Posts Tagged ‘business’


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  • Outlook: The Week Ahead in U.S. News

    Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 10:34 | Comments Off

    MarketWatch’s Stacey Delo has a preview of what will figure into the business and financial headlines in the coming week.

    See the original post here: Outlook: The Week Ahead in U.S. News/a>

  • Merck Follows Pfizer on Earnings, but Avoids its Footsteps

    Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 04:03 | Comments Off

    With an apparent eye on Pfizer’s experience early this month, Merck officials made one thing abundantly clear during the morning’s earnings report: “Nothing in our guidance has changed,” CFO Peter Kellogg said on a conference call with analysts.

    The emphasis was undoubtedly a reaction to Pfizer’s Feb. 3 earnings report when it lowered its 2012 guidance. Pfizer officials dismissed the import of the change at the time, saying it merely reflected some divestitures. Still, the news pushed down Pfizer shares ..read more

  • Reports: GlaxoSmithKline to Cut More than 3,000 Jobs

    Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 00:47 | Comments Off

    The cuts keep coming from U.K. pharma. Just a few days after AstraZeneca said it would eliminate thousands of jobs, the London papers reported this weekend that GlaxoSmithKline is about to announce some big cuts of its own.

    The Times of London said Glaxo will cut “up to 4,000″ jobs; the Financial Times put the figure at “more than 3,000.”

    The cuts — which the FT says will include will include “manufacturing, sales, administration and research staff” — are expected to be ..read more

  • Mossberg on Blood-Glucose Test: Tech Meets Health

    Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 01:17 | Comments Off

    The latest sign of the health-tech convergence: Walt Mossberg, the WSJ’s personal tech guru who writes about smart phones and operating systems, is reviewing a blood-glucose meter.

    The device, made by Bayer and sold under the brand name Contour, looks like a fancy USB thumb drive, with an extra appendage. (That’s a picture of it on the right.) The appendage is the business end of the glucose meter, where the patient inserts a test strip dabbed with a drop of blood. ..read more

  • Of Pfizer, a New Treatment for a Rare Disease and Carrot Cells

    Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 06:02 | Comments Off

    Pfizer’s deal today with Israeli biotech Protalix BioTherapeutics to license most of the rights for a promising therapy for a rare disease caught our eye for a number of reasons:

    The deal gives Pfizer rights to sell a treatment for Gaucher’s disease that will soon go for FDA approval. Pfizer will pay Protalix as much as $115 million for rights to sell the therapy anywhere but Israel. The dollar amount is minuscule for a big pharma with a $151 billion market ..read more

  • Safety Guru: ‘Health IT Is Harder Than It Looks’

    Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 05:46 | Comments Off

    Yes, health IT systems done right can help improve patient safety. But health IT systems done wrong can actually create new safety risks, a doctor and patient-safety expert says in a new article published by the journal Health Affairs.

    We heard something similar a few weeks back, when we chatted with a senior Kaiser doc who warned of “magical thinking” on health IT. Today’s commentary comes from Bob Wachter, a UC San Francisco hospitalist, who writes:

    recent experience has confirmed that ..read more

  • Device Maker Bets $525 Million on Recycling Medical Devices

    Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 03:23 | Comments Off

    Stryker, a big medical device company, said today that it’s spending $525 million to buy a company called Ascent Healthcare Solutions that helps hospitals recycle medical devices designed for a single use.

    The medical device industry has been wary of this practice in the past, questioning whether devices designed for a single use can be properly sterilized and whether they can hold up for multiple uses. So it’s interesting to see a big device company diving into the business of ..read more

  • Why Pfizer Wants You to Take Your Dog Home for Thanksgiving

    Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 02:39 | Comments Off

    The Health Blog just got an email from Pfizer informing us that some people feel guilty or sad about leaving their dogs behind when they travel for the holidays.

    And a vet who works for Pfizer said that if you’re “experiencing tough economic times,” the “unconditional love from your family dog can go a long way toward helping your family manage that extra stress.”

    In fact, Pfizer feels so strongly about this stuff that the company has launched a Twitter feed ..read more

  • Caffeinated Alcoholic Drinks Are Dead. (Long Live … )

    Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 09:04 | Comments Off

    It looks like the FDA could ban drinks that combine alcohol and caffeine. If that happens, it’ll be the continuation of a couple trends: The agency’s recent scrutiny of food companies, and a push by some activists and state officials against alcoholic energy drinks.

    The FDA has sent letters to about 30 companies noting that it “has not approved the use of caffeine in alcoholic beverages.” The letters also warn that if the companies don’t explain within a month why it’s ..read more

  • What Does IMS Health Do, Anyway?

    Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 02:17 | Comments Off

    IMS Health is nearing a deal to sell itself for nearly $4 billion, the WSJ reports. That raises a simple question: What does IMS Health do, anyway?

    Drug companies pay IMS for information about the prescribing habits of individual doctors. This, of course, is very valuable stuff for the drug company sales reps who make calls at doctors’ offices. IMS buys the raw prescription data — which doesn’t identify patients — from pharmacies.

    Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont have all passed laws ..read more