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Pfizer (PFE) has laid off 26,300 employees since 2005, and hopes eventually to lay off a total of 30,900 through 2012, according to its 10-Q filing with the SEC. The company had several rounds of layoffs before its acquisition of Wyeth in an attempt to get $6 billion in annual savings out of its business model. The company has said it wants to ax about 19,500 jobs to make the Wyeth merger work. The new company will have about 130,000 workers. The layoffs are ongoing, Pfizer said: In the third quarter of 2009, we reduced our workforce by approximately 1,100...

A pro-life organization is blasting a Switzerland-based cosmetics manufacturer whose website openly admits some of its products were developed from the tissues of an aborted baby. Children of God for Life is a non-profit organization focused on the bioethics of embryonic tissue use in medicine and manufacturing. One of its current campaigns includes petitioning pharmaceutical companies to produce safe, effective alternatives to vaccines derived or cultivated from aborted fetal tissue.

Julie Gibbons takes a measurement in the lab at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland's School of Pharmacy in Baltimore. The college is one of four U.S. colleges opening new pharmacy schools this fall semester at a time when the nation has a shortage of pharmacists. (CNS/Bob Roller) By Chaz MuthCatholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With a projected national shortage of pharmacists, two U.S. Catholic colleges just inaugurated new pharmacy schools to help fill the gap in meeting the country's pharmaceutical needs. Seventy students at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore began their first...

Progressives Turn on Obama as Air America Exposes ‘Fascist’ Drug Deal Charming Liar’: Progressives Turn on Obama as Air America Exposes ‘Fascist’ Drug Deal http://www.breitbart.tv/charming-liar-progressives-turn-on-obama-as-air-america-exposes-fascist-drug-deal/

Drug Companies Resist White House Call to Reduce Rights to Exclusive Drug DataFOXNews.com Thursday, August 13, 2009 Drug companies that had agreed to support the Obama administration on health care reforms have found themselves once more at odds with the president, this time on exclusive rights to produce drugs that treat illnesses like arthritis, cancer and multiple sclerosis. **SNIP** The debate has rattled a deal that had been made between the White House and the drug companies to get the pharmaceutical industry on board with health care reform. In that deal, PhRMA agreed to cut its expected costs for drugs...

Here's the link. In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: "Commitment of up to $80 billion.. The health care lobbyist said that what deal still exists is uncertain, as a result of House pressure. "Now the White House is backing away from it, as you know, because of pressure from the House, because the House was not a party to the deal," he said. "The Speaker put enormous pressure on the White House, [saying], 'We weren't a...

I did everything I could—including risking life in prison. Back in the 1980s-1990s, the Life Extension Foundation® crusaded to enlighten Americans about the economic ruination that would occur if this country’s corrupt drug regulatory structure was not abolished. At the behest of pharmaceutical interests, the FDA brutally retaliated against us. What I am about to divulge is a shocking revelation about why prescription drugs cost so much. I want to remind readers what happens when an apathetic public allows archaic government regulations to rule the marketplace. In the 1940s, Argentina was the ninth wealthiest country in the world. At one...

A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week. The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return. It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada -- and also agreed...

As a political strategist, Big Pharma lobbyist Billy Tauzin is starting to look less like Dr. Faustus and more like Jack, trading away his industry for magic beans. Last week Mr. Tauzin ostentatiously blabbed to the media that his industry's deal to help fund ObamaCare with $80 billion in prescription-drug discounts was really protection money. In particular, he bragged that he had secured promises from the White House that President Obama would fend off Congressional Democrats who want to "negotiate" drug prices, which in practice means price controls. For days, the White House continued to confirm Mr. Tauzin's understanding: "We...

Government health officials in the Czech Republic have refused to buy H1N1 flu vaccines from US pharmaceutical firm Baxter International, citing safety concerns. According to a report by the Czech News Agency CTK, one of the largest English language news outlets in the country, the Czech Health Ministry has halted talks with Baxter citing “the firm’s inability to guarantee that the vaccine is safe and who will bear the risks for possible side-effects.” The country plans to buy vaccines to cover 25 percent of its population of ten million, but has said it will not buy swine flu vaccine from...

NEW DELHI: China has admitted that its pharmaceutical companies were involved in shipping fake drugs labeled 'Made In India' to Nigeria. "The Chinese authorities have accepted this position (that its firms were involved in the case)," an official said. "The Indian government took up the matter with the Nigerian authorities and on further probe, it was found that the drugs had actually originated in China and not in India," he added. In June, Nigeria's drug regulatory authority National Agency for Food and Drug Administration And Control (NAFDAC) had reported about the detention of a large consignment of fake anti-malarial generic...

The LATimes is once again trying to sell another Obama healthcare fairy tale to an unsuspecting public. This time, ABC is reporting that Obama has “given a seat at the table” of the healthcare debate to former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin who now represents some powerful drug companies. The Times is reporting this as if it is meaningful news. Unfortunately for all concerned it is not. For the Times, Tom Hamburger starts off mentioning how Obama lambasted Tauzin and his lobbying interests during the recent presidential campaign but that he’s done an about face by inviting Tauzin to the White...

WASHINGTON — The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday. The unusually large scale of the industry’s commitment to the cause helps explain some of a contentious back-and-forth playing out in recent days between the odd-couple allies over a deal that the White House struck with the industry in June to secure its support. The terms of the deal were not fully disclosed. Both sides had announced that the drug industry would...

The news from Barbara Wagner's doctor was bad, but the rejection letter from her insurance company was crushing. The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to pay. What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50. "It was horrible," Wagner told ABCNews.com. "I got a letter in the mail that basically said if you want...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail his chief domestic priority. The White House and allies in Congress are well aware of the effort by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a somewhat surprising political alliance, given the industry's recent history of siding with Republicans and the Democrats' disdain for special interests. The campaign, now in its early stages, includes television advertising under PhRMA's own name and commercials aired in conjunction with...

Big Pharma and probably Big Insurance have probably kicked in with the Democrats in DCWhile this initially may appear to be a good business move on their part, the boards of these companies may not CLEARLY realize that their owners are the productive class.It's time to sell every stock and mutual fund that hold these stocks. The board must hear from the "owners".They think $80bil was affordable...an $80bil that would come out of the consumers pocket. However, I wonder how affordable their decision will seem in the light of their stock price dropping 50%...or 60...or 75%?

The nation's drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail his chief domestic priority.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail Obama's top domestic priority.

Barack Obama declared a big victory in his attempt to nationalize the health-care industry when he got the backing of the pharmaceutical industry, along with their pledge to reduce $80 billion in costs over the first decade of the plan. Now, however, the question of what the industry received in return has arisen now that the House version includes price negotiation on Medicare-funded prescription medications. The New York Times reported yesterday that the industry’s lobbyists have begun to cry foul as the administration apparently reneged on an agreement the White House wanted kept quiet: Drug industry lobbyists reacted with alarm...

WASHINGTON — Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion. Drug industry lobbyists reacted with alarm this week to a House health care overhaul measure that would allow the government to negotiate drug prices and demand additional rebates from drug manufacturers. In response, the industry successfully demanded that the White House explicitly acknowledge for the first time that it had committed to protect drug makers from bearing further costs in the overhaul....

The holiday home of Novartis chairman and CEO Daniel Vasella has been badly damaged by fire, a week after his mother's grave was desecrated by animal rights militants. Although police do not know who or what caused the fire early on Monday morning in the Tyrol, there is speculation that it is the work of the same group that took the urn of Vasella's mother on July 27. Her gravestone was defiled with a message saying the Basel pharmaceutical company must sever its ties with Britain's Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the largest contract animal-testing company in Europe. The recent attacks...

BERN, Switzerland – Drug maker Novartis AG said Tuesday that animal rights activists have stolen the ashes of its CEO's mother and set fire to his Austrian hunting lodge. Swiss authorities, however, said they didn't know who was behind the attacks. In the latest incident, CEO Daniel Vasella's Tyrollean lodge in Bach, Austria, was badly burned early Monday morning. "It was arson with a professional fire accelerator," Novartis spokeswoman Isabel Guerra said in Basel.

Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- The world may never know how many thousands of women have been injured, or even killed, by the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug. The best worldwide guess is that 13 women have been killed as a result of the mifepristone abortion pill, but the maker of the drug in Europe is saying 29 women have died. If the information given to the Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) by European abortion drug maker Exelgyn is correct, then twice as many women have died from the abortion drug globally than the pro-life community has thought. Currently, eight women have...

Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder As the anticipated July release date for Baxter's A/H1N1 flu pandemic vaccine approaches, an Austrian investigative journalist is warning the world that the greatest crime in the history of humanity is underway. Jane Burgermeister has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder. She has also prepared an Injunction against forced vaccination which is being filed in America....

WASHINGTON (AP) - One of the principal authors of health care legislation taking shape in the House accused drug companies and other medical providers Wednesday of stealing, and said they are now offering concessions in the hopes the bill that emerges will not demand too much of them. "Everyone knows that people around the table are stealing, but they don't want to turn each other in if they're going to have to pay the full penalty," said Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Asked in an interview on MSNBC what he meant by stealing, the...

FOX News: "Everyone knows that people around the table are stealing, but they don't want to turn each other in if they're going to have to pay the full penalty," said Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Asked in an interview on MSNBC what he meant by stealing, the New York Democrat replied, "I mean stealing." Asked if he were referring to drug companies, he said, "I'm talking about pharmaceuticals, in the sense that they're now coming forward saying that they want to be able to fill that vacuum that's there." FOX News: Rangel Accuses...

If asked to name the creature most similar to humans, most people would likely pick some sort of primate. Very few would think of zebra fish. But as the researchers at InDanio Bioscience can attest, the striped aquarium staple shares many similarities with humans and could hold the key to greatly improved human health. InDanio, a drug-discovery company based in Toronto's MaRS Discovery District, focuses on nuclear receptors, a class of proteins that are related to some of the most devastating and prevalent diseases on the planet, including immune disorders, obesity, diabetes and most cancers. The problem is, the majority...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday welcomed the pharmaceutical industry's agreement to help close a gap in Medicare's drug coverage, calling the pact a step forward in the push for overhaul of the nation's health care system. Obama said that drug companies have pledged to spend $80 billion over the next decade to help reduce the cost of drugs for seniors and pay for a portion of Obama's health care legislation.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama's health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations involving key lawmakers and the White House.

Alexander Pope decried the American Indian’s “untutor’d mind” that “Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.” But Pope never encountered the Indian Health Service, which delivers what it is pleased to call health care to two million American Indians living on reservations in thirty-five states. “Don’t get sick after June” is the standard advice, for by then the money allocated by Congress has mostly run out.

"Without any assurance that intellectual property will be respected and protected, not only drug makers, but other companies as well, will avoid investing in developing new products since they risk having their investments effectively expropriated by the government”

The Pathway For Biosimilars Act introduced by Eschoo (D-Ca), Inslee ( D-Wa) and Barton(R-Tx) will ensure enough time for companies to recoup their cost of research and development before a generic manufacturer could use the innovators research data. By doing so, companies will have an incentive to continue inventing life saving drugs. Join PRA in supporting H.R. 1548.

U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., says he has introduced a bill that would limit when TV and radio advertisements for erectile dysfunction medication can be aired. Moran said he proposed the bill in April after hearing numerous complaints about radio and TV advertisements that offer medication to help with the sexual dysfunction, CNN reported Thursday. "A number of people," Moran said, "have come up, including colleagues, and said I'm fed up. I don't want my 3- or 4-year old grandkid asking me what erectile dysfunction is all about. And I don't blame them." Moran's proposal would have the Federal Communications...

ckerspy index of swine flu and bird flu stocks is up 21% as the market nears its close. The index is being pushed higher by share in Biocryst Pharma (BRCX), which is up 70% on the day, Novavax (NVAX), which is up 68%, and Pure Bioscience (PURE), which is higher by 50%. If the WHO and CDC begin to show less concern about the current virus, most of the stock will lose their gains.

The swine flu outbreak is likely to benefit one of the most prolific and successful venture capital firms in the United States: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Thomson Reuters Private Equity Week reported on Friday. Skip related content Shares of the two public companies in the firm's portfolio of eight Pandemic and Bio Defence companies -- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Novavax -- jumped Friday on news that the swine flu killed a reported 60 people in Mexico and has infected people in the United States. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the virus appears to be susceptible to Roche's flu drug...

The dividend aristocrats index has had five dividend cuts so far this year. Because of the way that the index is rebalanced, the dividend cutters will remain a part of the elite basket of S&P 500 companies which have consistently raised their dividends for over 25 consecutive years. Unless a member of the Dividend Aristocrats index is removed from the S&P 500, it won’t be removed from the elite income index. The five companies, which cut dividends so far in 2009, will most likely be booted out of the index at the annual December reconstitution. Back in February, General Electric...

It's been a dream for a decade: a single daily pill combining aspirin, cholesterol medicine and blood pressure drugs — everything people need to prevent heart attacks and strokes in a cheap, generic form. Skeptics said five medicines rolled into a single pill would mean five times more side effects. Some people would get drugs they don't need, while others would get too little. One-size-fits-all would turn out to fit very few, they warned. Now the first big test of the "polypill" has proved them wrong. The experimental combo pill was as effective as nearly all of its components taken...

March 11, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Don’t Blame Drugs for Health-Care CostsPrescription medicines actually reduce health spending. By Sally C. Pipes In the opening pages of his recently released budget, Pres. Barack Obama describes the rising cost of health care as “one of the big drains on family budgets and on the performance of the economy as a whole.� Later in the budget, he suggests that America spends too much on prescription drugs — implying that drug prices are responsible for our high health-care costs. This is a popular misconception, and it will likely hinder Obama’s plan to revamp the...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a $6.7 million jury award to a musician who lost her arm because of a botched injection of an anti-nausea medication. The court brushed away a plea for limiting lawsuits against drug makers. In a 6-3 decision, the court rejected Wyeth Pharmaceuticals' claim that federal approval of its Phenergan anti-nausea drug should have shielded the company from lawsuits like the one filed by Diana Levine of Vermont.... The decision is the second this term to reject business groups' arguments that federal regulation effectively pre-empts consumer complaints under state law. A Vermont jury agreed with...

Inferior toys, contaminated food supply and now our Pharmaceuticals are at risk. Included in the budget is a provision that would allow the importation of foreign, non-patented, non-FDA approved pharmaceutical drugs. It also has a provision that "supports” not mandates the FDA's new efforts on importing drugs. Imported drugs also create an artificial price control that hinders the drug companies from trying to recoup the research and development costs, leading to few new and quickly approve drugs.

WASHINGTON — Government medical advisers recommended a ban Friday on Darvon, a prescription medicine that’s been used to treat pain for more than 50 years but left a trail of problems such as addiction and suicide. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 14-12 to recommend withdrawing Darvon after a daylong hearing examining its risks and benefits. The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its advisers, but it often does so...

PIERRE — State Attorney General Larry Long announced Thursday that South Dakota has joined with other states and the federal government and reached a $1.4 billion settlement with Eli Lilly and Co., to settle allegations it engaged in an off-label marketing campaign that improperly promoted the anti-psychotic drug, Zyprexa. Eli Lilly will pay the states and the federal government a total of $800 million in damages and penalties to compensate Medicaid and various federal health care programs for harm suffered as a result of this conduct. South Dakota’s total settlement recovery is $1.4 million. Of that amount, South Dakota will...

The board of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) has agreed to terms of a deal to take over Wyeth for $68 billion, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Monday. Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, would acquire Wyeth for a combination of $26 billion in cash as well as loans and stock, the newspaper said, citing people involved in the negotiations. The report said five banks have agreed to lend Pfizer $22.5 billion to finance the deal, making it the first major merger in months that has drawn the support of Wall Street. The acquisition is expected to be announced...

In Britain, a government agency evaluates new medical products for their "cost effectiveness" before citizens can get access to them. The agency has concluded that $45,000 is the most worth paying for products that extend a person's life by one "quality-adjusted" year. (By their calculus, a year combating cancer is worth less than a year in perfect health.) Here in the U.S., President-elect Barack Obama and House Democrats embrace the creation of a similar "comparative effectiveness" entity that will do research on drugs and medical devices. They claim that they don't want this to morph into a British-style agency that...

TRENTON, N.J. -- Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drug company, is laying off up to 800 scientists this year in its latest effort to refocus disappointing research efforts and cut its massive overhead ahead of an anticipated crash in revenue. New York-based Pfizer plans to reduce its global research staff — currently about 10,000 people — by 5 percent to 8 percent this year, company spokeswoman Kristen Neese said Tuesday.--snip--The move comes after the company announced in September that it was narrowing its research focus to six disease areas — Alzheimer’s, cancer, schizophrenia, pain, inflammation and diabetes — and abandoning...

Merck is asking federal regulators to expand the use of its human papillomavirus vaccine to boys and young men.The company has asked the FDA to approve the Gardasil vaccine’s use in males ages 9 to 26 years to prevent genital warts and other lesions, CNBC’s Mike Huckman reported. In 2006, the FDA approved giving the vaccine to girls and women of those ages. We talked with a Merck spokeswoman who pointed to studies showing Gardasil’s effectiveness in young males.But the request will likely renew questions about Gardasil’s cost-effectiveness, especially with a price tag of $360 for a three-dose regimen. In...

President-elect Obama will have to choose: more diversity on the pharmacy's shelves or less at the cash register. He says he wants both, but he's going to get only one or the other--more drugs to fit more biochemical profiles, or lower, more uniform drug prices negotiated by the federal government. He's said to be a strong supporter of "personalized medicine." Good call. One lung cancer drug targets a receptor that predominates in patients of Asian ancestry. White Americans have less tolerance for some antidepressants, antipsychotics and heart-disease drugs. Blacks respond poorly to certain drugs for high blood pressure and hepatitis....

Note: Merck's separate dose for rubella, Meruvax, uses aborted fetal cell lines and taints the entire MMR II vaccine. The separate doses of Attenuvax (measles) and Mumpsvax (mumps) use chick embryo. Without these separate doses for measles and mumps, there will be no moral alternative for parents! See contact information for Merck below. snip Merck Focusing on Combination Vaccine Manufacturer Stops Sales of Monovalents for Measles, Mumps, Rubella By David Mitchell 12/24/2008 Merck & Co. Inc. has stopped production and sales of its monovalent vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella. The manufacturer instead plans to focus on its combination vaccine,...

Washington, DC -- A leading pro-life group that educates about the vaccines that are based on the cells from babies killed in abortions is worried about a new decision from the pharmaceutical giant Merck. The company has decided to stop producing some vaccines that are not made based on fetal cells from abortions.

RUISLIP, England — When Bruce Hardy’s kidney cancer spread to his lung, his doctor recommended an expensive new pill from Pfizer. But Mr. Hardy is British, and the British health authorities refused to buy the medicine. His wife has been distraught. “Everybody should be allowed to have as much life as they can,” Joy Hardy said in the couple’s modest home outside London. If the Hardys lived in the United States or just about any European country other than Britain, Mr. Hardy would most likely get the drug, although he might have to pay part of the cost. A clinical...