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Novartis AG, Novartis Hellas S.A.C.I., and Alcon Pte Ltd Agree to Pay over $345 million Combined to Resolve FCPA Matters with the Government Novartis Hellas S.A.C.I. (Novartis Greece), a subsidiary of Novartis AG, a Switzerland-based global pharmaceutical company, and Alcon Pte Ltd, a former subsidiary of Novartis AG and current subsidiary of Alcon Inc., a multinational eye care company, have agreed to pay a combined total of more than $233 million in criminal monetary penalties to resolve the department’s investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The resolutions arise out of a Novartis Greece scheme to bribe...

Novartis Admits to Certain Conduct Alleged in the Lawsuit and Agrees to Strict Limitations on Its Ability to Conduct Future Speaker Programs Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), Gregory E. Demske, Chief Counsel to the Inspector General of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (“HHS-OIG”), Scott J. Lampert, Special Agent in Charge of HHS-OIG’s New York Regional Office, Leigh-Alistair Barzey, Special Agent in Charge of...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Novartis have reached an agreement to allow the Swiss pharmaceutical company to proceed with a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine for patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Novartis announced on Monday that it will begin enrollment for phase III of the clinical trial within the next few weeks and that the study will be conducted in more than a dozen U.S. labs. The trial is set to evaluate the anti-malaria drug, which President Trump has repeatedly touted as a potential "game changer" in the fight against COVID-19. Health officials...

President Donald Trump said U.S. health officials should have a “good idea” whether an anti-malaria drug being tested as a treatment for COVID-19 is effective in fighting the coronavirus in “the next three days.” “Hydroxychloroquine is something that I have been pushing very hard,” Trump said Monday morning during an interview on Fox News. “I think we’re going to have a good idea over the next three days because it’s been used now in New York at my request -- 1,100 people. It’s been used. I think that’s better than testing it in a laboratory. But the doctors tell me...

Patrick Rooney of Old School™ comments following the White House Coronavirus news briefing Sunday evening, March 29, 2019. The President extended "social distancing" guidelines until April 30th based on recommendations from his medical advisers Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx. At the briefing, Dr. Fauci repeated this concern that 100-200,000 Americans could die from Coronavirus (COVID-19) if steps are not taken to prevent this. The President stated that the anti-malaria drug Hydrochloroquine is being tested in New York state, and that 1,100 are in a study. Governor Andrew Cuomo has given a directive that people outside the study group...

What are the Democrat governors in Nevada and Michigan going to do now? – The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use autorization on Sunday, approving hydroxycholoroquine and chloroquine for use in treating the Wuhan Virus, COVID-19, after numerous successful studies and test cases emerged over the past three weeks. Democrat politicians and corrupt media outlets who are hoping this crisis lasts as long as possible in order to damage President Trump have been despicably down-playing the use of this safe, well-known, inexpensive and plentiful malaria treatment for the past two weeks. Two Democrat hack governors – Steve Sisolak...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of two anti-malaria drugs to treat patients infected by the new coronavirus. On Sunday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a statement that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine could be prescribed to teens and adults with COVID-19 "as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible," after the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization. (EUA) That marked the first EUA for a drug related to COVID-19 in the U.S., according to the statement. Currently, there are no specific drugs for COVID-19 which, as shown...

FDA issues emergency use authorization for donated hydroxychloroquine sulfate, chloroquine phosphate The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today accepted 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate donated by Sandoz, the Novartis generics and biosimilars division, and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate donated by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, for possible use in treating patients hospitalized with COVID-19 or for use in clinical trials. These and other companies may donate additional doses, and companies have ramped up production to provide additional supplies of the medication to the commercial market. “President Trump is taking every possible step to protect Americans from the...

(CNN) — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an emergency use authorization for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The drugs — which are used to treat malaria and other conditions — have been called game changers by President Donald Trump. But thus far, there is little scientific evidence that chloroquine, or its closely-related analogue hydroxychloroquine, are effective in treating Covid-19. What happened? The authorization came in a letter dated Saturday, but the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acknowledged the FDA’s action in a Sunday news release. The FDA limited the...

The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday issued an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, decades-old malaria drugs championed by President Donald Trump for coronavirus treatment despite scant evidence. The agency allowed for the drugs to be "donated to the Strategic National Stockpile to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible," HHS said in a statement, announcing that Sandoz donated 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to the stockpile and Bayer donated 1 million doses of chloroquine. (Please see link, for full...

Doctors in Italy have finally began widely prescribing hydroxychloroquine in certain combinations in Rome and the wider region of Lazio with a population of around six million. According to Corriere della Sera, a well known Italian daily newspaper, Dr. Pier Luigi Bartoletti, Deputy National Secretary of the Italian Federation of General Practitioners, explains that every single person with Covid-19 that has early signs, like a cough or a fever for example, is now being treated with the anti-malaria drug. The drug “is already giving good results,” Bartoletti says while Malaysia reveals they have been using it since the very beginning....

ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said his Sandoz generics unit's malaria, lupus and arthritis drug hydroxychloroquine is the company's biggest hope against the coronavirus, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday. Novartis has pledged to donate 130 million doses and is supporting clinical trials needed before the medicine, which U.S. President Donald Trump also has been promoting, can be approved for use against the coronavirus. Other companies including Bayer and Teva have also agreed to donate hydroxychloroquine or similar drugs, while Gilead Sciences is testing its experimental drug remdesivir against coronavirus. (Please see link, for full story)

Excerpt: ZURICH, March 29 (Reuters) - Novartis Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said his Sandoz generics unit's malaria, lupus and arthritis drug hydroxychloroquine is the company's biggest hope against the coronavirus, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday. Novartis has pledged to donate 130 million doses and is supporting clinical trials needed before the medicine, which U.S. President Donald Trump also has been promoting, can be approved for use against the coronavirus.

The chief executive of Novartis believes it will take at least 12 months to find a new vaccine to treat the coronavirus, with the fast-spreading nature of the outbreak a threat that must be taken “really seriously.” China’s National Health Commission confirmed Wednesday that the coronavirus had infected 5,974 people, with 132 deaths and 103 cured. The virus, which was first discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has spread to other major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Macao and Hong Kong. The number of coronavirus cases in China has already surpassed that of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS,...

Stormy Daniels’ attorney claimed Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen received $500,000 from a company controlled by a Russian oligarch, deposited into an account for a company also used to pay off the adult film actress. Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, also detailed other transactions he said were suspicious, including deposits from drug giant Novartis, the state-run Korea Aerospace Industries, and AT&T — which confirmed it paid Cohen’s company for “insights” into the Trump administration.

The FDA approved Novartis' revolutionary CAR-T cell leukemia therapy, which uses patients' genetically modified immune cells to fight the disease — at the cost of $475,000 per treatment, according to STAT. The drug, Kymriah, is the first CAR-T therapy to come before the FDA and was approved for the treatment of patients up to 25 years old with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A clinical trial of the leukemia drug deemed a "breakthrough" by physicians revealed 83 percent of patients treated with CAR-T cell therapy have gone into remission. While the price tag of $475,000 per treatment seems staggering, it is...

Pharma heavyweight Novartis has stepped in to help bankroll Berkeley, CA-based Caribou Biosciences, one of the upstart leaders in the race to develop the cutting-edge CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology. The pharma giant joined a group of backers that includes Fidelity Biosciences, Mission Bay Capital, and 5 Prime as well as company founder Jennifer Doudna, a key player among a small group of investigators which has spawned a lineup of closely watched biotechs.All together the group, which was also joined by an unnamed investor, provided $11 million in an A round to Caribou, which plans to use the cash to further...

I searched FR and found no notice of the recall, and sure have not seen it on the news. I know I've been hit and miss due to a lot of health issues this past year, but we do watch the nightly news. And anything this big would have caught my attention because I keep Maalox in the house for occasional mild stomach upset/reflux when I eat something that disagrees with my stomach. Went to buy a bottle of Maalox and tried several different stores and types, finally one of the gals at a local Kroger's said Maalox had been...

Novartis, makers of a wide array of OTC drugs, has announced a recall of several of its best-selling brands over concerns some bottles might contain the wrong meds or contain broken or chipped tablets. Subject to the recall: Excedrin and NoDoz caplets with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2014 or earlier. Bufferin and Gas-X with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2013 are also affected. Consumers are asked to check the company’s website Monday for the latest updates: www.novartisOTC.com. Novartis customers can also call the company at 1-888-477-2403 Monday to Friday 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST.

NEW YORK, April 7, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Novartis is the subject of a class action lawsuit in the U.S. due to begin today.The lawsuit claims that the company has sexist practices that discriminate against women in areas of pay, promotions, and pregnancy-related matters. Among the allegations is that at least one employee was pressured to abort her baby.The 17 plaintiffs, women who worked for the drug giant in the United States, claim they are representing 5,600 of their colleagues and are seeking total damages of $200 million.The law firm of Sanford Wittels & Heisler, which is...