Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi SA say their CEOs will join Merck & Co. to testify at a Senate hearing on rising prescription drugs. Senate Finance Committee members invited the drug makers to testify as Congress looks into the high cost of drugs, where costs in the US are higher than in other developed countries. Congress has been targeting the pharmaceutical industry over the rising cost of prescription drugs for U.S. consumers, particularly since Democrats took over the House of Representatives in January.Other companies invited to testify include AstraZeneca and AbbVie Inc. Is a reckoning for pharmaceutical drug companies in the offing?

The pharmaceutical giant says it pulled its application to combine Opdivo and Yervoy after discussions with the FDA. Bristol, which announced a $74 billion acquisition of cancer drug maker Celgene earlier this month, will still seek approval for the combination for use by lung cancer patients with a different biomarker.The company also had better than expected Q4 results of $0.94 per share, nine cents above the Street's expectations.

Bloomberg reports that Johnson & Johnson is looking to buy surgical robotics firm Auris Health Inc. J&J is seeking to purchase Auris at a premium to the valuation from its latest funding round that valued the company at $2 billion, Bloomberg reported.So far, a final deal has not been reached and discussions are not guaranteed to lead to a sale of Auris.

Johnson & Johnson’s fourth quarter results reveal that sales were up just 1% to $20.4 billion, with adjusted net income coming-in at just $5.37 billion, which is $1.97 per share.Decreasing sales in certain quarters owing to negative currency effects; the net impact of acquisitions and divestitures during the year also affected performance without which worldwide sales would have risen 5.5%, with international sales climbing 7.8% and U.S. sales rising by 3.4% on an operational basis. J&J’s pharmaceutical segment emerged as the market leader in 2018 and registered recorded sales after growing by 5.3%.

The company says it is facing pressure from competition on its older drugs and expects generic competition on such drugs as Zytiga, a prostate cancer treatment. The company said it expects full-year sales in the range of $80.4 billion to $81.2 billion, compared with the average analyst estimate of $82.69 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.Still fourth-quarter, sales rose about one percent to $20.39 billion, topping the average Wall Street estimate of $20.20 billion, helped by growth in sales of Crohn's disease treatment Stelara and cancer drugs such as Darzalex and Imbruvica.

Philip Hampton, Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, is stepping down from the company only a month after the company announced a merger with Pfizer. The pharmaceutical giant said on Monday that Mr Hampton, who was appointed non-executive chairman in 2015, has “informed the board of his intention to step down” and the search for his successor has begun. No date for Mr Hampton’s departure was given. Under terms of the all-share deal, Glaxo will own 68% of the consumer healthcare joint venture, while US firm Pfizer will own the remaining 32% stake.

After serving as chairman for more than three and a half years at GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Philip Hampton is resigning from his post. The news comes a month after the announcement from GSK’s Chief Executive Emma Walmsley that the company will be split into two businesses — one for prescription drugs and vaccines, the other for over-the-counter products. In December, it was announced that GSK and Pfizer would combine their consumer health businesses in an all-equity deal.GSK will own 68 percent of the joint venture.

US pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, has recently confirmed the closure of its two Hospira manufacturing plant sites in India, one at Aurangabad (Maharashtra) and the other at Irungattukottai (Tamil Nadu).This decision has jeopardized those jobs and no compensation has been discussed so far. The decision to close down these two plants was reached after a thorough evaluation that revealed long-term irrevocable losses making manufacturing unfeasible at these sites.  The IKKT plant used to manufacture generic injectable cephalosporin, penems and penicillin for the US, EU and other global markets.

Pfizer had acquired the sites as part of its $15 billion purchase of Hospira Inc. in 2015. The factories, which produce generic injectables like penicillin, employs around 1,700 workers in the states of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.These plants do not make products for the India market.  Additionally, Pfizer is shuttering a Hospira research and development lab in the Indian city Chennai, but spokesman Steven Danehy said that that was unrelated to the shutdown of the aforementioned two plants. Pfizer also mentioned that it is expanding operations in its Visakhapatnam facility in south India.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based biotechnology company is developing cancer treatments that target a tumor’s genetic markers regardless of where in the body they’re located. Lilly is paying 68 percent above Loxo’s closing stock price Friday and above Loxo’s previous all-time high of $189.96, reached in July 2018.The news comes only a few days after Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Celgene Corp. announced a $74 billion cash-and-stock deal last week.

In one of the biggest pharmaceutical deals in history, U.S. drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb announced last Thursday its plans to acquire Celgene in a cash and stock deal valuing the rival drugmaker at roughly $90 billion, including debt. As the news of the deal hit the market, shares of Celgene jumped 28% in midmorning trading to ~$85 per share, while shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb tumbled 11% to trade at $47 per share. Under the terms of the deal, Celgene shareholders will receive $50 in cash for each share held along with one Bristol-Myers Squibb share or $102.43 per share, a premium of 53.7% to Celgene's Wednesday close. Both companies have faced investor wariness about their growth prospects in the recent past.But once the deal goes through, it is expected to create a company which would be a pharmaceutical leader in cancer and immunologic disease treatments, with huge growth prospects. According to analysts, the deal is a big win for Celgene, which had just overc

In one the first large mergers of 2019, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced it is buying Celgene Corp, for about $74 billion.The merged company will have many so-called blockbuster cancer drugs under its umbrella. The deal will create a company with nine treatments bringing in more than $1-billion in annual sales and a significant potential for growth in oncology, immunology and inflammation and cardiovascular disease. Talks opened in September, with Bristol-Myers approaching Celgene, according to a Rueters report. Celgene shareholders will receive one Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50 in cash for each share held, or $102.43 per share, a premium of 53.7 per cent to Celgene’s Wednesday close.

More than 250 prescription drugs will have price increases, according to a Reuters report.The news agency says that during a White House meeting with members of his Cabinet, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he expected to see a tremendous decrease in drug prices.  The overall number of price increases was down by around a third from last year, when drugmakers raised prices on more than 400 medicines, according to data provided by Rx Savings Solutions, which helps health plans and employers seek lower cost prescription medicines.

The stock price is growing much faster than the company’s earnings or sales. If we look at the daily chart, you can see that the stock price has been trending higher over the last nine months.The last time we saw this same scenario was in mid-October and the stock jumped from below $37 to over $41.50. If you look back over the last two years, the stock has gained 57.3% while the S&P is up 17.5% over this same time period.

Shares of the health-care conglomerate Johnson & Johnson dropped another 1% on Thursday.This happened after the company lost its motion to reverse a $4.7 billion jury verdict awarded to women who blamed ovarian cancer on asbestos in the company’s baby powder and other talc products. According to the report published by New York Times, the ruling was upheld by a circuit court judge in Missouri, Rex Burlison, who oversaw the trial in the case.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2019. Following the merger, GSK plans to spin off the consumer healthcare segment and list it on a London stock exchange within three years, as it plans to focus more on its pharma business.Expecting to save 500 million pounds (about $632 million) by 2022 from the deal, GSK plans to reinvest up to 25 percent of the cost savings into the company's innovation efforts.  For Pfizer, too, the deal should allow more room for the company to concentrate on its prescription drug business from which it makes most of its revenues.  

Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are planning to combine their consumer healthcare units and spin-off the joint venture.The new company would be the world's largest seller of over-the-counter drugs in the world with medicines such as Advil, Panadol in their inventories. The benefits of separating into two companies — one focused on prescription medicines and the other on consumer health — outweigh the advantages that come with a more diversified structure, Glaxo CEO Emma Walmsley told reporters on a conference call.

The signature smell is hard to forget.Johnson and Johnson’s baby powder, a product that was once considered simple, benign, and ubiquitous among new mothers is now the subject of intense legal allegations. READ MORE...

According to a Reuters report, Johnson& Johnson was aware of the presence of asbestos in its baby powder samples but failed to notify authorities. Citing documents and depositions, the report suggests that Johnson & Johnson’s raw talc and finished powder sometimes tested positive for traces of asbestos – an information known to the company’s executives and mine managers from 1971 to the early 2000s.A jury in Missouri had awarded $4.7 billion in July to 22 women who alleged that the products contained asbestos which caused them to develop ovarian cancer. According to its latest quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Johnson & Johnson faces over 9,000 cases related to its body powders with talc.

Pfizer shares have been downgraded to neutral from overweight by JP Morgan Chase. "We clearly have seen a positive shift in Pfizer's narrative, which is now focused on the re-acceleration of the company's top and bottom line growth beyond 2020," J.P. Morgan's Chris Schott said about the pharmaceutical company. "However, with the company now trading in line with peers and the broader market, we see this improved core story as better reflected in valuation," Schott stressed."And with further upside to shares likely tied to either additional pipeline success or positive new launch momentum (largely 2020+ events), we are moving to the sidelines.