outbreak that hasn’t happened yet? You wouldn’t, unless you were planning to release — or had previous knowledge of — a specially bioengineered variation of a viral strain to be released.
patrons99
Anonymous, you make an extremely important point. What you allude to would represent an unparalleled crime against humanity. I believe that there are several flu-related biotech patents already in place by various companies. Where is the strict oversight to prevent such a scenario? Even an “accidental” release or a so-called lab “accident” is too horrible to contemplate. Dare we jut put our heads in the sand?
pharmavet
I usually like Vasella, but in this case he is engaing in economic blackmail. My guess is that there was such a rush to get the vaccine out (more like hysteria IMHO) that the government lawyers forgot to build an escape clause into the contracts in case the demand was less than anticipated. In these cases there is usuall a one-time payment, and everyone goes home satisfied.