Tag Archives: big pharma

Blog, Business Law, Celebrity, Criminal, Drug Companies, International, Legal News, Supreme Court

Convicted ‘pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli wants early release to work on coronavirus cure

Lawyers for Shkreli, who is in federal prison, claim he has “devoted countless hours” to researching a cure.

Lawyers for “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli asked a federal judge Wednesday to release him from prison so he can help find a cure for COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus, court records show.

The documents, filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., say Shkreli, 37, has “devoted countless hours” to developing a cure for the disease, which has killed nearly 45,000 people in the United States and tens of thousands more around the world.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Shkreli is serving a seven-year sentence at a federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, after being convicted in 2017 on securities fraud and conspiracy charges. His lawyers asked in the filing that he be allowed to serve the rest of his term at home with an electronic monitor.

Shkreli, a former biotech CEO and hedge fund manager, had been accused of repeatedly lying about the performance of his funds and raiding his company’s assets to provide returns to investors. He first gained notoriety in 2015 after he raised the price of a lifesaving anti-parasite drug by 5,000 percent.

Read Full

Blog, Business Law, Criminal, Drug Companies, Legal News, Organized Crime, Supreme Court

Tennessee Supreme Court to decide if Big Pharma can be sued as drug dealers


—–

Drug makers are pushing the Tennessee Supreme Court to block a move by state prosecutors to hold Big Pharma financially accountable for the opioid epidemic, Knox News has learned.

Tennessee’s high court has now agreed to consider whether the state’s district attorneys general can sue opioid makers Endo Pharmaceuticals, Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and Teva Pharmaceuticals using a law targeting drug dealers, according to an order made public Tuesday.

The high court is also allowing a coalition of corporate and insurance attorneys representing big business — the International Association of Defense Counsel — to weigh in, the order shows.

The court’s decision to take up the appeal comes in a lawsuit filed in Campbell County — one of the hardest hit in the opioid epidemic — against the opioid makers by 8th….

Read Full

Blog, Drug Companies, International, Legal News, Supreme Court

U.S. taxpayers already paid for COVID-19 treatments — we cannot let Big Pharma make us pay again

U.S. taxpayers have already paid for the research and testing of the most promising treatments

There’s much we don’t yet know about COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. We don’t know how long the pandemic will last, when a vaccine will be developed, or how many lives antiviral medications can save. But there’s one thing we know for sure: U.S. taxpayers have already paid for the research and testing of the most promising treatments.

These treatments should be available to everyone who needs them at no cost. But the Trump administration’s drug policy is led by two former pharmaceutical executives, and that is having devastating consequences for potential access to treatments and vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you’ve been watching Donald Trump’s daily press briefings, that might come as a surprise. During his 2016 campaign, Trump loved to talk tough on pharma and say he would fight for lower drug prices. But then he put Alex Azar, a big pharma CEO infamous for doubling the price of insulin, in charge of regulating health care. Several weeks ago, Azar refused to guarantee that a coronavirus vaccine will be affordable for all, citing the need to protect big pharma’s profits.

Read Full

Blog, Business Law, Drug Companies, Legal News

BIG PHARMA PREPARES TO PROFIT FROM THE CORONAVIRUS

AS THE NEW CORONAVIRUS spreads illness, death, and catastrophe around the world, virtually no economic sector has been spared from harm. Yet amid the mayhem from the global pandemic, one industry is not only surviving, it is profiting handsomely.

“Pharmaceutical companies view Covid-19 as a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity,” said Gerald Posner, author of “Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America.” The world needs pharmaceutical products, of course. For the new coronavirus outbreak, in particular, we need treatments and vaccines and, in the U.S., tests. Dozens of companies are now vying to make them.

“They’re all in that race,” said Posner, who described the potential payoffs for winning the race as huge. The global crisis “will potentially be a blockbuster for the industry in terms of sales and profits,” he said, adding that “the worse the pandemic gets, the higher their eventual profit.”

Read Full

Blog, Business Law, Criminal, Drug Companies, Legal News, Organized Crime, Personal Injury, Supreme Court

Scott, Campbell counties hop on board Big Pharma racketeering lawsuit train


Two East Tennessee counties are now on board to join a growing and fast-moving national effort to use federal racketeering laws to hold drug makers, distributors and dispensers accountable for creating and fostering the opioid epidemic in the United States, records show.

Government leaders in Campbell and Scott Counties have authorized the filing of lawsuits in U.S. District Court against the firms that make, distribute and dispense opiate prescription painkillers.

The law firm Jessee & Jessee filed the first such legal action in the federal Eastern District of Tennessee on behalf of Campbell County earlier this year. The law firms Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein and Taylor & Knight filed a similar action on behalf of Scott County late last week.

Full Read – https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/03/06/scott-campbell-counties-opioid-epidemic-big-pharma-racketeering-lawsuits/399172002/