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The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced that it is funding a new adult stem-cell treatment that could treat diabetes-induced retinal damage, a leading cause of blindness. Forbes Magazine says that Pfizer is funding the creation of a San Diego biotech company named EyeCyte to develop stem-cell treatments for eye diseases. The company will base its work upon Scripps Research Institute ophthalmologist Martin Friedlander’s research involving stem-cells from blood and bone marrow. EyeCyte will receive about $3 million from Pfizer, which in return has the right of first refusal regarding the new company’s products. In animal experiments, adult stem-cells have shown...

WASHINGTON - In a sharp reversal, drug and medical device companies are giving more money to Democrats than Republicans this election season, one more sign of the campaign difficulties the GOP could face this November. Over the past six elections, such businesses typically spent twice as much on GOP candidates; in 2002, the ratio got as high as 3-to-1. Democrats now are holding the edge with $7.4 million in campaign contributions compared with $7 million for GOP candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political spending. "Money follows the power," said Massie Ritsch, the center's communications director....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc said Monday it was voluntarily withdrawing advertising for its Lipitor cholesterol drug featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik artificial heart, because its ads led to "misimpressions." ads involving Jarvik had come under scrutiny, including from a House Committee as part of an investigation into celebrity endorsements of prescription medicines. Democratic lawmakers had voiced concern that Jarvik's qualifications were misrepresented in widely seen television commercials touting the blockbuster drug. They said he seemed to be dispensing medical advice even though he is not a practicing physician. On his Web site, Jarvik describes himself...

<p>HONG KONG -(Dow Jones)- Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. (PFE) said Friday it is looking to outsource as much as 30% of its manufacturing, much of it to Asia.</p> <p>Pfizer, based in New York City, now outsources about 15% of its manufacturing capabilities. The company aims to double that figure, as part of cost-cutting measures, it said at an investor presentation in Hong Kong, which was broadcast over the Internet.</p>

On June 19, 1987, Ben & Jerry’s introduced Cherry Garcia, in honor of the man who played lead guitar for the Grateful Dead. The Food and Drug Administration struck back three months later, when it approved the first of a new family of statin drugs that curb cholesterol production in the human liver. A synthetic statin licensed a decade later would become the most lucrative drug in history. At its peak, Lipitor was streaming $14 billion a year into Pfizer’s coffers. Let’s not blame the victim: we don’t choose Cherry Garcia; it chooses us. Lipitor is a lifesaver for 600,000...

The Nigerian government filed a lawsuit Monday against Pfizer Inc., asking for $7 billion in damages over allegations the pharmaceutical company conducted a drug experiment that led to deaths and disabilities among children more than a decade ago, court papers showed. The civil case filed in the capital, Abuja, is separate from a legal challenge launched in the northern state of Kano that seeks $2 billion from Pfizer, although all the cases stem from the same mid-1990s drug study. Pfizer has denied the charges in the Kano case, which are substantively similar to those in the Abuja-based suit. In the...

<p>The wonder drug could be prescribed in time for the nationwide smoking ban from July 1.</p> <p>Champix — developed by Pfizer which makes anti-impotence drug Viagra — blocks cravings, lessens withdrawal symptoms and even reduces the pleasure from ciggies.</p> <p>In trials nearly half of smokers — 44 per cent — kicked the habit after a 12-week course as opposed to 30 per cent using other NHS anti-smoking medication.</p>

For most of my adult life I have entertained the fantasy that one day I would hear liberals and Democrats, in large numbers, saying, “You know, you were right. The only way to climb the economic ladder in America is through education, hard work, and determination. I thought that, if we could just take some of the money that the rich and the middle class have and give it to the poor, everyone would be happy. “I thought that, because of more than two centuries of horrific abuse of African Americans – by Democrats and our KKK allies – we...

AIDS group to sue Pfizer over Viagra ads Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:02 AM ET By Lisa Richwine WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A major U.S. AIDS treatment group plans to file a lawsuit on Monday that accuses drug giant Pfizer Inc. of illegally promoting recreational use of its blockbuster impotence pill Viagra. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) told Reuters it wants Pfizer to be barred from marketing Viagra as a lifestyle or sexual enhancement drug. The nonprofit organization said Pfizer's actions had led to risky behavior by men and an increase in HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. "Pfizer has created...

The latest staggering atrocity from the cloaca of business-and-finance as reported by AP at the end of last week: Pfizer Inc.'s former chief executive, Henry A. McKinnell, who was forced into early retirement in part because of investor anger about his rich retirement benefits, will get a retirement package totaling more than $180 million, a new regulatory filing shows. McKinnell's package, which the company disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, included an estimated $82.3 million in pension benefits, $77.9 million in deferred compensation and cash and stock totaling more than $20.7 million. In other...

Pfizer announced last night that it had discontinued research on its most important experimental drug, a treatment for heart disease. The decision is a stunning development that is likely to seriously damage the company’s prospects through the next decades. Preliminary research found that the drug, torcetrapib, appeared to be linked with deaths and heart problems in the patients who were taking it. For people with heart disease, Pfizer’s decision to stop the trial represents the failure of a drug that many cardiologists had viewed as a potentially major advance in efforts to reduce heart attacks and strokes. Torcetrapib is designed...

On July 27, 2006, the European Union (EU) followed America's lead and gave conditional approve to Pfizer's new drug Sutent (sunitinib, formerly known as SU11248) as a treatment for advanced kidney cancer. The drug is also being used as a treatment for a rare type of cancer known as gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST).But how effective is it?Sutent is one of the latest crop of 'targeted' therapies for various kinds of cancer. It is given as a 50 milligram (mg) pill once per day. Technically speaking, it contains small-molecule inhibitors of the tyrosine kinase portion of the VEGF and PDGF receptors. ...

Brigham Young University has accused pharmaceutical giant Pfizer of cheating the school out of profits and credit for the development of Celebrex, a blockbuster anti-inflammatory drug that has earned the company billions of dollars. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City against Pfizer and several of its predecessor companies after years of unsuccessful negotiations, BYU said. The suit seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages, but notes Celebrex sales have exceeded $20 billion. It also seeks corrections in 75 patents in order to credit Professor Daniel L. Simmons for his discoveries. The suit alleges Simmons...

Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Suicide rates among the youngest and oldest Americans have steadily declined since the late 1980s, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday in a finding that contradicts popular conceptions that rates were rising. The study suggests that new antidepressant drugs may not raise the risk of suicide after all, the researchers said, but they acknowledge they are mystified by what might be causing the decline, because it is not affecting people aged 25 to 64. "For 40 years adolescent suicide rates rose," said Dr. Robert McKeown, a professor at the University of South Carolina's school...

In the race to replace Henry A. McKinnell Jr., the embattled CEO of drug giant Pfizer, Jeffrey B. Kindler was the dark horse. Named as McKinnell's successor on July 28, he had no pharmaceutical experience prior to joining Pfizer (PFE) four years ago as general counsel. But for months, the drug industry has been racked with legal, regulatory, and public-relations challenges, with Pfizer right in the thick of it. Against that backdrop, the 51-year-old Kindler—an accomplished lawyer and veteran of McDonalds Corp. (MCD) and General Electric (GE)—brings much to the table.

Reversing a strategy that had drawn criticism from doctors, Pfizer says that it will apply for approval to sell a promising new heart treatment as a standalone pill — rather than only in combination with Lipitor, Pfizer’s best-selling cholesterol treatment. The new drug, torcetrapib, is still being tested in clinical trials and is at least 18 months from federal approval. But cardiologists say it has the potential to become a significant new treatment for heart disease. Clinical trials show that torcetrapib substantially raises the levels of so-called good cholesterol, a novel approach to preventing heart attacks and strokes. Wall Street...

Tired of reading about America's retirement woes? Then I have an alternative for you: Watch a TV show about them. Heck, you don't even have to move to your TV -- you can watch it on your computer, from the comfort of your own desk chair. The particular program I'm talking about is an episode of the PBS series Frontline titled "Can You Afford to Retire?" Of course, since you've clicked on this article, you can't be too tired of reading about all of the impending retirement woes out there, so let me sum up the program's main points and...

WASHINGTON - A Pfizer drug shown to help more than one in five smokers quit the habit received federal approval on Thursday, adding another option to the limited pool of effective stop-smoking prescription medicines. Varenicline is only the second nicotine-free smoking cessation drug to gain Food and Drug Administration approval. Pfizer Inc. plans to market the twice-daily tablet as Chantix. "It's a welcome new addition. It's like with cancer or heart disease or high blood pressure or diabetes: the more effective treatments you have, the better off patients are," said Dr. Steven Schroeder, a professor of medicine at the University...

Viagra may help many couples heat up the bedroom, but it has also helped fuel a huge counterfeit market. Pfizer, the maker of the world-famous love drug, is now fighting back with technology. The company began on Dec. 15 to affix electronic identification devices known as RFID tags to all U.S. shipments of Viagra in an effort detect counterfeit pills, 5 million of which were seized by authorities last year. RFID stands for radio frequency identification and is an emerging security and inventory control technology. The move, which Pfizer claims is a first, was expected. The company made its plans...

December 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Women are suing the makers of Depo-Provera birth control, saying it has caused them severe bone loss leading to osteoporosis.A $700-million class-action lawsuit has been filed against the drug company Pfizer, an international pharmaceutical conglomerate that also produces the prescription drugs Viagra, Zoloft and Celebrex. Pfizer has come under fire in the past for alleged lethal side effects stemming from the use of the anti-depressant Zoloft, and the company currently faces a number of lawsuits in the U.S. over Celebrex, which is alleged to cause heart attacks in users.The drug Depo-Provera acts as an abortifacient....

NEW YORK - Pfizer Inc. won a crucial court ruling Friday that will allow it to exclusively sell the top-selling drug worldwide, the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, until 2011. Shares of Pfizer, the world's largest drug company, soared more than 11 percent on the news. ADVERTISEMENT District Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. ruled in Delaware federal court that Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.'s generic version of Lipitor infringes on two Pfizer patents. He said the New Delhi-based company failed to prove Pfizer's patents were invalid or unenforceable. The ruling heads off the chance that Ranbaxy will be able to launch...

Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people )'s new HDL elevator, a drug developed to raise "good" cholesterol in the body, "complicates the cholesterol market" said Merrill Lynch analyst David Risinger in a report Friday. Hank McKinnell, the chief executive of Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ), indicated recently that the company's "torcetrapip/Lipitor combination is a $10 billion opportunity" for Pfizer. Risinger said he believes Merck's new HDL elevator, MK-0524A, which Merck discussed at an analyst meeting Thursday, "introduces a new level of commercial risk" for Pfizer's combination LDL/HDL product, "which is the primary pipeline product expected to...

  PharmaceuticalsSaving CelebrexMatthew Herper, 12.13.05, 3:00 PM ET On Aug. 22, the Monday after Merck was slammed with a multimillion-dollar verdict in the first trial related to Vioxx, Pfizer brought a team of academic researchers to meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to discuss a gigantic clinical trial to try to prove that low doses of Celebrex do not pose the same heart attack and stroke risk that Vioxx does. The talks were left unfinished then, but now just such a trial is being announced. The big surprise: Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ) has...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Treatment with Viagra (sildenafil) can improve exercise capacity and functional ability in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a serious disease involving high pressure in the blood vessels that enter the lungs, new research suggests. The findings, which appear in The New England Journal of Medicine, are based on a study of 278 patients who were randomly selected to receive Viagra, at one of three doses, or inactive "placebo" three times daily for 12 weeks. The main endpoint was the distance walked in 6 minutes. According to the report, the study did not have enough patients...

The spread of Viagra, the wonder drug that promises to cure erectile dysfunction, is saving endangered species as many men switch from using animal parts to treat the malady, claims a new survey. William von Hippel, a psychologist from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and his brother Frank von Hippel, a biologist from the University of Alaska in Anchorage, showed that the Western treatment for the sexual problem seems to be replacing traditional medicines, including potions made from seal penises and reindeer antler velvet. In a study funded by Pfizer, the manufacturer of Viagra, the von...

...The straightforward generosity of the corporate sector has been well reported. [D]onations had exceeded $200 million. Besides cash, companies have handed out free drugs, suspended finance payments on cars and mortgages and helped emergency personnel with equipment. As interesting, though, has been the application of corporate best practices-- from supply-chain management to logistics-- to a natural disaster. The private-sector planning began before Katrina hit. Home Depot's "war room" had transferred high-demand items -- generators, flashlights, batteries and lumber -- to distribution areas surrounding the strike area. Phone companies readied mobile cell towers and sent in generators and fuel. Insurers flew...

Doncaster, UK (AHN) - The maker of the widely popular male impotence drug "Viagra" is now ready to tackle an issue many are not even aware of. Premature orgasms among women is an issue that is increasingly being talked about in doctors offices across the globe and drug maker Pfizer believes it has the market cornered for a cure. "Whilst anorgasmia and difficulties with orgasm are well-represented in the female sexual dysfunction literature, rapid orgasm - a female problem sharing components with premature ejaculation in men - is notable by its absence," says the patent from Pfizer. The company believes...

The Betrayal of Susette Kelo By William John Hagan The Houston Home Journal, Perry, GA 08/03/2005 The Fifth Amendment states that “No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” This means that the government cannot take your property without due process and can only do so in exchange for a payment of “a fair and reasonable amount” for such things such as a public works project. This protects citizens from the forced confiscation of their land. This concept of natural property rights...

Supreme Court rules cities may seize homes HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON - A divided Supreme Court ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth conflicts with individual property rights. Thursday's 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas....

WASHINGTON - Gay and transgender workers were more likely than ever to receive domestic-partner health benefits last year, and more companies are adopting nondiscrimination policies to protect them, a leading gay- activist group reported. But gays' workplace gains have slowed since the '90s, according to figures that the group, the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, compiled for its annual "State of the Workplace" report. That's probably because of the rising costs of health benefits. Social conservatives said their resistance to such efforts was a factor. Fortune 500 companies were most likely to protect gay and transgender workers, according to the survey....

The main ingredient in Viagra is reborn as Revatio, a drug used to treat a fatal lung disease. Viagra, the erectile-dysfunction drug used by more than 26 million men worldwide, was reborn Monday as Revatio, a drug to treat pulmonary hypertension, a rare, fatal lung disease caused by constrictions in the blood vessels that supply the lungs. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug's main ingredient, sildenafil citrate, for the new indication in a different dose, 25 milligrams vs. 20, 50 and 100 milligrams for Viagra, and with a new look. Revatio is white and round; Viagra is a...

PHILADELPHIA - A former salesman for the Philadelphia Eagles Radio Network was awarded $614,000 in a discrimination case after being given a book that advised blacks selling to whites not to wear Afros or African-style clothing. Viacom Inc. and Infinity Broadcasting, the network's parent companies, appealed the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission ruling to a state appellate court, a lawyer for plaintiff Shawn Brooks said Tuesday. "It's been a very tough road, standing up for what you believe in," said Brooks, 34, a native of Camden, N.J., who said his family is of mixed race. Supervisors at the radio network, which...

<p>Catch up with the car from "Back to the Future"</p> <p>Bextra belongs to a class of drugs that has been linked to higher risk of cardiovascular disease, but the reason given by both the government and Pfizer for today's withdrawal of Bextra was an additional risk of a potentially serious skin reaction.</p>

WHAT if there was growing evidence that an already-existing drug, taken daily, might dramatically reduce the risk of breast cancer? Shouldn't that be more newsworthy than fund-raising walkathons done in the quixotic pursuit of a simple cure? More noteworthy than the latest lab test which classifies an environmental chemical as a rodent carcinogen? U.S. scientists, led by Harvard's Dr. Peter Goss, this week began recruiting women at high risk of breast cancer to participate in a study of what may well be just such a drug. That "chemical prevention" of cancer has come so far will be a shock to...

NEW YORK -- Eli Lilly & Co. said it fired an employee who wrote a book about his tenure as a Pfizer Inc. sales representative which boasted about how little he worked and how much money he earned. A spokesman for Indianapolis-based Lilly, Philip Belt, said on Monday that Jamie Reidy, author of the recently released "Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman", was terminated because the book advocated actions that were in violation of Lilly's policies. In the book, for example, Reidy admits he exaggerated how often he visited doctors. He also says in the book that he...

A drug that could be one of the most promising new heart treatments in a decade is generating controversy even before it is approved, because its maker, Pfizer, plans to sell it only in combination with the company's best-selling cholesterol treatment, Lipitor. At a cardiology conference in Orlando, Fla., today, researchers sponsored by Pfizer are expected to present positive new results about the drug, which has been shown in preliminary studies to substantially raise levels of what is known as good cholesterol, a novel approach to preventing heart disease. The new drug, called torcetrapib, still must clear many hurdles before...

A fight by homeowners to save their New London, Connecticut, neighborhood from city officials and private developers -- an important property rights case with an unusual twist -- will reach the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. At issue is whether governments can forcibly seize homes and businesses, for private economic development.... ......Legal analysts said they see the case as having major implications nationwide in property rights and redevelopment issues.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 - A federal drug advisory panel unanimously agreed today that the huge-selling painkillers Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx cause worrisome heart problems, but its members voted to recommend that all three nonetheless be available to patients, accompanied by strong warnings of the risks. The panel only narrowly supported the continued marketing of Pfizer's Bextra or the return of Merck's Vioxx, voting 17-13 on Bextra and 17-15 on Vioxx. The panel was much more comfortable supporting the continued marketing of Celebrex, favoring the Pfizer painkiller 31-1. The Food and Drug Administration, which has the final word on the regulation...

Massive send-off rally to support the Fort Trumbull eminent domain victims in their 5-year quest for justice before the U.S. Supreme Court next week. See link for details.

CHARLESTON, S.C., Feb. 15 - A 15-year-old boy who confessed to killing his grandparents was convicted of murder today, as the jury rejected his defense that the slayings took place because he was under the influence of the antidepressant Zoloft. Christopher Pittman, who was 12 at the time of the murder, could receive 30 years to life in prison when he is sentenced this afternoon. The judge in the trial had told jurors that the teenager could be found not guilty of murder if he was "involuntary intoxicated" by the drug, offering them an option to acquit the boy without...

Microsoft Corp. and Pfizer Inc. on Thursday announced parallel lawsuits against two international spam rings pushing a variety of drugs, especially those purporting to be generic versions of Pfizer's Viagra product. The two companies filed a total of 17 lawsuits in courts in New York and Washington state. According to the companies, Pfizer filed civil actions against CanadianPharmacy and E-Pharmacy Direct, alleging trademark infringement, "unfair competition under both federal and state law, as well as deceptive trade practices in violation of New York state law." They also allege that the companies are selling non-FDA approved sildenafil citrate, the chemical name...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A teenager who shot and killed his grandparents as they slept is "a shy, decent boy" who was led to kill by the antidepressant Zoloft, his attorney said as the boy went on trial. Christopher Pittman, now 15, is being tried as an adult for two counts of murder in the November 2001 slayings of Joe and Joy Pittman with a pump-action shotgun. Their house was set ablaze and the youth, then 12, drove off in the family car.

Two studies released yesterday have turned up new evidence that all of the popular arthritis painkillers known as COX-2 inhibitors may put users at greater risk of heart attacks and strokes. The first of the two papers published online by the journal Circulation found that patients who had had heart bypass surgery and were taking Pfizer Inc.'s Bextra and another experimental COX-2 inhibitor were three times more likely to have strokes and heart attacks than patients taking a placebo. The statistically significant tripling of the risk showed up when researchers combined the results of two earlier studies involving more than...

NEW YORK - The maker of Listerine mouthwash will spend $2 million to replace what a judge called misleading advertising suggesting the product is as effective as flossing at fighting plaque and gingivitis. About 4,000 workers will be deployed around the country to place stickers over the claim on Listerine bottles and to remove similar advertisements that hang on bottlenecks, a lawyer for Pfizer Inc. told a federal judge Monday. Television, print and medical-journal ads using the campaign are also being pulled, and the as-effective-as-floss campaign has also been removed from the Listerine Web site, lawyer Tom Smart said. U.S....

Suppose there were an anti-inflammatory drug that sharply reduced the level of CRP, the protein that has proved to be as powerful an indicator of heart disease risk as high cholesterol. A doctor might well prescribe such a drug for a patient with high levels of the protein. After all, CRP is linked to inflammation, and high levels of it are linked to heart attacks. As it turns out, there are such drugs. But this may not be good news. The anti-inflammatory drugs that lower CRP levels are COX-2 inhibitors, the very drugs that were recently found to increase the...

MEDICINE'S DATA GAP A pediatrician who has read medical journals lately might have seen articles advocating the use of the antifungal drug Diflucan for the treatment of ringworm, a childhood skin infection. But reading the extensive medical information enclosed in the drug's package, the same doctor would not learn that federal drug regulators had rejected Diflucan for ringworm use. Reviewing test data provided by the maker, Pfizer, the F.D.A. concluded that Diflucan was not very effective for ringworm - and that a child could risk liver damage if given high doses of the drug. It is a quirk of the...

Pfizer Inc. said today that it had found an increased risk of heart troubles in some people taking higher dosages of Celebrex, its popular arthritis and pain relief drug. The findings come three months after another pharmaceutical maker, Merck & Company, voluntarily withdrew the painkiller Vioxx, Celebrex's chief rival in a class of drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors, because a study found that Vioxx doubled patients' risk of heart attack and strokes. Officials with the Food and Drug Administration said today that they would conduct further reviews of the findings before taking any action on the drug, including a so-called...

WASHINGTON — At a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill, senators excoriated top federal drug regulators for failing to realize three years ago that Vioxx, a pain pill that Merck withdrew in September, was dangerous. But the Food and Drug Administration today faces almost exactly the same situation with another arthritis drug, Bextra, that it did with Vioxx three years ago. And just as with Vioxx, it is far from clear what the agency should do. In a sign that they believe they acted appropriately in the Vioxx case, top agency officials are handling the Bextra situation exactly the same way....

WASHINGTON (Nov. 15) - Two television advertisements for Pfizer Inc.'s impotence drug Viagra should be withdrawn for claiming a return of sexual desire and omitting key information, the Food and Drug Administration said in a letter to the company released on Monday. The ads, with a voice-over that includes "Remember that guy who used to be called 'wild thing'?" and later says "He's back," failed to mention major side effects and why certain patients should not take Viagra, the FDA said. The FDA's letter, dated Nov. 10, also said the 30- and 15-second ads omit to mention that Viagra is...

someone i know is at a trade show today and mr. M is there..... sounds like lardo is doing a documentary about how pharmaceutical companies waste so much money. Pfizer. being the main focus....... http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.php?s=f1bb151acd26d75cfe6a7085b8e42e39&threadid=251614&cache=24 funny discussion.