Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., based just over the county line in Corona, has gained the rights to 15 generic drugs as part of a settlement with Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. and the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC had charged that Teva’s proposed $8.9 billion buy of rival Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. of New Jersey was anti-competitive and would violate federal law.
As part of the deal, Watson is getting five generic drugs from Teva: chlorzoxazone tablets, which are used to treat muscle diseases; deferoxamine injection for iron poisoning; fluoxetine weekly capsules, an anti-depressant; carboplatin injection for ovarian cancer; and metronidazole tablets, an antibiotic.
The drug maker also is getting 10 generic drugs from Barr.
Those are: metoclopramide HCl tablets for gastrointestinal disease; cyclosporine liquid; cyclosporine capsules, an antibiotic; desmopressin acetate tablets, a hormone used to treat bed-wetting; epop, a drug that treats primary pulmonary hypertension; flutamide capsules, a prostate cancer drug; glipizide/metformin HCl tablets, used to lower blood sugar levels in adult-onset diabetics; anti-depressant mirtazapine ODT; breast cancer drug tamoxifen; and tetracycline HCl antibiotic caplets.
Watson’s cofounder Allen Chao, lives in Anaheim Hills. Last month, he stepped down as the company’s chairman.
Chao and his family are noted for their philanthropy. The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of California, Irvine, bears his family’s name.
Teva runs Teva Sicor Inc. in Irvine with an estimated 875 local workers, the county’s second-largest drug maker after Irvine’s Allergan Inc.
Edwards to Detail Payments
Irvine-based heart valve maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp. starts 2009 with a new policy,disclosing consulting relationships with doctors.
Edwards said about two weeks ago that it would post a page on its Web site featuring details of its financial ties with doctors who receive $5,000 or more in consulting fees, royalties or honoraria from the company.
The device maker said it would begin targeted tracking of the data on Jan. 1 and would publish it annually beginning in the second half of the year.
Edwards supports federal legislation that would require all companies to disclose such information, Chief Executive Michael Mussallem said.
The company said it hopes it would learn from the experience as it launches a voluntary disclosure program in advance of a federal mandate.
Financial relationships between drug and device makers and doctors have created some controversy in recent years, with critics saying that such situations potentially could taint the integrity of medical research and patient care.
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has introduced a bill that would require drug and device makers to divulge the payments they make to doctors.
E & Y;: Drug Makers Cutting Costs
Last month, we talked to executives of several Orange County drug companies who discussed findings of an Ernst & Young study.
Those executives questioned some aspects of the study, particularly an emphasis on research and development over cutting costs.
Ernst & Young sent a response that its survey respondents “did in fact, express a continued concern about controlling costs.”
The firm also pointed out that a change from previous results is that big drug makers that participated have moved away from or exhausted traditional cost-cutting methods like cutting discretionary spending.
Instead of those tactics, Ernst & Young said drug makers were embracing what they called “a more holistic approach” to managing costs to maximize its investments and encouraging a corporate culture of cost discipline.
“When properly managed, these initiatives should allow companies to ‘grow lean’ and prosper through the economic crisis,” Ernst & Young said.
Bits and Pieces:
Allergan, an Irvine-based drug maker, says it receives a third, not a half, of its sales from elective drugs and procedures, not half as indicated in our Dec. 15 healthcare preview story. The difference comes from the use of Botox, Allergan’s flagship drug, in therapeutic procedures as well as cosmetic procedures MiCardia Corp., a privately held Irvine medical device maker, said that its Dynaplasty medical device for mitral heart valve repair was implanted in two patients in a German clinical study. MiCardia is backed by Michael Henson, a veteran OC device investor and entrepreneur Nitin Bhatia, an assistant professor of clinical orthopedic surgery at UC Irvine, is a member of the scientific advisory board of DiFusion Technologies Inc., a newly launched medical device maker out of Austin, Texas. DiFusion plans to release a device that will be capable of killing 650 types of bacteria in surgical wounds.