News in Brief

Published: 1-Mar-2003


  • Bristol-Myers Squibb has agreed to pay US$670m (€626m) to settle numerous lawsuits after it was accused of using illegal tactics to keep lower-priced versions of its medicines, cancer-fighting Taxol and the anti-anxiety drug BuSpar, out of the market for many months. Both drugs are now available as generic medicines.

  • The EU has initiated formal talks ; the first stage of disputes proceedings at the World Trade Organisation ; over import restrictions imposed by the Indian government on a range or products including penicillin, its salts, and derivatives, rifampicin, streptomycins or their derivatives, and first aid boxes or kits.

  • The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) has announced that the EU marketing authorisation for hepatitis B treatment Hepacare has been withdrawn by the European Commission. The decision followed manufacturer Celltech Pharmaceuticals' commercial decision to abandon plans to sell the medicine. Alternative vaccines are available in Europe.

  • An EU-funded research project has identified four strains of lactobacilli that could help treat intestinal inflammations and infections. The aim of the Deprohealth scheme, which has received €1.4m ($1.5m) in Brussels money; is to develop oral probiotic bacteria vaccines to counter conditions such as rotavirus, which causes infant diarrhoea, and Crohn's disease. Participating researchers from France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, the UK and Australia have had to identify strains that not only prevented inflammation, but also could withstand human digestive acids.

  • A US federal judge has ruled that an approval letter with a delayed effective date given by the FDA should be considered merely a tentative approval and does not give a manufacturer the legal right to begin marketing a medicine. The judge was ruling against Barr Laboratories' bid to market a generic version of tamoxifen tablets, which the company had expected to release last August. He quashed a bid by Barr to overturn FDA restrictions on selling a product ahead of its release. The FDA had stressed that Barr should wait until the original patent currently held by AstraZeneca had expired.
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