DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ AstraZeneca Is Withdrawing Its Covid Vaccine Worldwide, Citing Low Demand
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Rebecca Robbins | More About Rebecca Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

AstraZeneca has started to pull its Covid-19 vaccine from global markets because of low demand, the pharmaceutical giant said. The move was not related to any concerns about the shot’s side effects, the company said. Since the vaccine was approved in Britain in December 2020, over three billion doses have been supplied globally. The company said that it had decided to voluntarily withdraw all licenses to market its Covid vaccine. In March, AstraZeneca requested that the vaccine be withdrawn from most European countries.

Organizations: AstraZeneca, Oxford University, European Commission Locations: Britain

☆ Under Armour’s Founder Will Return as C.E.O.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Rebecca Robbins | More About Rebecca Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Under Armour, the sports apparel company, said on Wednesday that its founder, Kevin Plank, would return as chief executive, in a leadership shake-up that will seek to revitalize the struggling brand. Mr. Plank, who founded Under Armour in 1996, had remained the company’s executive chair and controlling shareholder after exiting as chief executive at the end of 2019. He will take over on April 1 from Stephanie Linnartz, who led the company for just over a year. With sales slumping, the company’s stock has fallen by about 85 percent since reaching a record high in 2015. It rose slightly in after-hours trading after the news that Mr. Plank would be returning to lead the company after four years away from the job.

Persons: Armour, Kevin Plank, Plank, Stephanie Linnartz, Linnartz, Patrik Frisk, ” Organizations: Nike, LinkedIn

☆ Biogen Abandons Its Controversial Alzheimer’s Drug Aduhelm
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Rebecca Robbins | More About Rebecca Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The drug maker Biogen said on Wednesday it would abandon its ownership rights to Aduhelm, an Alzheimer’s drug that had provoked fierce criticism of the company and regulators after it was approved based on weak evidence that it would help patients. The company will also stop a clinical trial that the Food and Drug Administration had ordered to confirm whether the drug is effective in slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Biogen’s decision closes out a yearslong saga that generated outrage and eroded trust in the regulatory process for bringing new medicines to market. adviser called the approval of the drug perhaps “the worst approval decision that the F.D.A. has made that I can remember.” A congressional inquiry later found that the F.D.A.’s process for approving Aduhelm was “rife with irregularities” and involved “lapses in protocol,” including unusually close collaboration with Biogen.

Persons: Biogen, Aduhelm Organizations: and Drug Administration

Here are six reasons drugs in the United States cost so much:1. In the United States, negotiations with drug makers are split among tens of thousands of health plans, resulting in far less bargaining muscle for the buyers. Other nations also conduct careful analyses of how much additional benefit a new drug presents over drugs already on the market — and at what cost. If the cost is too high and the benefit too small, those countries are more willing to say no to a new drug. Health policy analysts say that is a start, but much broader negotiating authority is needed to make a dent in drug prices overall.

Persons: ”, Stacie Dusetzina Organizations: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Pharmaceutical, Industry Locations: United States

☆ Common Patenting Tactic by Drug Companies May Be Illegal, F.T.C. Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Rebecca Robbins | More About Rebecca Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday issued what amounted to a warning to pharmaceutical companies about the legality of a widespread patenting strategy that experts say has helped keep inhaler costs high for patients with asthma and lung problems. In a policy statement unanimously endorsed by the agency’s commissioners, the F.T.C. said it “intends to scrutinize” whether companies are illegally engaging in an unfair method of competition when they exploit a regulatory loophole that can delay rivals from entering the market. The policy statement did not single out any particular products. “This seems to be a real problem, and one that could really be contributing to unaffordable medicines and drug products,” Lina Khan, the F.T.C.

Persons: “, ” Lina Khan Organizations: Federal Trade Commission

☆ Kroger Agrees to Pay $1.2 Billion to Settle Opioid Claims
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Rebecca Robbins | More About Rebecca Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Background: Pharmacy chains have been settling opioid claims. Three large pharmacy chains that compete with Kroger — Walgreens, CVS Health and Walmart — reached similar settlements last year totaling about $13 billion. The claims against Kroger and its competitors have focused on the role of their pharmacies in flooding communities with legal painkillers. Why It Matters: Opioid settlement money is funding recovery efforts. Kroger said on Friday that the opioid settlement agreement would not impede the merger.

Persons: Kroger, Walmart —, overprescribing, Josh Stein, ”, Harris, Jan Hoffman Organizations: Kroger, Walgreens, CVS Health, Walmart, Rite, Albertsons Locations: Washington State, West Virginia, North Carolina

The medications on the list are taken by millions of older Americans and cost Medicare billions of dollars annually. The drugs were selected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services through a process that prioritized medications that account for the highest Medicare spending, have been on the market for years and do not yet face competition from rivals. Drugs Selected for Price Negotiations1. Eliquis, for preventing strokes and blood clots, from Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer2. Xarelto, for preventing strokes and blood clots, from Johnson & Johnson4.

Persons: Biden, Price, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Johnson Organizations: Tuesday, Medicare, Centers, Services, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Johnson, Merck, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Novo Nordisk Locations: AbbVie, Novo

☆ Opioid Maker’s Bankruptcy Plan Would Cut Payments to Victims by $1 Billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Rebecca Robbins | More About Rebecca Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A major opioid manufacturer that had promised to pay $1.7 billion as compensation over its role in the opioid crisis disclosed on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with its creditors to reduce the settlement payments by $1 billion. The funds had been earmarked for addiction victims to rebuild their lives and for governments to pay for priorities like drugs to reverse opioid overdoses. In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, Mallinckrodt disclosed that it had reached a plan to file for bankruptcy for the second time in three years. The plan to cancel a majority of the outstanding payments was devised with backing from hedge funds that would control the company under a second bankruptcy. The funds had lent money to Mallinckrodt and were in a position to force the company to prioritize paying back its lenders over compensating victims.

Persons: Mallinckrodt Organizations: Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals

The legal push comes just weeks before the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is scheduled to publish a long-awaited list of the first 10 drugs that will be subject to negotiations. Earlier this month, the chamber asked a federal judge in Ohio to issue an injunction that would block any negotiations while its case is being heard. Lawrence O. Gostin, an expert in public health law at Georgetown University, said the Supreme Court might be sympathetic to some of the industry’s arguments. The president and Democrats have long campaigned on reducing drug prices and plan to make it a central theme of their 2024 campaigns. The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in a statement that Mr. Biden was confident the administration would win in court.

Persons: Lawrence O, “, Mr, Gostin, Biden, Karine Jean, Pierre Organizations: Medicare, Medicaid Services, Georgetown University, Supreme, White Locations: Ohio

The promising drug, then in the early stages of testing, was an updated version of tenofovir. The “patent extension strategy,” as the Gilead documents repeatedly called it, would allow the company to keep prices high for its tenofovir-based drugs. Gilead could switch patients to its new drug just before cheap generics hit the market. By putting tenofovir on a path to remain a moneymaking juggernaut for decades, the strategy was potentially worth billions of dollars. The delayed release of the new treatment is now the subject of state and federal lawsuits in which some 26,000 patients who took Gilead’s older H.I.V.

Persons: Gilead

Search resuls for: "More About Rebecca Robbins"

10 mentions found