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The Morning Briefing: The pharmaceutical industry

"The Morning Briefing" is SmartPlanet's daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we're reading about drugs and the pharmaceutical industry.
Written by Charlie Osborne, Contributing Writer

"The Morning Briefing" is SmartPlanet's daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we're reading about drugs and the pharmaceutical industry.

1.) FDA finds new batch of counterfeit Avastin. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found a new batch of counterfeit Avastin circulating in the U.S. and apparently distributed by a different network from the one connected to an earlier fake supply of the cancer drug.

2.) Is a Pfizer Breakup in the cards? How much would it be worth? Pfizer (PFE) is selling off some of its non-core businesses, including Animal Health & Nutrition. But CEO Ian Read 'expressed an openness to going further with separations' in a recent meeting. Will there be a scenario wherein the pharmaceutical giant splits its generic drug unit from its brand-name or Pharma division?

3.) Glaxo to seek OK for diabetes drug after trial results. GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) Tuesday said it will push ahead with plans to file its experimental once-weekly diabetes drug albiglutide for regulatory approval, following the read-out from a series of clinical trials.

4.) New drug prevents spread of human prostate cancer cells. A new drug developed by Northwestern Medicine scientists prevented human prostate cancer cells from spreading to other tissues without any toxic effects to normal cells or tissues.

5.) Legal Drug-Pushing: How disease mongers keep us all doped up. By manipulating our fear of suffering and death, big pharmaceutical companies are able to keep us coming back for expensive medications.

Bonus: Australia foreign minister calls for decriminalisation of low-level drug use

Image credit: Michael Chen

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