In December 2003, Abbott Labs raised the price of its Norvir AIDS drug, which is commonly used in HIV drug cocktails, by 400 percent, creating a firestorm in the AIDS community. The mark-up prompted the Service Employees International Union Health & Welfare Fund to file a class-action lawsuit the next year that alleges the price [...]

Access to some HIV drugs is increasing in Thailand because of the country’s decision to issue compulsory licenses for certain meds, according to Winai Sawasdiworn, deputy secretary-general of the National Health Security Office, The Bangkok Post reports.
You may recall that, early last year, the Thai government issued a compulsory license to make a lower-cost version [...]

Vytorin may be grabbing all the headlines, but the controversial cholesterol pill isn’t gaining as much attention among docs. Over the past several weeks, Abbott’s Simcor, a new drug that combines Niaspan and generic Zocor, has gained the highest share of detailing among primary care physicians and cardiologists, according to ImpactRx data cited by Wachovia [...]

File this under ‘Say Uncle.’ A dozen drug and device makers have told Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican, that they have plans or are working on plans to publicly disclose grants to outside groups, and the details will be provided on each company’s Web sites, the Associated Press reports. In particular, Grassley is interested in [...]

C is for contraction. C is also for convulsion. Both describe what pharma is experiencing these days. And the number of jobs being cut makes it all too clear. The trend - whether one calls it layoffs, restructuring, downsizing or reorganization - was under way a few years ago, of course, when Merck began eliminating [...]

In December 2003, Abbott Labs raised the price of its Norvir AIDS drug, which is commonly used in HIV drug cocktails, by 400 percent, creating a firestorm in the AIDS community. The mark-up prompted the Service Employees International Union Health & Welfare Fund to file a class-action lawsuit the next year that alleges the price [...]

Not bad, eh? The stock rose about 15 percent last year, so perhaps shareholders may shrug this off. Still, that does seem a bit steep, does it not? In any event, the Abbott ceo received compensation valued at nearly $29 million last year, including a salary of $1.7 million and non-equity incentives worth $4 million, [...]

The drugmaker was accused in an antitrust lawsuit by 18 states of trying to keep a generic version of its TriCor cholesterol med from becoming available. The states allege in federal court in Wilmington that Abbott, Fournier Industrie et Sante and Laboratories Fournier continuously made minor changes in the TriCor formulation to block cheaper generics. [...]

Japan’s biggest drug maker plans to spend some $5 billion to buy out Abbott Labs’ share in TAP Pharmaceuticals, a 50-50 joint venture in the US, according to Reuters, which cites an unidentified source. The deal, which would strengthen Takeda’s US sales operations, would be the biggest overseas acquisition by a Japanese drugmaker and follow [...]

Big drugmakers are ponying up over the AWP, or average wholesale price scandal, according to a statement by attorneys who filed the case. For those unfamiliar, the stated AWP is used to set the price paid by consumers making Medicare Part B co-payments, as well as Medicare, insurers and other third-party payors that shell out [...]