- High from hemp: States wrestle with chemically made THC (apnews.com)
Over the past few years, Jonny Griffis has invested millions of dollars in his legal marijuana farm in northern Michigan, which produces extracts to be used in things like gummy bears and vape oils...But now that farm — like many other licensed grows in states that have legalized marijuana — faces an existential threat: high-inducing cannabis compounds derived not from the heavily regulated and taxed legal marijuana industry, but from a chemical process involving less strictly regulated, cheaply grown hemp...At the center of the issue is THC, marijuana’s main intoxicating component. While marijuana and hemp are the same plant — cannabis — the distinction between the two is a legal one, and comes down to the amount of THC in the plant, specifically the amount of a type of THC called delta-9...People exploiting what they see as a loophole in the law have taken that hemp, extracted a non-intoxicating compound called CBD, and chemically changed it — generally by the addition of solvents and heat — into various types of impairing THC...READ MORE
- Ex-biotech executives sentenced for Genentech trade theft (apnews.com)
Two co-founders of a Taiwan biotechnology company were sentenced Tuesday for plotting to steal trade secrets from Genentech in a $101 million scheme...Racho Jordanov, former CEO of JHL Biotech Inc., and former chief operating officer Rose Lin were sentenced in San Francisco federal court to a year and a day each in federal prison...They pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit trade secret theft and wire fraud...JHL Biotech, now known as Eden Biologics, Inc., is a biopharmaceutical startup based in Taiwan. According to plea agreements, between 2011 and 2019, Jordanov used confidential Genentech information from ex-Genentech workers he hired to speed up and reduce costs for producing generic versions of products made by the South San Francisco-based company...READ MORE
- House panel presses DOJ, Treasury to review drugmakers’ opioid settlement tax breaks (thehill.com)
The House Oversight and Reform Committee...on Monday pressed the departments of Justice and the Treasury to look into the tax deductions of four U.S. drug companies that agreed to a multibillion-dollar settlement last month to end opioid-related lawsuits...In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the panel said it had found four companies that agreed to the $26 billion settlement — Cardinal Health, McKesson Corporation, AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson & Johnson — are possibly trying to "put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in settlement costs."..."We request that you determine whether these tax maneuvers comply with the law, and we urge you to do everything in your power to ensure transparency and accountability for the companies and executives that fueled our country’s deadly opioid crisis," wrote the committee...Read More</strong>
- ‘We have to make a stand’: Biotech leaders vow to break ties with Russia over Ukraine war (biopharmadive.com)Roche, Sanofi, Novo Nordisk and more pledge support to Ukraine as industry condemns Russian invasion (fiercepharma.com)
More than 400 executives and investors, including the heads of Alnylam, SeaGen and Sarepta, signed onto a letter calling for biotech companies to stop working with Russian companies...Hundreds of biotech leaders are pledging to stop working with Russian companies and to reject investment from Russian funds in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine...In an open letter, more than 400 drugmaker CEOs, executives and investors condemned Russia's actions and called for "immediate and complete economic disengagement," including cessation of new investment within Russian borders and any trade in goods and services beyond food and medicine...READ MORE
- Generic drugmakers sign on to make cheap version of Pfizer COVID pill (reuters.com)
Thirty five generic drugmakers around the world will make cheap versions of Pfizer Inc's highly effective COVID-19 oral antiviral Paxlovid to supply the treatment in 95 poorer countries, the U.N.-backed Medicines Patent Pool said...Pfizer struck a deal...with the group to allow generic drugmakers to make the pills for 95 low- and middle-income countries...Paxlovid is expected to be an important tool in the fight against COVID-19 after it reduced hospitalizations in high-risk patients...Merck, on its own and through the MPP license, has deals with dozens of drugmakers to make its pill...available in some countries...Read More
- Indy Explains: How Nevada’s new prescription drug savings program works (thenevadaindependent.com)ArrayRx (arrayrxsolutions.com)
Nevadans will soon be able to save big on prescription drugs after the state joined a coalition that negotiates lower drug costs, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services...Last month, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced that Nevada will join Oregon and Washington in the Northwest Prescription Drug Consortium, a partnership that allows residents to use drug discount cards to purchase prescription drugs at lower costs. The consortium rebranded to ArrayRx in 2021...It is expected that the drug discount card program could cut the cost of generic drugs by 80 percent and by up to 20 percent on name-brand drugs...READ MORE
- Pfizer, Bayer to maintain drug supply to Russia (reuters.com)
Pfizer Inc and Bayer said on...they would maintain humanitarian supply of medicines to Russia, but would pull back from other non-essential spending in the country...Global companies have decided to step back from Russia as pressure mounts from consumers in the West to take a stand against its invasion of Ukraine..."Ending delivery of medicines, including cancer or cardiovascular therapies, would cause significant patient suffering and potential loss of life, particularly among children and elderly people," Pfizer said...READ MORE
- Alnylam sues Pfizer and Moderna claiming infringement on its delivery technology for COVID shots (fiercepharma.com)
Less than three weeks after two companies sued Moderna, claiming the vaccine maker infringed on their patents in developing its COVID-19 shot, Alnylam has done the same, suing Moderna and Pfizer in separate lawsuits...In...federal court, Alnylam filed claims against the two COVID-19 vaccine producers alleging that more than a decade ago it invented the delivery technology employed by both shots...Alnylam says its Patent No. 11,246,933 covers “a breakthrough class of cationic biodegradable lipids used to form lipid nanoparticles that carry and safely deliver” mRNA-based vaccines...Alnylam is not attempting to halt production of the vaccines, it is seeking damages for the “defendants’ wrongful acts in an amount to be determined at trial” and royalties...READ MORE
- Pfizer pledges to donate all Russian profits to humanitarian causes amid war in Ukraine (fiercepharma.com)
CEO Albert Bourla, Pfizer
...Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla, Ph.D., said the company would halt its investments in Russia but still supply needed medicines there. Now, Pfizer is taking its humanitarian commitment a step further by pledging to donate all profits from its Russian subsidiary...Specifically, the Big Pharma will give those profits to "causes that provide direct humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine," the company said in a...statement. The move comes after Bourla recently told CBS News' "Face the Nation" Pfizer would be shutting down new investments in Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine..READ MORE
- Sacklers to pay $6 billion to settle Purdue opioid lawsuits (reuters.com)
The Sackler family owners of Purdue Pharma LP reached a deal with a group of attorneys general to pay up to $6 billion in cash to resolve widespread litigation alleging that they fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic, bringing the OxyContin maker closer to exiting bankruptcy...The attorneys general for eight states and the District of Columbia, who had blocked a previous settlement that included a $4.3 billion cash payment, announced the deal after weeks of mediation with the Sacklers...The family agreed to pay at least $5.5 billion in cash, which will be used for abating a crisis that has led to nearly 500,000 U.S. opioid overdose deaths over two decades...READ MORE