JPMorgan's Ozempic bet, J&J's baby powder settlement, Moderna's COVID-flu vax: Pharma news round up
Plus, weight loss drug scams are on the rise, and a new startup hires overseas freelancers to get hard-to-find medications
JPMorgan Chase’s asset management division just finished raising a $500 million biotech fund, and its managers are looking at weight loss drug investments. Johnson & Johnson agreed this week to settle a multi-state case alleging it misled consumers about the safety of its talc-based powder products. Moderna said its experimental COVID-flu combo vaccine outperformed existing, stand alone vaccines.
Check out those stories and more pharmaceutical news highlights from this week.
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America’s largest bank is betting in on the craze surrounding Ozempic and other GLP-1s, a class of diabetes and obesity medications known for their weight loss benefits.
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Soaring demand for Ozempic, Wegovy and other weight loss drugs has boosted business for another line of work: online scams. That’s according to a report published Wednesday by digital security company McAfee.
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Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $700 million to settle a multistate case regarding the marketing of its baby powder products that contained talc and are believed to have harmed consumers.
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A booming demand for weight loss drugs has turned Ozempic into a household name. By next year, the Danish pharma giant behind it, Novo Nordisk, could even surpass Lego as Denmark’s most valuable brand, according a prominent global brand consultancy.
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Bernie Sanders has called a vote to subpoena a Novo Nordisk executive to testify on the company’s prices for Ozempic and Wegovy. The senator announced Tuesday that the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) is set to vote Tuesday, June 18, on whether to subpoena Novo Nordisk president Doug Langa for a hearing on July 10.
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A startup is working to help Americans navigate ongoing shortages of highly-coveted drugs like Adderall and Ozempic. Their solution is to outsource the detective work of finding which pharmacies have these medicines in stock to freelancers abroad.
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Moderna said on Monday that its experimental combination vaccines against COVID-19 and the flu produced a higher immune response than existing, standalone vaccines in a late-stage trial.
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A key goal of the Biden administration has been to rein in healthcare costs. As the administration nears the end of its of its first term, Quartz talked to experts, industry analysts, and a government regulator to see how the industry has responded to federal policies to date — especially those aiming to drive down drug prices.
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Nothing cuts a drug’s price like competition. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report found that a drug’s wholesale price drops an average of 39% after one single generic drug competitor enters the market. But before generic versions of a drug can enter the market, a drug manufacturer’s patent must first expire. Here are some of the world’s best-selling drugs whose patents are expiring by 2030.