The Morning Briefing: Top picks in pharmaceuticals
"The Morning Briefing" is SmartPlanet's morning roundup of must-read stories from the web. This morning we're reading about updates in the pharmaceutical industry.
1.) AstraZeneca to cut an additional 7,300 jobs. The UK's second-largest drug firm has announced the cuts after a fall in pre-tax profits of $2.05bn in comparison to $2.28bn recorded in 2010. The job losses are part of a two-year restructuring scheme, designed to save AstraZeneca $1.6bn in annual costs. The company has 61,000 staff globally.
2.) Research-based pharmaceutical industry pledges 14 billion donated treatments to support elimination of NTDs. Nine key neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) cause suffering in one billion people worldwide, and kill or disable poverty-stricken people in tropical and subtropical areas. A scheme to donate 14 billion treatments worldwide is supported by pharmaceutical companies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. and UK governments, international organisations, and national governmental bodies.
3.) Pfizer Inc. recalls 1 million birth control pills. A mistake by Pfizer Inc. could mean that women could be at risk of accidental pregnancy. When taken properly, Lo/Ovral-28 birth control pills have a very high protective rate, however, a mix-up in the company's manufacturing means that some packets were distributed with pills out of their correct order. Due to this, a women may have accidentally skipped a dose and raised the chance of conception. Pfizer has recalled over 1 million packets, but states that approximately 30 packets were flawed.
4.) U.S. regulators approve new cystic fibrosis treatment. Kalydeco is a new gene-targeting drug specifically designed for patients with a rare kind of the incurable lung disease. Made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, it has now been approved in for U.S. use. However, it is only for those with the specific G551D gene mutation, which is approximately 4% of cystic fibrosis sufferers in the U.S.
5.) Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche bids for low-cost DNA decoding company. Roche made over $10.35bn in profits over 2011, and is now branching out by bidding for companies that offer gene sequencing. It has recently bid on Illumina, a San Diego-based company, who construct machines that allow for low-cost DNA decoding.
Bonus: Auction 2012: How Drug Companies Game Washington
Image credit: Flickr
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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com