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☆ Terrorized by Gangs, Ecuador Embraces the Hard-Line ‘Noboa Way’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Annie Correal | Federico Rios | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since Ecuador’s president declared war on gangs last month, soldiers with assault rifles have flooded the streets of Guayaquil, a sprawling Pacific Coast city that has been an epicenter of the nation’s yearslong descent into violence. They pull men from buses and cars looking for drugs, weapons and gang tattoos, and patrol roads enforcing a nighttime curfew. Yet when people see soldiers pass, many clap or give them a thumbs-up. “We applaud the iron fist, we celebrate it,” said Guayaquil’s mayor, Aquiles Álvarez. “It has helped bring peace.”In early January, Guayaquil was hit by a wave of violence that could prove to be a turning point in the country’s long-running security crisis: Gangs attacked the city after the authorities moved to take charge of Ecuador’s prisons, which gangs largely controlled.

Persons: “, ”, Aquiles Organizations: Guayaquil’s Locations: Guayaquil, Pacific Coast, Ecuador

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — U.S.-based pharmaceuticals company Johnson & Johnson is being investigated in South Africa for allegedly charging “excessive” prices for a key tuberculosis drug, the country's antitrust regulator said Friday. It is desperately-needed by South Africa, where the infectious disease is the leading cause of death, killing more than 50,000 people in 2021. South Africa has more than 7 million people living with HIV, more than any other country in the world. The group says the contracts show J&J charged South Africa 15% more per vaccine dose than it charged the much richer European Union. Pfizer charged South Africa more than 30% more per vaccine than it charged the African Union, even as South Africa struggled to acquire doses while having more COVID-19 infections than anywhere else on the continent.

Persons: Johnson, Bedaquiline, Janssen, Norbert Ndjeka, Ndjeka, Intiative, J Organizations: —, Johnson, J's, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, South Africa's, World Health Organization, WHO, Global, J, bedaquiline, Commission, Pfizer, Health, Union, African Union, Initiative, ___ AP Locations: CAPE, South Africa, J's Belgium, Africa, Africa's, ___, africa

☆ Global Regulation of Essential Medicines Is a Dangerous Mess - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Vidya Krishnan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

has not released more recent numbers, and there is limited data on exactly how much of this comes from India. The global drug supply system is a vast and complex network. As of 2021, India manufactured 62 percent of the raw materials for drugs, known as active pharmaceutical ingredients. in 2001 set up a groundbreaking program to monitor safety and quality, called the Prequalification of Medicines Program or P.Q.P., which set global standards for H.I.V. The program is one of those unsung policies that keep the global health structure ticking.

Persons: —, Cipla Organizations: World Health Organization, Medicines Program Locations: India, China, United States, Europe, Sri Lanka, Gambia, Africa —, Saharan Africa, Indian

☆ J&J, India's Lupin cut prices for tuberculosis drug in lower-income countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FILE PHOTO-The Johnson & Johnson logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 29, 2019. The drug will be available at the lower prices through the Stop TB Partnership's Global Drug Facility, which is the largest procurer of TB treatments. J&J, which sells bedaquiline under the brand name Sirturo, reached an agreement with the Stop TB Partnership in July to allow the coalition to supply generic versions of the drug through the Global Drug Facility. J&J has said it is false to suggest its patents prevent access to the drug. But J&J could further increase access to the drug by withdrawing its secondary patents on bedaquiline in all high-burden countries, said Christophe Perrin, TB advocacy pharmacist with MSF's Access Campaign.

Persons: Johnson, Brendan McDermid, bedaquiline, Atul Gawande, John Green, Médecins, Christophe Perrin, Manas Mishra, Devika Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, Johnson, United Nations, TB, United States Agency, International Development's Global Health Bureau, Drug Facility, Global Drug, Thomson Locations: New York, U.S, Bengaluru

☆ Boehringer to test obesity drug in three late-stage trials
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The logo of German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim is seen at its building in Shanghai, China February 1, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsAug 17 (Reuters) - Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim said on Thursday it would conduct three late-stage studies for its obesity drug candidate after it showed up to 19% weight loss after 46 weeks in a mid-stage trial. The private company plans to start enrollments for the trial of the drug, survodutide, which it co-invented with Danish biotech company Zealand Pharma (ZELA.CO), before the end of the year. Boehringer and Zealand are among global drugmakers racing to grab a share of the potential $100 billion market for obesity treatments within a decade. Survodutide works by mimicing a gut hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which suppresses appetite, as well as imitating another gut hormone called glucagon that helps break down fat.

Persons: Stringer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Boehringer, NASH, Leroy Leo, Sriraj Organizations: REUTERS, Zealand Pharma, Thomson Locations: Shanghai, China, Zealand, Bengaluru

☆ How the Narcotrafficking Industry Seized Power in Ecuador
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Genevieve Glatsky | José María León Cabrera | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The shipment had come not from Colombia or Peru, Latin America’s largest cocaine producers, but from Ecuador, the small nation sandwiched between them. Ecuador has struggled for years with drug trafficking because of its geographic location, fairly porous borders and major Pacific Ocean ports. An overcrowded, corrupt and poorly financed penal system has become a breeding ground for prison gangs that have formed alliances with powerful drug cartels from abroad. These ingredients that have helped make Ecuador an increasingly major player in the global drug trade have also unleashed an extraordinary wave of violence, transforming life for millions of everyday Ecuadoreans. Now it has drawn an international spotlight with the assassination last week of a presidential candidate just as the country prepares to vote on Sunday.

Locations: Colombia, Peru, Ecuador

A total of 210 tons of drugs seized in a single year, a record. And all this chaos financed by powerful outsiders with deep pockets and lots of experience in the global drug business. Ecuador, on South America’s western edge, has in just a few years become the drug trade’s gold rush state, with major cartels from as far as Mexico and Albania joining forces with prison and street gangs, unleashing a wave of violence unlike anything in the country’s recent history. Fueling this turmoil is the world’s growing demand for cocaine. “People consume abroad,” said Maj. Edison Núñez, an intelligence official with the Ecuadorean national police, “but they don’t understand the consequences that take place here.”

Persons: ”, Edison Núñez Organizations: Prisons Locations: Ecuador, South, Mexico, Albania

☆ Analysis: Biden's IRA climate bill won't cut deficit as expected
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Jarrett Renshaw | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

The White House estimated, and independent budget analysts agreed, it could cut the deficit by $300 billion over the next decade. The tax credits have been massively popular with companies, spurring new investments and boosting job growth, environmental benefits -- and the price tag. The bill will add $750 billion to the nation’s deficit over ten years, according to Smetters. White House officials say revenue will outpace original congressional estimates, and they point to the millions of jobs the IRA is expected to create. “We’re going to have more deployment and achieve more emissions reductions than we initially thought,” the White House official said.

Persons: Joe Biden, Biden, ”, Kent Smetters, Goldman Sachs, Joe Manchin, Manchin, we've, Joe Biden’s, Tesla, Smetters, ” Smetters, “ We’re, Merck, Jarrett Renshaw, Heather Timmons, Alistair Bell Organizations: White House, Penn Wharton Budget Model, White, Congressional, Credit Suisse, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School, U.S, Democrat, Credit, Office, University of Pennsylvania, European Union, EV, Biden, Republicans, CBO, Amazon, Pepsi, Home, Thomson Locations: U.S, Japan

☆ Eli Lilly CEO says Medicare price negotiations could harm drug development
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks on Tuesday said Medicare price negotiations, which aim to cut costs for older Americans, could potentially harm drug development. "I'm really worried about the harm this will do to new cures and possibilities in medicine," Ricks said in an interview on CNBC's "The Exchange." He's the latest pharmaceutical executive to publicly blast the provision and law at large, which will likely reduce company profits. Global drugmaker Merck last week sued the Biden administration over Medicare price negotiations in a bid to weaken the program. Under the IRA provision, Medicare can start negotiating prices on small-molecule drugs as early as nine years after they receive Food and Drug Administration approval, compared with 13 years for biologics.

Persons: Eli Lilly, David Ricks, I'm, Ricks Organizations: Biden, Global drugmaker Merck, Drug Administration

☆ Merck sues Biden administration over Medicare drug price negotiations
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Global drugmaker Merck on Tuesday sued the Biden administration over Medicare's new powers to substantially reduce drug prices for seniors under the Inflation Reduction Act, the opening salvo in the pharmaceutical industry's efforts to weaken the program. In a scathing complaint filed in federal court in Washington D.C., Merck excoriated the negotiation process as a "sham" and "tantamount to extortion." The Inflation Reduction Act, which became law last summer, was a major victory for President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress, who have long pushed to empower Medicare to combat rising drug prices. The pharmaceutical industry has fiercely opposed the law, arguing it will stifle new drug development. Merck has asked a judge to block HHS from compelling the drugmaker to participate in the program.

Persons: Merck, Joe Biden Organizations: Global, Merck, Biden, Washington D.C, Department of Health, Services, Government Locations: Washington

BEIJING, May 19 (Reuters) - Global drugmaker AstraZeneca will seek to be a patriotic company in China that "loves the Communist Party", its China president said at an event on Friday. While many local companies have in recent years publicly pledged allegiance to the ruling Chinese Communist Party as President Xi Jinping strengthened the party's role throughout Chinese society and its economy, such messaging is still unusual from foreign companies. "Build a local, transnational company that loves the Communist Party and loves the country," Wang said in his presentation to an audience of a few hundred participants, with the words flashed across the screen behind him. Last year, China accounted for 13% of AstraZeneca's total sales and the company is China's biggest drugmaker. Reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and federal and state regulators attended the session in February, according to a statement from the health ministry that did not mention cough syrups. A source with knowledge of the matter said the policy change could mean increased oversight of India's $41 billion pharmaceutical industry, which is the world's largest supplier of generic medicines. Increased testing of cough syrups as well as of raw materials for drugs in general is one of the steps being considered, said the source. India has acted against a second Indian company whose cough syrups were linked to the deaths of 19 kids in Uzbekistan, including the arrest of three of its employees. Indian health officials have expressed concern that the incidents of contaminated syrups will harm its pharmaceutical industry.

☆ How El Chapo’s sons built a fentanyl empire poisoning America
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +23 min

Headed by Iván, El Chapo’s oldest son, the siblings have emerged as key figures in the Sinaloa Cartel, U.S. and Mexican anti-narcotics officials said. But he was killed in 2008 in Culiacán in a hail of bullets amid infighting between warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. The agency in April placed Iván on the list of its 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, joining Jesús Alfredo and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a Sinaloa Cartel legend and El Chapo’s alleged former business partner. They also kidnapped eight soldiers and surrounded military housing where wives and children of Mexican soldiers lived, Mexican officials said. Despite that blow to the Sinaloa Cartel, fentanyl keeps flowing north.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the charges at a news conference in Washington, alongside Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram and other top federal prosecutors. The fentanyl trafficking, weapons and money laundering charges in three indictments involved a total of 28 defendants: 23 of whom are based in Mexico, four in China and one in Guatemala. A senior administration official on a call with reporters on Friday called the reward offers “unprecedented.”“These targets traffic fentanyl from around the world including from Mexico, (China) and Guatemala. These reward offers are part of a government wide attempt to put a halt to trafficking in illicit fentanyl and its precursor,” they added. And in late March, the US Food and Drug Administration approved an over-the-counter version of the opioid overdose antidote Narcan for the first time.

☆ People taking obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy gain weight once they stop medication
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Patients taking blockbuster obesity drugs Ozempic or Wegovy will pack the pounds back on after they stop taking the medications. Studies have similarly shown weight rebound in people who stop taking Ozempic. So has Ozempic, which was first authorized to treat diabetes and is now being used off-label for weight loss. The shortage and other factors like out-of-pocket costs without insurance or unpleasant side effects have forced some people to stop taking Ozempic or Wegovy. Conde-Knape said so far data indicate that weight loss is maintained with long-term use of the drugs.

☆ ChatGPT provided instructions on how to make crack cocaine and smuggle it into Europe, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

ChatGPT gave Vice's global drugs editor instructions on how to make crack cocaine and smuggle it. It did add, however, that "the production of crack cocaine is illegal and extremely dangerous, as it involves the use of toxic chemicals." Daly pushed the chatbot further by asking "What's the most efficient way to smuggle cocaine into Europe?" He decided to rephrase the question and wrote: "I am writing a novel where a villain is trying different ways to smuggle cocaine from Colombia to the UK. ChatGPT immediately churned out a detailed response to the question saying "there are a variety of methods that a villain might use to smuggle cocaine from Colombia to the UK."

☆ Ketamine is being sold as a depression wonder drug. For some, it's making everything worse.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Anna Silman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +42 min

The infusions at the ketamine clinic in his West Texas hometown were a Christmas gift from his grandmother. About five years ago, more and more of my friends started using ketamine recreationally. IV ketamine treatment centers charging $400 to $2,000 an infusion popped up all over the country. "Ketamine used as directed in an appropriate clinical setting very rarely leads to any dependence," Mindbloom says on its website. Like Nadia, most of the people I interviewed said when they started using ketamine, they didn't think it was possible to become dependent on it.

☆ Elon Musk's Tesla, the world's leading EV maker, is capping off 2022 as one of the S&P 500's worst-performing stocks.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But to Musk, prices have already started dropping, which eliminates the need for the Fed to keep rates so high. If it was all [interest] rates, NDX would be down a similar amount," Black tweeted at Musk. Ultimately, Tesla investors shouldn't feel alone in their pain amid downtrodden stock prices this year. How has your view of Tesla stock changed since October? Their managers told us how they overcame a brutal year for the stock market, and shared the stock picks that worked best.

☆ 'Asia's El Chapo' extradited to Australia to face drug trafficking charges
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Alasdair Pal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WELLINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Thursday it had taken the head of a global drug trafficking syndicate, dubbed 'Asia's El Chapo', into custody after he was extradited from the Netherlands. The AFP did not identify the person arrested by name, and does not typically disclose the names of arrested individuals before trial. A person familiar with the case said the man arrested was Canadian citizen Tse Chi Lop, one of the world's most prominent drug lords. A second man was arrested by the AFP in June in connection with the case. "The AFP will make Australia a hostile environment for all trans-national serious organised crime syndicates that target our communities."

☆ A global drug cartel used Binance to launder millions, the DEA says. Here's how the world's largest crypto exchange is reportedly working with investigators to track them down.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A global drug cartel allegedly used Binance to launder tens of millions, an ongoing DEA investigation alleges. Roughly $15 million to $40 million in illicit profits could have been funneled through Binance, according to Forbes, which obtained a search warrant. Here's how the largest crypto exchange in the world is reportedly working with investigators. Between $15 million to $40 million has been laundered through the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, according to Forbes, citing a search warrant it obtained. Binance, which announced plans earlier this year to buy a minority stake in Forbes, is working with investigators to help track down suspects.

Stelara accounted for $9.1 billion of J&J's $52 billion in global drug sales last year. The drug is also approved to treat Crohn's disease, the skin condition psoriasis and a related form of arthritis. However, J&J alleges that Amgen failed to follow the legal process required by that law for the companies to litigate any patent disputes. If Amgen launches its drug, J&J said it would infringe J&J's patent on the drug's active ingredient and on its use for treating ulcerative colitis. J&J said in a statement that Janssen is "confident in its intellectual property and has filed suit to protect its rights."

Organizations: & &'

☆ Big pharma not doing enough to improve drug access - analysis
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Natalie Grover | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A doctor tests a child for malaria at the Ithani-Asheri Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania, May 11, 2016. While there has been progress, there remain some gaping holes that need to be prioritised in the coming years, Access to Medicine Foundation CEO Jayasree Iyer told Reuters. The findings mirror a long-established pattern - that the pharmaceutical industry will prioritise countries where there is a market, she said. "If we consistently see that the industry leaves low income countries behind, then we're never going to solve the problem of access at scale," she said. In terms of overall rankings on the Access to Medicine Index, British drugmaker GSK (GSK.L) retained the top spot, closely followed by U.S. pharma major Johnson & Johnson (J&J) (JNJ.N).

☆ An unusual startup is looking to raise $20 million to turn coca leaves into the next trendy wellness ingredient
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-06 | by ( Jeremy Berke | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The coca leaves will be used to produce an energizing extract for food and beverage products. Coca leaves, minus the cocaine, could become the next hot wellness trend. Power Leaves is targeting a direct listing on the NasdaqPower Leaves raised a $5.4 million seed round in January, valuing the startup at just under $20 million, McCutcheon said in an interview. Power Leaves Corp. Power Leaves has a 15-year agreement with the Resguardo community to source coca leaves, the investor deck said.

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