The Amgen ceo confronted an often testy group of shareholders Wednesday, his first annual meeting with investors since the biotech entered a prolonged crisis. “Last year was awful. I deeply, deeply regret that,” a calm and confident Sharer told the crowd of several hundred during an hourlong presentation at the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake [...]

What is former research scientist Gal Hever doing with those big spoons? The 35-year-old opened an ice cream parlor after being laid off by Amgen, which is in the process of shedding 2,600 jobs to cope with its crisis. His plight reflects the problems that will be picked over at Amgen’s annual meeting today. As [...]

And so the time has come once again to put aside the workload and break for a little dinner. We hope your day went well and you accomplished what you set out to do. As for us, we have a little errand to run for Mrs. Pharmalot. A bit of a surprise, in fact. So [...]

That’s according to the latest ranking by Forbes magazine, which scrutinized performance versus pay for 175 ceo’s. Kevin came in at…drum roll…No. 169 thanks to his many accomplishments - Amgen stock dropped, on average, 4 percent each year while he earned $12.3 million, on average, annually. Click here to watch ABC News single him out.
Simply [...]

Drug and device makers shouldn’t be allowed to offer freebies - including meals, gifts, travel and ghost-writing helps - to docs, staffers and students in any or all 129 of the nation’s medical colleges, according to a new report from the Association of American Medical Colleges, which spents two years on the project.
“Over recent decades, [...]

And so the week is quickly drawing to a close. Still, today is another day - a meeting or deadline may loom somewhere. So here are a few items to help you keep up with the world at large. As for us, we will take a quick break to feed the Pharmalot mascot and grab [...]

The line is growing ever longer. First, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Finance Committee opened investigations into the controversial Vytorin trial, known as Enhance. Then, the New York and Connecticut Attorneys General begin their own probes into the handling of study data and the marketing of the expensive cholesterol med. Earlier [...]

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 [...]

Scrambling to generate needed revenue, Roche has filed an appeal of a preliminary court injunction that bars US sales of its Mircera anemia med. The move comes as US District Court Judge William Young considers whether to require Amgen to license its patents to its Aranesp and Epogen drugs in return for a licensing fee. [...]

Jim “Buddy” Caldwell, the state’s new attorney general, withdrew the multi-million-dollar antitrust lawsuit against the biotech, which his predecessor filed on his final day in office last January, the Associated Press reports.
Last Friday, however, a notice filed in US District Court said the new AG dismissed the case “without prejudice.” Allen Usry, a private lawyer [...]