Showing posts with label AstraZeneca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AstraZeneca. Show all posts
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
AstraZeneca Seroquel - a father's anguish - Government killed his son by way of prescription pad
Via PharmaGossip
A father’s anguish: Military killed my son with prescription pad | The Daily Caller
A father who has lost two sons to war told The Daily Caller that the U.S. Central Command’s policy of allowing troops to deploy with a 180-day supply of the antipsychotic Seroquel has contributed to the deaths of troops and veterans. Seroquel, he said, has tragic side effects that military leaders have ignored in their quest to combat insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among fighting men and women.
The father, West Virginia school principal Stan White, said there are better ways to treat troops and veterans who suffer from PTSD. But because the maker of Seroquel, London-based AstraZeneca, has so much influence over Congress and the military, he insisted, that peer counseling and other treatment options are being shoved aside in favor of low doses of the drug.
White’s suspicions are slowly being validated by a series of studies, legal settlements, and military rulings — including a recommendation from the Department of Defense’s own advisory body on pharmaceuticals.
“I think AstraZeneca is so strong and has so much power that no one can speak out,” said White, who has remained stoic despite his losses. “Money talks. I truly believe AstraZeneca and other big pharma companies have control over Congress.”
His first son, Army Sgt. Robert White, died in combat in Iraq. When Robert’s younger brother Andrew returned from his own tour in the Middle Eastern country, a Veterans Administration doctor prescribed a combination of Seroquel and antidepressants for his PTSD.
Andrew died at home, and the state of West Virginia ruled that an accidental medication overdose was to blame.
But his father believes the “dangerous” pill cocktail killed him. And he told TheDC that he has identified 300 other soldiers and veterans who died from sudden cardiac arrest while taking Seroquel and antidepressants in combination.
Evidence supporting his theory has continued to accumulate, including a September 2011 study from the European Society of Cardiology which linked the “combined use of antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs” with an increased risk of sudden heart attacks.
Doctors have free rein to prescribe medications for off-label uses, and the FDA’s ever-growing avalanche of advisories sometimes makes it difficult for physicians to know what has been approved and what has not.
A 2009 University of Chicago national survey of physicians, for instance, found that one in eight doctors thought Seroquel was approved for treating dementia, even though the FDA had issued a specific warning against it.
Drug marketers, however, are forbidden to promote their products for any purpose not approved by the FDA.
In April 2010 AstraZeneca conceded that it had crossed that line, agreeing to pay the U.S. government $520 million to settle claims related to its illegal promotion of Seroquel for off-label uses.
Read the rest of this disturbing & important article by clicking on links below
NEXT: A massive increase in government spending on Seroquel
NEXT: AstraZeneca's $32.6 million lobby shop
Cash Rich AstraZeneca pacifying stock holders with 5bn dollar buy back, while continuing criminal business as usual
Cash Rich AstraZeneca pacifying stock holders with 5 bn dollar buy back, while continuing their criminal business as usual model. If you haven't gotten the message by now, AstraZeneca has bought some powerful friends in very high places within our government. Especially when you look at the puny amounts they have paid in fines to walk away unscathed from a throng of unconscionable crimes without admitting any guilt or wrong doing; and then went on to pay even less to those persons health & lives they have destroyed or ended by their unsafe products and unscrupulous business practices. You only can just begin to fathom the depth of greed and conspired evil intent involved in this elitist masquerade that has been perpetrated against the citizens of America, and others from around the world.
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From The Independent
A hugely cash generative business, AstraZeneca has been keeping investors happy over the past two years by purchasing $2.1bn of shares in 2010 and around $4bn in 2011. The group will confirm another round of share buybacks in its full-year results this week, with the consensus expectation $3bn and analysts at UBS expecting as much as $5bn.
Savvas Neophytou, analyst at Panmure Gordon, said he had a "conservative" forecast – this still came to $1.5bn – as he felt that AstraZeneca might hold back some cash for acquisitions. He added: "The
share buyback programme will be extended for sure. There are also a number of opportunities for the company to invest in."
However, AstraZeneca, whose chief executive is David Brennan, right, has faced some disappointments recently in its drug pipeline. For example, its latest blockbuster drug (those likely to have sales of more than $1bn) is expected to be the diabetes treatment Dapagliflozin, but the US Food and Drug Administration has demanded more clinical trials before giving approval. The UBS analysts expect fourth-quarter sales to be fractionally down on the previous year at $8.611bn.
Michael Mitchell, healthcare analyst at Seymour Pierce, said that there was a "question over whether a better use of money" would be investing in new drugs or buying companies with strong research and development records.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Nenad Borojević, former head of the Institute of Radiology and Oncology in Belgrade & The Doctor at the center of AstraZeneca's Bribery & Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was found hanging in a forest
Nenad Borojević, former head of the Institute of Radiology and Oncology in Belgrade & The Doctor at the center of AstraZeneca's Bribery & Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was found hanging in a forest.
We haven't heard much new news related to the foreign bribery allegations & violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act regarding AstraZeneca since Nov. 2011. So this news coming out of Serbia appears to be straight out of a John Grisham Novel. We have a Huge Multinational Corporation, Bribery, Corruption, and now a principle Doctor @ the center of the allegations found hanging in the forest. There has to be a very dark and seedy under belly to this story that has yet to be revealed. Makes even a hardened Cynic begin to wonder?
also @ b92 BELGRADE -- The family of former director of the Serbian Institute of Oncology and Radiology Nenad Borojević "still does not believe that he had taken his own life".
Doctor accused of cancer drugs fraud
commits suicide
Via b92 commits suicide
01/11/2012
Nenad Borojević, former head of the Institute of Radiology and Oncology in Belgrade, was found hanged in a forest in the city's Košutnjak neighborhood, it was announced.
According to reports, he committed suicide.
It was announced that the police would release a statement detailing the suicide, "and its motives".
Borojević was undergoing trial, but was released from custody for the duration of the court process. He was forbidden to leave his place of residence and was fitted with an electronic surveillance bracelet to monitor his movements.
Borojević and eight others were facing justice accused of, from 2007 until 2009, colluding with pharmaceutical companies to supply them in advance with information on the amount of needed cytostatic drugs, and on public procurement plans for the purchase of the said medication.
At the start of the trial, Borojević denied that he accepted bribes from the companies, and also rejected the prosecution's claim that he headed the group that rigged tenders called to purchase cancer treatment drugs.
The anti-corruption case was tried by the Special Court in Belgrade. Among those accused was the former head of the Pediatric Oncology Ward of the Institute, Zoran Bekić.
It was announced that the police would release a statement detailing the suicide, "and its motives".
Borojević was undergoing trial, but was released from custody for the duration of the court process. He was forbidden to leave his place of residence and was fitted with an electronic surveillance bracelet to monitor his movements.
Borojević and eight others were facing justice accused of, from 2007 until 2009, colluding with pharmaceutical companies to supply them in advance with information on the amount of needed cytostatic drugs, and on public procurement plans for the purchase of the said medication.
At the start of the trial, Borojević denied that he accepted bribes from the companies, and also rejected the prosecution's claim that he headed the group that rigged tenders called to purchase cancer treatment drugs.
The anti-corruption case was tried by the Special Court in Belgrade. Among those accused was the former head of the Pediatric Oncology Ward of the Institute, Zoran Bekić.
IM: Death of ex-Oncology Institute head was suicide
Source: Tanjug Thursday 12.01.2012 | 20:29
BELGRADE -- The family of former director of the Serbian Institute of Oncology and Radiology Nenad Borojević "still does not believe that he had taken his own life".
A file photo of Nenad Borojević
This is despite a statement on Thursday by Interior Minister Ivica Dačić, who said that "the first analysis point to suicide".
Borojević was found dead, hanging from a tree in a forest-park in Belgrade.
Marko Kastratović, one of Borojević's lawyers, told Tanjug on Thursday that the family had not yet received a police report about his death, or a report by the investigating judge and they did not believe he had killed himself.
“Everything is still open to doubt, and there also are some new circumstances that I cannot speak about at the moment, because it rests with the family to decide. They will decide whether and when to disclose the information to the public,” said Kastratović.
Dačić said earlier today that the investigation into the Borojević's death in Košutnjak was underway and that the body had been sent for autopsy, but the first analysis indicated that he had committed suicide.
However, while the criminal proceedings against Borojević have now been annulled, the proceedings concerning forfeiture of property suspected to have been acquired through criminal acts will be continued against his successors.
Before his death, Borojević was on trial before the Belgrade special court, on charges of unlawfully acquiring RSD 11.2mn through malpractices in connection with procurement of cancer treatment drugs.
He was granted provisional release pending trial with the prohibition of leaving Belgrade and was wearing electronic bracelets by way of which his movements were monitored.
The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime charged Borojević and another eight defendants with making illegal arrangements with officials of pharmaceutical companies concerning getting information about the consumption of cytostatics and the relevant public procurement procedures in advance.
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Background Story:
November 2011
AstraZeneca Indicted In Serbia For Alleged Bribery
http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2011/11/07/astrazeneca-indicted-in-serbia-for-alleged-bribery/
AstraZeneca PLC said Monday in a securities filing that it was criminally indicted in Serbia for alleged bribery.
- Drago Prvulovic/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
- The sign of the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is pictured at the plant in Lund, Sweden, on March 2, 2010.
The indictment, which according to the filing was served in August, accuses local AstraZeneca employees of having “made allegedly improper payments to physicians” at the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia.
In the filing, the company said it has filed a number of procedural motions to dismiss the charges.
“We intend to vigorously defend the matter and have filed a number of pending preliminary procedural objections that ask the Serbian criminal court to dismiss the indictment,” Tony Jewell, an AstraZeneca spokesman, said in an email. “This case is still in preliminary stages, so we are not in a position, at this time to comment further or to predict the outcome.”
The disclosure was made when AstraZeneca reported third-quarter earnings on Oct. 27; the Financial Times reported it (sub req) at the time. Monday’s filing, the 6-K required of foreign issuers, was a bundle of press releases made by the company during October.
Last year, the director of the Institute—as well as several others, including a business unit manager in AstraZeneca’s Belgrade office—were arrested in an alleged bribery scheme that involved favoring some pharmaceutical companies’ products when purchasing cancer-treatment medicine.
The pharmaceutical industry is already staring at an industry-wide probe in the U.S. into alleged foreign bribery. AstraZeneca was one of several companies that disclosed it was being investigated for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars companies and individuals from bribing foreign officials to get or keep business.
Johnson & Johnson settled in April, agreeing to pay $70 million to U.S. authorities. In itslatest annual report, AstraZeneca said it’s cooperating with U.S. authorities on the probe, and it couldn’t predict the scope, duration or outcome of the investigation.
(Correction: The highest-ranking person AstraZeneca person arrested was a business unit manager, not the head of the Belgrade office.)
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