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| US: 3 Executives Spared Prison in OxyContin Case
by Barry Meier, The New York Times
July 20th, 2007
After hearing testimony from parents of young adults who died from overdoses involving the painkiller OxyContin, a federal judge Friday sentenced three top executives of the company that makes the narcotic to three years' probation and 400 hours each of community service in drug treatment programs. |
| US: Bristol-Myers to Pay Fine
Agence France Presse
May 31st, 2007
Bristol-Myers Squibb has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $1 million criminal fine for lying to the government about a patent deal on its blood-thinning drug Plavix, officials said Wednesday.
The Justice Department said in a statement that the company’s actions had threatened to reduce competition for the drug, one of the best-selling prescription medications worldwide. |
| THAILAND: Holding Big Pharma's feet to the fire
by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service
May 17th, 2007
For nearly a week, the advertising pages of Thai- and English-language dailies have been the stage for debates on Thailand's decision to break patents on anti-AIDS drugs in the interest of public health. A lobby championing the cause of the powerful pharmaceutical companies ran full-page spreads in the morning newspapers with an eye-catching warning in large, bold text, which said: "The Wrong Prescription for Thailand". |
| US: BP/UC Deal Raises Concerns
by Richard Brenneman, Berkeley Daily Planet
March 2nd, 2007
The proposed agreement between one of the world’s largest oil companies, BP (formerly British Petroleum) and UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois has ignited a firestorm that promises to burn long and hot. |
| US: Corporate Profits Take an Offshore Vacation
by Lucy Komisar, Inter Press Service
February 23rd, 2007
Last week, Merck, the pharmaceutical multinational, announced that it will pay 2.3 billion dollars in back taxes, interest and penalties in one of the largest settlements for tax evasion the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has ever imposed. |
| SOUTH AFRICA: MCC stalls new Aids drugs
by Belinda Beresford, Mail & Guardian Online
February 3rd, 2007
South Africans have been denied the “biggest advance” in antiretroviral therapy over the last few years because of a lack of urgency in the drug registration process in South Africa, according to the Treatment Action Campaign. |
| ASIA: Asian Govts Push Generic Drugs
by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service
December 18th, 2006
In moves that are winning them praise, two South-east Asian governments -- in Thailand and the Philippines -- appear determined to push ahead with plans to provide cheaper generic drugs even if they incur the wrath of pharmaceutical giants. |
| US: Pfizer Drug Dealt Blow in Testing
by Alex Berenson, The New York Times
November 1st, 2006
Pfizer said yesterday that clinical trials of torcetrapib — a heart medication that is the most important drug in the company’s pipeline — confirmed that it raises blood pressure, a potentially serious side effect. |
| THAILAND: Patent or patient? How Washington uses trade deals to protect drugs
by Alan Beattie, Andrew Jack and Amy Kazmin, The Financial Times
August 22nd, 2006
As the World Health Organisation's top man in Thailand, William Aldis knew Thai officials were hosting their US counterparts in the northern city of Chiang Mai to negotiate what to many outsiders might seem an entirely worthy objective: a bilateral free-trade deal. But he saw dangers - and decided to make his views public. |
| US: Drug Companies Face Inquiry for Drug Patent
by Stephanie Saul, The New York Times
July 27th, 2006
Two big drug companies that market the best-selling drug Plavix — Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb — had been looking for good news this week: an all-clear from the federal government and several states to settle a patent dispute.
Instead, they got a notice that the proposed settlement is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice. |
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