Teva Announces Settlement in Principle regarding Certain Drug Pricing Lawsuits

Teva Announces Settlement in Principle regarding Certain Drug Pricing Lawsuits - MarketWatch: "Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. /quotes/comstock/15*!teva/quotes/nls/teva (TEVA 58.90, 0.16, 0.27%) announced today that several of its subsidiaries in the United States reached a settlement in principle to resolve claims brought by Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys, Inc. on behalf of the United States, Texas, Florida, and California under federal and state False Claims Acts." [MarketWatch]

Merck Settles Some Vioxx Suits

Merck Settles Some Vioxx Suits - WSJ.com: "Merck & Co. agreed to pay up to $12.15 million in legal fees and bolster its monitoring of drug safety to settle shareholder lawsuits stemming from the withdrawal of former pain drug Vioxx from the market.

The pact, which is pending final court approval, would resolve state and federal shareholder 'derivative' complaints (which are brought by shareholders on behalf of a company) alleging that current and former Merck officers and directors breached their fiduciary duties in handling Vioxx. To help improve safety efforts, the company had already fulfilled one of the terms of the settlement by installing Chief Medical Officer Michael Rosenblatt in December." [WSJ]

Corporate Watch

Corporate Watch - WSJ.com: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it plans to implement new 'safety controls' for a class of long-acting asthma drugs, largely by adding tougher warnings about the proper use of the drugs to the product labels.

The changes affect GlaxoSmithKline PLC's Advair and Serevent, Novartis AG's Foradil, which is marketed in the U.S. by Merck & Co. and AstraZeneca PLC's Symbicort. The FDA said the drugs should only be used for the shortest time possible 'to achieve control of asthma symptoms and discontinued, if possible, once asthma control is achieved.' Patients should then be maintained on another asthma controller medication, the FDA said." [WSJ]