Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) is a global pharmaceutical company and one of the world's largest corporations. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States. The company was founded in 1876 by a pharmaceutical chemist, Eli Lilly, after whom the company was ultimately named.

read more» Read more...

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is a global American pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886.

Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500. Johnson & Johnson is known for its corporate responsibility and consistently ranks at the top of Harris Interactive's National Corporate Reputation Survey.

The corporation's headquarters is located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States. Its consumer division is located in Skillman, New Jersey. The corporation includes some 230 subsidiary companies with operations in over 57 countries. Its products are sold in over 175 countries.

Johnson & Johnson's brands include numerous household names of medications and first aid supplies. Among its well-known consumer products are the Band-Aid Brand line of bandages, Tylenol medications, Johnson's baby products, Neutrogena skin and beauty products, Clean & Clear facial wash and Acuvue contact lenses.

History

Robert Wood Johnson, inspired by a speech by antisepsis advocate Joseph Lister, joined brothers James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson to create a line of ready-to-use surgical dressings in 1885. The company produced its first products in 1886 and incorporated in 1887.

Robert Wood Johnson served as the first president of the company. He worked to improve sanitation practices in the nineteenth century, and lent his name to a hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Upon his death in 1910, he was succeeded in the presidency by his brother James Wood Johnson until 1932, and then by his son, Robert Wood Johnson II.

Jamie Johnson, great-grandson of the founder, made a documentary called Born Rich about the experience of growing up as the heir to one of the world's greatest fortunes.

Corporate Chairmanship

Robert Wood Johnson I 1887-1910
James Wood Johnson 1910-1932
Robert Wood Johnson II 1932-1963
Philip B. Hofmann 1963-1973
Richard B. Sellars 1973-1976
James E. Burke 1976-1989
Ralph S. Larsen 1989-2002
William C. Weldon 2002-
Landon Wilson

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Johnson & Johnson are: Mary Sue Coleman, James G. Cullen, Robert J. Darretta, Michael M.E. Johns, Ann Dibble Jordan, Arnold G. Langbo, Susan L. Lindquist, Leo F. Mullin, Christine A. Poon, Steven S. Reinemund, David Satcher, and William C. Weldon.

Diversification

Since the 1900s, the company has pursued steady diversification. It added consumer products in the 1920s and created a separate division for surgical products in 1941 which became Ethicon. It expanded into pharmaceuticals with the purchase of McNeil Laboratories, Inc., Cilag, and Janssen Pharmaceutica, and into women's sanitary products and toiletries in the 1970s and 1980s. In recent years, Johnson & Johnson has expanded into such diverse areas as biopharmaceuticals, orthopedic devices, and Internet publishing. Recently, Johnson & Johnson has purchased Pfizer's Consumer Healthcare department. The transition from Pfizer to Johnson and Johnson was completed December 18, 2006.

Johnson & Johnson was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mother.

Along with Gatorade, Johnson & Johnson is one of the founding sponsors of the National Athletic Trainers' Association.

Headquarters

The company has historically been located on the Delaware and Raritan Canal, in New Brunswick. The company considered moving its headquarters out of New Brunswick in the 1960s, but decided to stay in town after city officials promised to gentrify downtown New Brunswick by demolishing old buildings and constructing new ones. While New Brunswick lost at least one historic edifice (the inn where Rutgers University began) to the redevelopment, the gentrification did attract people back to New Brunswick. Johnson & Johnson hired Henry N. Cobb from Pei Cobb Freed & Partners to design an addition to its headquarters, which took the form of a white tower in a park by the railroad tracks.

1982 Chicago Tylenol murders

In 1982, the company faced the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders, in which Extra Strength Tylenol capsules were tampered with by one or more unknown suspects. The product was found to be laced with cyanide, which prompted a national recall. The company's response was widely praised by public relations experts and the media.

Use of the Red Cross symbol

Johnson & Johnson registered the Red Cross as a U.S. trademark for "medicinal and surgical plasters" in 1905, and has used the design since 1887. The Geneva Conventions, which reserved the Red Cross emblem for specific uses, were first approved in 1864 and ratified by the United States in 1882; however, the emblem was not protected in U.S. law for the use of the American Red Cross and the U.S. military until after Johnson & Johnson had obtained its trademark. A clause in this law (now 18 U.S.C. 706) permits pre-existing uses of the Red Cross, such as Johnson & Johnson's, to continue.

A declaration made by the U.S. upon its ratification of the 1949 Geneva Conventions includes a reservation that pre-1905 U.S. domestic uses of the Red Cross, such as Johnson & Johnson's, would remain lawful as long as the cross is not used on "aircraft, vessels, vehicles, buildings or other structures, or upon the ground", uses which could be confused with its military uses. This means that the U.S. did not agree to any interpretation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions that would overrule Johnson & Johnson's trademark. Even as it disputes a recent lawsuit by Johnson & Johnson, the American Red Cross continues to recognize the validity of Johnson & Johnson's trademark.

In August of 2007, Johnson & Johnson filed a lawsuit against the American Red Cross (ARC), demanding that the charity halt the use of the red cross symbol on products it sells to the public, though the company takes no issue with the charity's use of the mark for non-profit purposes. The suit also asks for the destruction of all currently existing non-Johnson & Johnson Red Cross Emblem bearing products and demands the American Red Cross pay punitive damages and Johnson & Johnson's legal fees. Since 2004, the Red Cross has worked with several licensing partners to market first aid, preparedness and related products that bear the Red Cross emblem. All money the Red Cross receives from the sale of these products to consumers is reinvested in its humanitarian programs and services. "For a multi-billion dollar drug company to claim that the Red Cross violated a criminal statute that was created to protect the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross - simply so that J&J can make more money - is obscene," said Mark Everson, the chief executive of the charity.

Johnson & Johnson has replied that it "has great respect for the relief work of ARC and over the decades has consistently supported the organization through cash donations, product donations and employee volunteering. ... After more than a century of strong cooperation in the use of the Red Cross trademark, with both organizations respecting the legal boundaries for each others' unique legal rights, we were very disappointed to find that the American Red Cross started a campaign to license the trademark ... For the past several months, Johnson & Johnson has attempted to resolve this issue through cooperation and discussion with the ARC, and recently offered mediation, to no avail."

Subsidiary holdings

Johnson & Johnson is a highly diversified company with at least 230 subsidiaries, which it refers to as the "Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies". Some of these subsidiaries include:
ALZA Corporation
Animas Corporation
BabyCenter, L.L.C.
Biosense Webster, Inc.
Centocor, Inc.
Cilag
Codman & Shurtleff, Inc.
Cordis Corporation
DePuy, Inc.
Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.
Ethicon, Inc.
Gynecare
Independence Technology, LLC
Janssen Pharmaceutica
Janssen Pharmaceutica Products, L.P.
Johnson & Johnson, Group of Consumer Companies, Inc.
Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.
Johnson & Johnson - Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co.
Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C.
LifeScan, Inc.
McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals
McNeil Nutritionals
Noramco, Inc.
Ortho Biotech Products, L.P.
Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. OCD
Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical
Ortho-Neutrogena (a merge of Neutrogena and Ortho Dermatological)
Personal Products Company
Penaten
Pfizer Consumer
Pharmaceutical Sourcing Group Americas (PSGA)
Pharmaceutical Group Strategic Marketing (PGSM)
Peninsula Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Scios Inc.
Tasmanian Alkaloids
Therakos, Inc.
Tibotec
Transform Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Veridex, LLC
Vistakon

Source : www.wikipedia.org

read more» Read more...

Novartis

Novartis International AG (NYSE: NVS) is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland that manufactures drugs such as diclofenac (Voltaren), carbamazepine (Tegretol), valsartan (Diovan), imatinib mesylate (Gleevec / Glivec), cyclosporin A (Neoral / Sandimmun), letrozole (Femara), methylphenidate hydrochloride (Ritalin), terbinafine (Lamisil), etc. Novartis owns Sandoz, a large manufacturer of generic drugs.

The company formerly owned the Gerber Products Company, a major infant and baby products producer, but announced in April 2007 it was selling Gerber to Nestlé. Legal responsibility for Gerber was transferred from Novartis to Nestlé on 1 September 2007.

History

Novartis was created in 1996 from the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz Laboratories, both Swiss companies with long histories. At the time it was said to be the largest corporate merger in history. Ciba-Geigy was formed in 1970 by the merger of J. R. Geigy (founded in Basel in 1758) and Ciba (founded in Basel in 1859). Considering the histories of the merger partners, the company's history spans almost 250 years.

Ciba-Geigy

Johann Rudolf Geigy-Gemuseus (1733 – 1793) began trading in 1758 in "materials, chemicals, dyes and drugs of all kinds" in Basel, Switzerland. Johann Rudolf Geigy-Merian (1830 – 1917) and Johann Muller-Pack acquire a site in Basel in 1857, where they build a dyewood mill and a dye extraction plant. Two years later, they begin the production of synthetic fuchsine. In 1901 Geigy is transformed into a public limited company and in 1914, the name of the company is changed to J.R. Geigy Ltd.

In 1859 Alexander Clavel (1805 – 1873) takes up the production of fuchsine in his factory for silk dyeing works in Basel. In 1864, a new site for the production of synthetic dyes is constructed, and in 1873, Clavel sells his dye factory to the new company Bindschedler & Busch. In 1884 Bindschedler & Busch is transformed into a joint-stock company with the name "Gesellschaft für Chemische Industrie Basel" (Company for Chemical Industry Basel). The abbreviation CIBA becomes so widespread that it was adopted as the company's name in 1945.
In 1925 J.R. Geigy Ltd. starts producing textile auxiliaries, an activity which Ciba takes up in 1928.

Ciba and Geigy merged in 1971 to form Ciba‑Geigy Ltd., and this company merged with Sandoz in 1996 to form Novartis.

Sandoz

Sandoz is perhaps best known for synthesizing LSD in 1938. This was later marketed under the trade name Delysid as a psychiatric treatment from 1947 through the early 1960s. The Chemiefirma Kern & Sandoz ("Kern & Sandoz Chemistry Firm") was founded in 1886 by Dr. Alfred Kern (1850-1893) and Edouard Sandoz (1853-1928). The first dyes manufactured there were alizarine blue and auramine. After Kern's death, the partnership was changed to the corporation Chemische Fabrik vormals Sandoz in 1895. The company began producing the fever-reducing drug antipyrin in the same year.

Between the World Wars, Gynergen (1921) and Calcium-Sandoz (1929) were brought to market. Sandoz also produced chemicals for textiles, paper, and leather beginning in 1929. In 1939, they began producing agricultural chemicals.

From 1899, the sugar substitute saccharin was produced. Prior to the merger of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy to form Novartis in 1996, Sandoz also engaged in drug development. Pharmaceutical research began in 1917 under Professor Arthur Stoll (1887-1971). In 2005, Sandoz expanded significantly though the acquisition of Hexal, one of Germany’s leading generics company, and Eon Labs, a fast-growing U.S. generic pharmaceutical company.

The psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) were discovered at the Sandoz laboratories in 1943 by Albert Hofmann. Sandoz began clinical trials, and marketed the drug under the name Delysid as a psychiatric drug thought useful for treating a wide variety of mental ailments, from alcoholism to sexual deviancy. Sandoz suggested in its literature that psychiatrists take LSD themselves[3], to gain a better subjective understanding of the schizophrenic experience, and many did exactly that. For several years, the psychedelic drugs were also called "psychotomimetic" because they were thought to mimic psychosis. Later research caused this term to be abandoned, as neuroscientists gained a better understanding of psychoses, including schizophrenia. Research on LSD peaked in the 1950s and early 1960s. Sandoz withdrew the drug from the market in the mid 1960s.

Sandoz opened its first foreign offices in 1964.

In 1967, Sandoz merged with Wander AG (known for Ovomaltine and Isostar). Sandoz acquired the companies Delmark, Wasabröd (Swedish manufacturer of crisp bread), and Gerber Products Company baby food makers.

On November 1, 1986, a fire broke out in a production plant storage room, which led to a large amount of pesticide being released into the upper Rhine. This exposure killed many fish.
In 1995, Sandoz spun off its speciality chemicals business to form Clariant. Subsequently, in 1997, Clariant merged with the speciality chemicals business that was spun off from Hoechst in Germany.

After the merger

After the merger, Novartis reorganized its activities, and spun out its chemicals activities as Ciba Specialty Chemicals.
In 1998 the company made headlines with its biotechnology licensing agreement with the UC Berkeley Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. Critics of the agreement expressed concern over prospects that the agreement would diminish academic objectivity, or lead to the commercialization of genetically modified plants. The agreement expired in 2003.
Novartis combined its agricultural division with that of AstraZeneca to create Syngenta in November 2000.

In 2003, Novartis created Sandoz, a subsidiary that bundles its generic drug production, reusing the brand of one of its predecessor companies.
On April 20, 2006 Novartis acquired the California-based Chiron Corporation. Chiron was formerly divided into three units: Chiron Vaccines and Chiron Blood Testing, which now combine to form Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, and Chiron BioPharmaceuticals, to be integrated into Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

The ongoing Basel Campus Project has the aim to transform the St. Johann site - Novartis headquarters in Basel - "from an industrial complex to a place of innovation, knowledge and encounter".

On 2005, Novartis introduced Certican® (Everolimus), an immunosuppressant. Everolimus is also Novartis' first marketed immunosupressant, after the approval of cyclosporin A.
On October 2006, Novartis introduced Telbivudine, a revolutionary new antiviral drug for hepatitis B.

Challenge to India's patent laws

In 2006, Novartis launched a court case against India seeking to prohibit the country from developing affordable generic drugs based on patented medicines.[5]Novartis had challenged a law that allows India to refuse to recognize a patent for an existing medicine if the formula had been modified only slightly in order to re-patent the drug. Over half of the world's population make less than USD 2.00 a day and millions of people living in poverty around the world depend on Indian generic medicines for their survival. On August 5, 2007 an Indian court in Madras ruled against Novartis saying that, "Novartis’ legal challenge - mounted to limit competition to its own patented medicines - was a threat to people suffering from cancer, HIV and AIDS, diabetes and other diseases who are too poor to pay for them." The high court also claimed to have no jurisdiction on whether Indian Patent law complied with WTO patent guidelines.
In the months leading up to the hearing, over half a million people wrote to the CEO of Novartis expressing their opposition to the suit. Novartis has decided not to appeal the ruling.

Source : http://www.wikipedia.org/

read more» Read more...

Hoffmann–La Roche

F. Hoffmann–La Roche, Ltd. is a Swiss global health-care company which operates world-wide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. It belongs to the Roche Holding AG.

The headquarters are in Basel and the company has many sites around the world - including: Nutley, Palo Alto, Pleasanton, Branchburg, Indianapolis, Florence in the US, Welwyn Garden City in the UK, Mannheim, Penzberg in Germany, and Shanghai in China.

The company also owns a majority of the American biotechnology company Genentech and the Japanese biotechnology company Chugai Pharmaceuticals.

Roche Holding AG (ticker ROC.S) is listed on the London-based virt-x stock exchange (virt-x is a company of the SWX Swiss Exchange). Roche's revenues during fiscal year 2005 were $28.6 billion (2005, 35.5bn CHF). Descendants of the founding Hoffmann and Oeri families own half of the company. Swiss pharma company Novartis owns 33% of the company (as of 2005).

History

Founded in 1896 by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, the company was early on known for producing various vitamin preparations and derivatives. In 1934, it became the first company to mass produce synthetic vitamin C, under the brand name Redoxon.

In 1957 it introduced the class of tranquilizers known as benzodiazepines (with Valium and Rohypnol being the best known members). Its acne drug isotretinoin, marketed as Accutane and Roaccutane, is a market leader[citation needed] in treating severe acne. It has also produced various HIV tests and antiretroviral drugs. It bought the patents for the polymerase chain reaction technique in 1992. It manufactures and sells several cancer drugs.

In 1976, an accident at a chemical factory in Seveso (Italy) owned by a subsidiary of Roche caused a large dioxin contamination; see Seveso disaster.

In 1982, the United States arm of the company acquired Biomedical Reference Laboratories for US$163.5 million. That company dated from the late 1960s, and was located in Burlington, North Carolina. That year Hoffmann-La Roche then merged it with all of its laboratories, and incorporated the merged company as Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc. in Burlington. By the early 1990s, Roche Biomedical became one of the largest clinical laboratory networks in the United States, with 20 major laboratories and US$600 million in sales.

On April 28, 1995 Hoffmann-La Roche sold Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc. to National Health Laboratories Holdings Inc. (formerly NYSE: NH), which then changed its name to Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (NYSE: LH). In 1994, Roche acquired Syntex.

Creation of the first anti-depressant

In 1956, Iproniazid was accidentally created during an experiment while synthesizing Isoniazid. Originally, it had been intended to create a more efficient drug at combatting Tuberculosis. Iproniazid, however, revealed to have its own benefits; some people felt it made them feel happier. It was withdrawn from the market in the early 1960s due to toxic side-effects.

Vitamin price fixing

Stanley Adams, Roche's World Product Manager in Basel, contacted the European Economic Community in 1973 with evidence that Roche had been breaking antitrust laws, engaging in price fixing and market sharing with its competitors. Roche was fined accordingly, but a bungle on the part of the EEC allowed the company to discover that it was Adams who had blown the whistle. He was arrested for unauthorised disclosure — an offence under Swiss law — and imprisoned. His wife, having learnt that he might face decades in jail, committed suicide. Adams was released soon after but arrested again more than once before eventually fleeing to Britain, where he wrote a book about the affair, Roche Versus Adams (London, 1984, ISBN 022402180X). In a later twist to the catastrophic tale, from the power-elites and upper echelons of society...Adams hired a hitman to kill his second wife for insurance money, and served 5 years or so in prison.

In 1999, Roche was the worldwide market leader in vitamins, with a market share of 40%. Between 1990 and 1999, the company participated in an illegal price fixing cartel for vitamins, which also included BASF and Rhone-Poulenc SA. In 1999, Roche pleaded guilty in the United States and paid a US$500 million fine, then the largest fine ever secured in the U.S. The European Commission fined Roche €462 million for the same infraction in 2001, also a record fine at the time.

Roche sold its vitamin business in late 2002 to the Dutch group DSM.

Alleged Tamiflu monopoly

In a recent meeting of regional health ministers, Dr. Francisco Duque III, Secretary of the Philippines Department of Health, accused Roche of "monopolizing" the production and distribution of the drug known as Oseltamivir (brand name Tamiflu). Oseltamivir is considered to be the primary antiviral drug used to combat avian influenza, commonly known as the bird flu. Roche is the only drug company authorized to manufacture the drug, which was discovered by Gilead Sciences. Roche purchased the rights to the drug in 1996 and in 2005 settled a royalty dispute, agreeing to pay Gilead tiered royalties of 14-22% of annual net sales.

The Philippine health secretary complained that the supply of the said drug is only concentrated in First World countries even if the disease is ravaging bird and poultry populations in Southeast Asia as of this time. Dr. Duque proposed that even if Roche is the only one who has the patent for the drug, special patents or licenses should be granted to other drug companies to manufacture the drug and make it more accessible to avian flu-vulnerable countries in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines. Duque and Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have already communicated with the representative of the World Health Organization in the Philippines asking for assistance in calling for greater production and distribution of Oseltamivir.

World leaders, such as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, have expressed a desire to have more generic versions of Tamiflu made, especially for Third World countries too poor to buy the brand name drug.[citations needed]

On October 20, 2005, Hoffmann-La Roche decided to license other companies to manufacture Oseltamivir.

Additional key persons

In addition to corporate executive committee members mentioned in the summary information box
Chief Financial Officer Dr Erich Hunziker (1953)
Corporate Services and Human Resources Dr Gottlieb Keller (1954)
Enlarged Corporate Executive Committee
Head Global Pharma Development Eduard E. Holdener (1945)
Head Pharma Partnering Peter Hug (1958)
Head of Roche Diagnostics' business area Diabetes Care Burkhard G. Piper (1961)
Head Global Corporate Communications Rolf D. Schläpfer (1956)
Head of Commercial Operations Pharma Pascal Soriot (1959)
President and CEO, Chugai Osamu Nagayama (1947)

Source : www.wikipedia.org

read more» Read more...

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca PLC, is a large Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company formed on 6 April 1999 by the merger of Swedish Astra AB and British Zeneca Group PLC. Zeneca was part of Imperial Chemical Industries prior to a demerger in 1993. AstraZeneca develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals to treat disorders in the gastrointestinal, cardiac and vascular, neurological and psychiatric, infection, respiratory, pathological inflammation and oncology areas.

Sales in 2003 totalled $18.8 billion, with a profit before tax of $4.2 billion. Total R&D spending was $3.5 billion. The corporate headquarters are in London, England, the research and development (R&D) headquarters are in Södertälje, Sweden. Major R&D centres are located on three continents in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, and India.

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of AstraZeneca are: Peter Bonfield, David Brennan, John Buchanan, Jane Henney, Michele Hooper, Joe Jimenez, Tom McKillop, Håkan Mogren, Erna Möller, Bridget Ogilvie, John Patterson, Louis Schweitzer, Jonathan Symonds, and Marcus Wallenberg.

Corporate predecessors

Atlas Chemical Industries

Founded as Atlas Powder Company in 1912 as a result of divestment of DuPont businesses, later changed its name and purchased The Stuart Company (which it renamed Stuart Pharmaceuticals), and was eventually acquired by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).

Astra AB

Founded in 1913 near Stockholm, Sweden, incorporated as Astra USA in 1947, formed a joint venture with Merck in the 1990s, and eventually became Astra Pharmaceuticals, LP.

Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) / Zeneca

Founded in 1926 in the United Kingdom, established a research organization in 1967 in Stamford, Connecticut, and then a year later a business unit called ICI Americas, which acquired Atlas Chemical Industries in 1972 and moved the United States headquarters to the Fairfax campus and the Stuart Pharmaceuticals Division to offices in Concord Plaza in Wilmington, Delaware]. Changed its bioscience businesses name to Zeneca Inc in 1992, keeping the ICI branding on its chemical businesses, and then a year later demerged into two separate and independent companies.

Stuart Pharmaceuticals

Founded as The Stuart Company in 1941 in Pasadena, California, by Arthur Hanisch, manufactured and marketed a number of innovative pharmaceutical products (including liquid multivitamin, chewable vitamin tablets, capsule-shaped tablets, effervescent laxatives, and instant liquid vitamin mix), purchased by Atlas Chemical Industries.

Merger and acquisition activity

AstraZeneca has, following a collaborative relationship begun in 2004, commenced the acquisition of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT). The company is currently in the final stages of exercising compulsory acquisition options against outstanding CAT shares. On April 23, 2007 it was announced MedImmune and AstraZeneca entered into a definitive agreement under which AstraZeneca intends to acquire MedImmune in an all cash transaction at $58 per share, or about $15.2 billion.

Collaborations and alliances

Bristol-Myers Squibb a world wide collaboration to develop and commercialize two investigational drugs (Saxagliptin and Dapagliflozin) beginning from 2007. * Abbott Laboratories in relation to Crestor® and TriCor®, commencing in 2006 and extending to at least 2009.
Astex. Announced 2005. For discovery, development and commercialisation of novel small molecule inhibitors of Protein Kinase B for use as anti-cancer agents.
Avanir. Announced 2005. For research and licensing in the area of Reverse Cholesterol Transport (RCT) enhancing compounds for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Diamond Member of the Pennsylvania Bio commerce organization.
Schering AG. Announced 2005. For research and licensing in the area of Selective Glucocorticoid Receptor Agonists (SEGRAs).

Diversity

AstraZeneca is one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 according to Working Mothers magazine.

Free Medicines for Lower Income families in the USA

AstraZeneca's Patient Assistance Program provides access to AstraZeneca medicines for low income Americans by providing the medicines for free to eligible patients
Although these free medicines are sorely needed and surely appreciated by the percentage of low income families who receive them, one wonders how the cost of this initiative compares to other "promotional" activities that pharmaceutical companies undertake to promote their drugs, such as providing free samples to physicians, publishing full page colour ads in medical journals, and other "administration/marketing/sales" type economic activities.

The Cost of Drug Promotion

A free, peer-reviewed article published online in Winter 2007 Study of US pharmaceutical industry suggests that in the U.S., pharmaceutical companies spend more money on drug marketing than they do on research and development ("R&D"). Companies claim that developing drugs from the research stage to the clinical trials stage before the drug is finally ready to receive approval by a country as safe for use by the general public, but this new research suggests that it is marketing costs, not drug development costs, that consume the majority of the company profits. Pharmaceutical companies are much more profitable than companies in any other industry.

AstraZeneca and Breast Cancer

AstraZeneca is the major sponsor for Breast Cancer Awareness Month which focuses on "early detection and treatment" but does little to address prevention[citation needed]. AstraZeneca is also a leading producer of breast cancer treatment drugs like Tamoxifen, Arimidex and Faslodex.

Possible long term health effects of elevated prolactin levels amongst women taking anti-psychotic drug medication
Anti-psychotic medications can cause a significant increase in a woman's prolactin levels. Pharmaceuticals and Endocrinology. Prolactin is a hormone in breast milk. [[Prolactin]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prolactin] The long-term effects of elevated prolactin levels are unknown, thus it is one of the factors that may lead a female patient to be cautious in deciding whether or not, for her, the benefits of anti-psychotic medications outweigh the possible negative consequences.

Seroquel is a drug manufactured by Astrazeneca in the neuroscience group. It is used to treat psychiatric symptoms that are often classified as "schizophrenia" (psychiatrists and insurance companies use the current Diagnostic Statistical Manual to choose a diagnosis that best describes the mental disorder that the person is experiencing).

Products

AstraZeneca specialises in prescription medicines to fight disease in the several therapeutic areas. Year-on sales information can be found through AstraZeneca annual reports. The following is a list of key products as found on the AstraZeneca UK website, retrieved 2005-03-27. Generic drug names are given in brackets following the brand name.
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Gastrointestinal
Entocort (budesonide)
Losec/Prilosec (omeprazole)
Nexium (esomeprazole) (purified stereoisomer of Losec)
Cardiovascular
Atacand (candesartan)
Crestor (rosuvastatin) (2003 launch)
Exanta (2004 launch; not approved in the United States)
Imdur
Inderal
Lexxel
Logimax
Nif-Ten
Plendil
Ramace (ramipril)
Seloken ZOK/Toprol-XL (#1 beta blocker by sales globally in 2004)
Tenoretic
Tenormin (atenolol)
Unimax
Zestoretic
Zestril
Respiratory and Inflammation
Accolate
Bambec
Bricanyl
Oxis
Pulmicort
Rhinocort
Symbicort
Oncology
Arimidex
Casodex
Faslodex
Iressa
Nolvadex
Tomudex
Tamoxifen
Zoladex
in development
Zactima (Phase III clinical trial - Press release)
Neuroscience
Heminevrin
Mysoline (handed over to Acorus Therapeutics Ltd. in July of 2004)
Seroquel (quetiapine)
Vivalan
Zomig
Anaesthetics
Carbocaine
Citanest
Diprivan
EMLA (mixture of Lidocaine and Prilocaine)
Marcaine/Sensorcaine
Naropin
Xylocaine
Xyloproct (mixture of Lidocaine and Hydrocortisone)
Infection
Apatef/Cefotan
Paludrine
Foscavir
Lexinor
Merrem/Meronem

Controversies

Class Action Lawsuits in Canada and US re: Seroquel. Adverse effects of Atypical Antipsychotic
In the US, there were multiple product liability cases alleging personal injury, namely, that Seroquel caused people to develop diabetes.
Seroquel is an anti-psychotic drug that is used to treat schizophrenia. In the US, Seroquel has also been approved to treat bi-polar disorder.
According to AstraZeneca, global sales of Seroquel in the year 2005-2006 amounted to 3,416 million dollars.

AstraZeneca's annual report identifies Seroquel as one of its 5 key growth products. The global sales of Seroquel in 2005-2006 increased 24% to 3.4 billion dollars. AstraZeneca claims that Seroquel is the market leading anti-psychotic drug in the United States.
Late Stage Clinical Trial Results re: Controversial Seroquel Drug Expected January 2008
AstraZeneca is currently testing various uses for Seroquel, its best selling anti-psychotic drug.

2008 Seroquel Clinical Trials

Given the amount of personal injury complaints about the drug, and the recent approval of Seroquel for bipolar disorder in the U.S., the company may be seeking approval for Seroquel to be used to treat other psychiatric conditions, such as depression and general anxiety disorder.
Note as well that a new sustained release form of the drug was announced at a conference in Madrid in March 2007. At the time the new drug was discussed, it had not been approved for sale by any health regulatory body in any country. See Canada Newswire announcement below:

Late Stage Trial Failures

AstraZeneca has experienced an extraordinary run of failures of drugs in late-stage clinical trials. These include Galida for diabetes, Exanta to prevent thrombosis, NXY-059 for acute ischemic stroke, and AGI-1067 for prevention of atherosclerosis. With patents expiring on older drugs, this threatens future revenue growth.

MedImmune Takeover

After this long run of failed late-stage clinical trials, in April of 2007 AstraZeneca bought vaccine maker MedImmune, paying $15.2 billion primarily for its drug development pipeline. Analysts have criticized this take-over, claiming that AstraZeneca paid too much.

Nexium

Nexium, the trade name for esomeprazole, is the successor to Prilosec (containing omeprazole). Commentators have taken issue with its development being an example of a company attempting to "evergreen" its drug patents. In this practice, a company might not be able to maintain a product's price and market share in the face of competition after the expiry of its patent protection, and therefore tries to find a new, patentable medication in the same field, which would ensure maximum profitability and market share for the company if marketed properly.

In this specific case, esomeprazole is a single stereoisomer of omeprazole and based upon available evidence there seems to be little difference between the two in dose-related response. Omeprazole is a very successful medication , but its patent protection expired in 2001. AZ, as owners of the lucrative Losec patent, sought to extend domination of the PPI market with Nexium and consequently marketed it as the successor to the original drug. Though identical in biological action[citation needed], the new drug could be patented, thus achieving an "evergreen" patent protection of the product and maintaining market share. This practice is criticised because it involves high costs for either individual patients and public healthcare systems, as well as potentially immoral, aggressive marketing to doctors in order to prevent them from prescribing generics.

On 16th of August, 2007, Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and Harvard Medical School lecturer in social medicine, alleged in the German magazine "Stern" that AstraZeneca's scientists had doctored their research on the drug's efficiency:

Instead of using presumably comparable doses [of each drug], the company's scientists used Nexium in higher dosages. They compared 20 and 40mg Nexium with 20mg Prilosec. With the cards having been marked in that way, Nexium looked like an improvement- which however was only small and shown in only two of the three studies.

Nexium is also alleged by the authors to be "the top of the list" of medications which are marketed by pharmaceutical companies directly to doctors, who receive gifts of money and/or goods when they prescribe the medication in question. As a reason for the company's behaviour, it is alleged that the German public healthcare system spends an additional €99 million per annum on Nexium as compared to using Omeprazole, which however would be less profitable for the company as its patent protection has expired.

According to The New Yorker, Nexium has "become a symbol of everything that is wrong with the pharmaceutical industry".

Malaria drugs

Chloroquine and Paludrine were marketed with diminutive vague health warnings inside the boxes. Rather than specifying "depression", Zeneca used the term "changes in mood". Also "panic attacks and anxiety" were not mentioned, only "fits and seizures", in effect hiding information about mental effects, as it was more widely reported. As a result of these understatements, thousands of people went on holiday carrying up to 365 days dosage of these drugs, without any understanding that if they were experiencing black moods after a couple of months, the medication should be discontinued.

In 1998 the University of Edinburgh department of tropical medicine conducted a study on over 100 gap year students that had been abroad. It found that 31.8% of them that had taken the antiprophylactics for over three months complained of depression compared to 12.4% of students that had taken a holiday but not taken Chloroquine or Paludrine at all. Neither Zeneca nor the NHS replied to the findings of the study. The conclusion of the study was that Chloroquine and Paludrine cause a slow and gradual depression, and that the NHS were widely prescribing double dosages of the drug without any health warnings.

Corporate sexual harrassment

Confronted by allegations in a May 13, 1996, Business Week cover story, of widespread sexual harassment and other abuses at its Astra USA Inc. subsidiary, the company suspended three top executives and launched an internal probe.

On June 26, the parent company announced that it had fired Astra USA President and CEO Lars Bildman without severance pay. Carl-Gustav Johansson, an Astra executive vice-president, says the investigation found that Bildman had "exhibited inappropriate behavior at company functions" and had "abused his power."

He was also accused of misappropriation of funds, diverting them for personal expenses such as "lavish trips" and "extensive renovations for his home." Another suspended executive, George Roadman, was also fired, while a third, Edward Aarons, resigned. A senior executive in Sweden, Anders Lonner, was asked to resign for failing to report the misconduct to superiors, Astra says.

Astra USA agreed to pay $9.85 million to settle a suit brought by at least 79 women and one man against the company. The suit accused Astra's former president and other executives of pressuring female employees for sex and replacing older workers with younger, more attractive women. It was the biggest sexual harassment settlement ever obtained by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Astra USA admitted that it allowed a hostile environment—including requests for sexual favors, replacing older female employees with younger women, and pressuring women into having sex. Bildman reportedly demanded that "eight hours of work be followed by eight hours of drinking and partying." In addition to firing Bildman and other top officials, Astra USA agreed to a sexual harassment policy and took action against 30 employees and Astra customers who had taken part in the harassment. Current USA CEO, Ivan Rowley apologized:

“ As a company, we are ashamed of the unacceptable behavior that took place. … To each person that has been harmed and who has suffered because of that behavior, I offer our apologies. ”

On February 4, 1998, Astra USA sued Bildman, seeking $15 million for defrauding the company. The sum included $2.3 million in company funds he allegedly used to fix up three of his homes, plus money the company paid as the result of the EEOC investigation. Astra's lawsuit alleged Bildman sexually harassed and intimidated employees, used company funds for yachts and prostitutes, destroyed documents and records, and concocted "tales of conspiracy involving ex-KGB agents and competitors … in a last-ditch effort to distract attention from the real wrongdoer, Bildman himself."

Bildman had already plead guilty in U.S. District Court for failing to report more than $1 million in income on his tax returns; in addition, several female co-workers filed personal sexual-harassment lawsuits.

Source : http://www.wikipedia.org/

read more» Read more...

GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline plc is a British based pharmaceutical, biological, and healthcare company. GSK is a research-based company with a wide portfolio of pharmaceutical products covering anti-infectives, central nervous system (CNS), respiratory, gastro-intestinal/metabolic, oncology, and vaccines products. It also has a Consumer Healthcare operation comprising leading oral healthcare products, nutritional drinks, and over the counter (OTC) medicines.

History

GSK was formed from the merger of GlaxoWellcome (formed from the mergers of Burroughs Wellcome & Company and Glaxo Laboratories) and SmithKline Beecham (from Beecham, and SmithKline Beckman).

In 1880, Burroughs Wellcome & Company was founded in London by American pharmacists Henry Wellcome and Silas Burroughs. Wellcome Tropical Researches Laboratories was opened in 1902. McDougall & Robertson Inc. was bought by the Wellcome Company to be more active in animal health. Also, the production center was moved from New York to North Carolina in 1970 and the following year another research center was built.

Glaxo was founded in Bunnythorpe, New Zealand. Originally a baby food manufacturer processing local milk into an early baby food by the same name, which was sold in the 1930s under the slogan "Glaxo builds bonny babies". Still visible on the main street of Bunnythorpe is a derelict dairy factory (factory for drying and processing cows' milk into powder) with the original Glaxo logo clearly visible, but nothing to indicate that this was the start of a major multinational.
Glaxo became Glaxo Laboratories, and opened new units in London in 1935.

Glaxo Laboratories bought two companies called Joseph Nathan and Allen & Hanburys in 1947 and 1958 respectively. After it bought Meyer Laboratories, it started to play an important role in the US market. In 1983 the American arm Glaxo Inc. moved to Research Triangle Park (US headquarters/research) and Zebulon (US manufacturing) in North Carolina. To be stronger in the medicine market, Burroughs Wellcome and Glaxo, Inc merged in 1995.

The new name of the company was GlaxoWellcome. In the same year, GlaxoWellcome opened their Medicine Research Centre in England. Three years later GlaxoWellcome bought Polfa Poznan Company in Poland.

In 1843, Thomas Beecham launched his Beecham's Pills laxative in England. Beecham opened its first factory in St Helens, Lancashire, England for rapid production of medicines in 1859. By the 1960s it was extensively involved in pharmaceuticals.

In 1830, John K. Smith opened its first pharmacy in Philadelphia. Over the years Smith, Kline and Company favorably amalgamated with the French, Richard and Company because of their successful management decisions. It changed its name to Smith Kline & French Laboratories to focus more on research in 1929.

Years later, Smith Kline & French Laboratories opened a new laboratory in Philadelphia; furthermore, it bought a laboratory called Norden Laboratories which was doing research into animal health to benefit their research in various other areas.

To move on this path, Smith Kline & French Laboratories bought Recherche et Industrie Thérapeutiques (Belgium) in 1963 to focus on vaccines. The company also wanted to spread globally to capture shares in various medicine markets. Because of this, Smith Kline & French Laboratories bought 7 more laboratories in Canada and US six years later. In 1982, it bought Allergan which was making products about eye and skin. It also merged with Beckman Inc. After this merge, it changed its name to SmithKline Beckman.

In 1988, SmithKline Beckman bought its biggest competitor, International Clinical Laboratories, and enlarged by 50%. The next year, Beecham and SmithKline Beckman became one and changed the name of the company to SmithKline Beecham plc. The headquarters of the company were then moved to England. To improve the R&D in US, SmithKline Beecham bought a new research center in 1995. Yet another new research center was opened in New Frontiers Science Park two years later.

In 2000, Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham merged to form GlaxoSmithKline.
As the second largest pharmaceutical company in the world (after Pfizer), the company had sales of £23.2 billion and made a profit of £7.8 billion in 2006. It employs around 110,000 people worldwide, including over 40,000 in sales and marketing.

Its global headquarters are GSK House in Brentford, London, United Kingdom, with its United States headquarters based in Philadelphia and its consumer products division based in the Pittsburgh suburb of Moon Township, Pennsylvania. The research and development division has major headquarters in South East England, Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park (RTP) in North Carolina.

The company is listed on the London and New York stock exchanges. The majority of its activity is in the United States, although the company has a presence in almost 70 countries.
In 2006, pharmaceutical sales accounted for £20.08 billion (or 87%) of GSK's total sales. Sales are based around a broad range of products with the most successful (starting with highest sales) being:

Seretide (Advair in US), a combination of the bronchodilator salmeterol and the steroid fluticasone
Avandia (rosiglitazone), a PPAR-gamma agonist
Lamictal (lamotrigine), an anticonvulsant used to treat various types of epilepsy and type I bipolar disorder
Wellbutrin (bupropion), an anti-depressant
Zofran (ondansetron hydrochloride), used to prevent nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer
Valtrex (valacyclovir), an antiviral drug used in the management of herpes simplex and herpes zoster (shingles)
Coreg (carvedilol), a non-selective beta blocker indicated in the treatment of mild to moderate congestive heart failure
Imigran / Imitrex (sumatriptan), a triptan drug including a sulfonamide group for the treatment of migraine

Work in the community

For many years now GSK has been a leading contributor to a multinational government and industry alliance to rid the world of lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis). LF threatens over one billion people in 83 countries. Approximately 120 million people are infected with the parasites, 40 million of whom have clinical symptoms of the disease. The Global Alliance to Eliminate LF was formed with the support of the pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Merck to help countries with LF respond. GSK has donated over 440 million albendazole tablets to date, which serve as a cornerstone of the program.

Jean-Pierre (JP) Garnier, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline added, “The Egyptian data shows that we can now eliminate a disease that has plagued the world for centuries. We remain committed to donating as much albendazole as required to eliminate this disabling disease, but ultimate success will depend on continued long-term commitments by all partners across the globe.”
In addition Glaxo has been short-listed for awards such as The Worldaware Business Award for its work to eliminate malaria in Kenya.

GlaxoSmithKline recently donated money to the British flood appeal.

Global locations

Global Pharmaceutical Operations headquarters in Brentford, United Kingdom with US operations based at Franklin Plaza in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Consumer Products headquarters in Moon Township, Pennsylvania suburb of Pittsburgh
Major R&D sites in Greenford, United Kingdom; Stevenage, United Kingdom; Harlow, United Kingdom; Ware, United Kingdom; Beckenham, United Kingdom; Verona, Italy; Zagreb, Croatia; Evreux, France; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; and Upper Merion and Collegeville, Pennsylvania

Major manufacturing sites for prescription products in Ware, United Kingdom; Evreux, France; Montrose, United Kingdom; Barnard Castle, United Kingdom; Crawley, United Kingdom; Bristol, Tennessee; King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; Zebulon, North Carolina; Cidra, Puerto Rico; Jurong Singapore and Cork Ireland; Parma, Italy.

Major manufacturing sites for consumer products in Maidenhead, United Kingdom; Dungarvan, Ireland; Mississauga, Ontario; Aiken, South Carolina; Clifton, New Jersey; Memphis, Tennessee; and St. Louis, Missouri

GSK has a presence in over 72 countries
Most of the biological part of GSK in Belgium (Wavre and Rixensart)

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of GlaxoSmithKline are:
Sir Christopher Gent (Non-Executive Chairman);
Dr Jean-Pierre Garnier (Chief Executive Officer);
Dr Stephanie Burns (Non-Executive Director);
Lawrence Culp (Non-Executive Director);
Sir Crispin Davis (Non-Executive Director);
Julian Heslop (Chief Financial Officer);
Sir Deryck Maughan (Non-Executive Director);
Sir Ian Prosser (Senior Independent Non-Executive Director);
Dr Ronaldo Schmitz (Non-Executive Director);
Moncef Slaoui (Executive Director, Chairman, Research & Development);
Robert Wilson (Non-Executive Director);
Dr Daniel Podolsky (Non-Executive Director);
Tom De Swaan (Independent Non-Executive Director).

On October 8, 2007 it was announced that Dr Garnier would be succeeded as Chief Executive by Mr Andrew Witty. Mr Witty, 43, will take up the position at the end of May 2008 and is expected to join the Board in due time.

David Stout, president of Pharmaceuticals operations, and Chris Viehbacher, president of the US Pharmaceuticals division, who lost out to Mr Witty in the succession race, might possibly quit the company. However it was reported in the UK press on 5 December that both executives would receive retention packages worth £2m in the form of shares over the next 2 to 3 years plus a small amount of cash to stay at GlaxoSmithKline.

On December 7, 2007, it was announced that Andrew Witty, CEO Designate, and Chris Viehbacher, President US Pharmaceuticals, have been appointed Executive Directors and will join the Board of the Company with effect from January 31, 2008. It was also announced that Daivd Stout will leave the company in February 2008.

Diversity

GlaxoSmithKline was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2007 by Working Mothers magazine and was recognized by the International Charter for its efforts. GSK also received a perfect score of 100 percent from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2005 Corporate Equality Index, an annual report card of corporate America's treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) employees, customers and investors. GSK also supports employee diversity networks for groups such as ECN, PTPN, GLBT, AAA, etc.

Controversy

Paroxetine (Seroxat, Paxil) is an SSRI antidepressant released in 1992 by GlaxoSmithKline. In March 2004 the FDA ordered a black box warning placed on SSRI and other antidepressants, warning of the risk for potential suicidal thinking in children and adolescents. Since the FDA approved paroxetine in 1992, approximately 5,000 U.S. citizens have sued GSK. On January 29 2007, the BBC in the UK broadcast a fourth documentary in its 'Panorama' series about Seroxat.

One clinical trial indicated that adolescents were six times more likely to become suicidal after taking it.

In November 2007, a United States Congressional committee released a report [3] describing intimidation of Dr John Buse (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill[4][5]) by GlaxoSmithKline over his concerns about the cardiovascular risks associated with the company's antidiabetes drug Rosiglitazone (Avandia).

In March 2006, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced that "GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will pay $14 million to resolve allegations that state-government programs paid inflated prices for the firm’s anti-depressant drug Paxil because GSK engaged in patent fraud, antitrust violations and frivolous litigation to maintain a monopoly and block generic versions from entering the market."

At the AGM on 19 May 2003, GSK shareholders rejected a motion regarding a £22 million pay and benefits package for CEO, JP Garnier. This was the first time such a rebellion by shareholders against a major British company has occurred, but was regarded as a possible turning point against other so-called "fat cat" deals within executive pay structure.

The company and its shareholders have been targeted by animal rights activists because it is a customer of the controversial animal-testing company, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).

HLS has been the subject since 1999 of an international campaign by Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), ever since footage shot covertly by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which was shown on British television, showed staff punching, kicking, screaming and laughing at the animals in their care.

On September 7, 2005, the ALF detonated a bomb containing two litres of fuel and four pounds of explosives on the doorstop of the Buckinghamshire home of Paul Blackburn, GSK's corporate controller, causing minor damage.

In November 2005, AIDS Healthcare Foundation accused the company of boosting its short-term monopoly profit by not increasing production of the anti-AIDS drug AZT despite a surge in demand, hence creating a shortage that affected many AIDS patients in Africa. GSK announced that it had halted clinical trials of the CCR5 entry inhibitor, aplaviroc (GW873140), in HIV-infected, treatment-naive patients because of concerns about severe hepatotoxicity.

In June of 2006 GSK said it was further cutting, by about 30%, the not-for-profit prices it charges for some of these medicines in the world's poorest countries.

Legal

In 2003 GSK signed a corporate integrity agreement and paid $88 million in a civil fine for overcharging Medicaid for the antidepressant Paxil, and nasal-allergy spray Flonase. Later that year GSK also ran afoul of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and was facing a demand for $7.8 billion in backdated taxes and interest, the highest in IRS history.

On September 12, 2006 GSK settled the largest tax dispute in IRS history agreeing to pay $3.1 billion. At issue in the case were Zantac and the other Glaxo Group heritage products sold from 1989–2005.

The case was about an area of taxation dealing with intracompany "transfer pricing"—determining the share of profit attributable to the US subsidiaries of GSK and subject to tax by the IRS. Taxes for large multi-divisional companies are paid to revenue authorities based on the profits reported in particular tax jurisdictions, so how profits were allocated among various legacy Glaxo divisions based on the functions they performed was central to the dispute in this case.

On December 22, 2006, a US court decided in Hoorman, et al. v. SmithKline Beecham Corp that individuals who purchased Paxil(R) or Paxil CR(TM) (paroxetine) for a minor child may be eligible for benefits under a $63.8 million Proposed Settlement.

The lawsuit won the argument that GSK promoted Paxil(R) or Paxil CR(TM) for prescription to children and adolescents while withholding and concealing material information about the medication's safety and effectiveness for minors.

The lawsuit stemmed from a consumer advocate protest against Paroxetine manufacturer GSK. Since the FDA approved paroxetine in 1992, approximately 5,000 U.S. citizens – and thousands more worldwide – have sued GSK. Most of these people feel they were not sufficiently warned in advance of the drug's side effects and addictive properties.

According to the Paxil Protest website, http://www.paxilprotest.com/, hundreds more lawsuits have been filed against GSK. The Paxil Protest website was launched August 8, 2005 to offer both information about the protest and information on Paxil previously unavailable to the public. Just three weeks after its launch, the site received more than a quarter of a million hits.

The original Paxil Protest website was removed from the internet in 2006. It is understood that the action to take down the site was undertaken as part of a confidentiality agreement or 'gagging order' which the owner of the site entered into as part of a settlement of his action against GlaxoSmithKline.

(However, in March 2007, the website Seroxat Secrets discovered that an archive of Paxil Protest site was still available on the internet via Archive.org) Gagging orders are common in such cases and can extend to documents that defendants wish to remain hidden from the public. However in some cases, such documents can become public at a later date, such as those made public by Dr. Peter Breggin in February of 2006.

In January 2007, according to the Seroxat Secrets website,[15] the national group litigation in the United Kingdom, on behalf of several hundred people who allege withdrawal reactions through their use of the drug Seroxat, against GlaxoSmithKline plc, moved a step closer to the High Court in London, with the confirmation that Public Funding had been reinstated following a decision by the Public Interest Appeal Panel.

The issue at the heart of this particular action claims Seroxat is a defective drug in that it has a propensity to cause a withdrawal reaction. Hugh James Solicitors have confirmed this news.

In February 2007, the Serious Fraud Office in the UK launched an investigation into allegations of GSK being involved in the discredited oil-for-food sanctions regime in Iraq. They are accused of paying bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime.

On March 13, 2007, in a bid to reduce the risk of breast cancer, GSK introduced in the United States market lapatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor for oral use. GSK is also working to make lapatinib available in European and other global markets.

On March 27, 2007, GSK pleaded guilty in an Auckland District Court to 15 charges relating to misleading conduct brought against them under the Fair Trading Act by New Zealand's Commerce Commission.

The charges related to a popular blackcurrant fruit drink Ribena which the company had lead consumers to believe contained high levels of vitamin C. As part of a school science project, two 14-year-old school girls (Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo) from Pakuranga College in Auckland (New Zealand) discovered that ready-to-drink juice sold in 100ml containers contained very little vitamin C. Approaches by the two teens to the company didn't resolve the issue but after the matter was publicised on a national consumer affairs television show (Fair Go) the matter came to the attention of the Commerce Commission (a government funded 'consumer watch-dog'). The commission's testing found that ready-to-drink Ribena contained no detectable vitamin C.

company was fined $217,000 for the 15 charges. The number of charges was reduced from 88 and covered a period from March 2002 to March 2006. GSK maintains that it did not intend to mislead consumers and that the advertising claims were based on testing procedures that have since been changed.

It was ordered to run an advertising campaign to provide the facts after it admitted misleading the public about the vitamin C component in its Ribena drink.

Through its lawyer, Adam Ross, the company accepted Commerce Commission allegations that claims that ready-to-drink Ribena contained 7mg of vitamin C per 100ml, or 44 per cent of the recommended daily intake, were incorrect. The company also agreed television advertising claiming the blackcurrants in Ribena had four times the vitamin C of oranges, while literally true, were likely to mislead consumers about the relative levels of vitamin C in Ribena.

Source : www.wikipedia.org

read more» Read more...