It’s getting harder for the pharmaceutical industry to ignore neglected diseases. The globalization of national economies and the rise in air travel are increasing the potential for exposure to these diseases, which previously had been limited to the developing world. “Now is the time to have this discussion,” Kishor M. Wasan, chair-elect of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists’s Pharmaceuticals in Global Health Focus Group, told Pharmaceutical Technology earlier this month. Industry now seems to be getting the message. Read more »

Haven’t we heard this story before? Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals faces a class action suit alleging that it discriminates against its female employees. In late May, the class bringing the suit expanded to include female sales representatives and all women in the company’s Consumer Care unit. The employees’ complaint alleges that Bayer is hostile toward women, pays them less than it pays men, and retaliates against women who object to these conditions. Read more »

Mention New Jersey to someone on the street, and he or she is likely to think of Springsteen, the Sopranos, or (God forbid) Snooki. But PharmTech readers know that New Jersey is an important state for the drug industry. Many big companies, such as Johnson and Johnson, sanofi-aventis, Novartis, and Pfizer, have headquarters or other offices in the state. And the Garden State’s drugmakers are facing the same difficulties that confront the industry at large. Read more »

Organized labor is on the ropes, to put it mildly. Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states are on the brink of taking collective bargaining rights away from state employee unions. That’s why last week’s US Supreme Court action was particularly welcome to employees inside and outside the pharmaceutical industry. Read more »

At the end of a week that saw several major companies announce job cuts, the pharmaceutical workforce finally got some good news on Friday. Manhattan US District Judge Colleen McMahon said that she expected to approve an agreement between Novartis Pharmaceuticals (Basel) and a class of 6200 women, thus settling a gender-discrimination lawsuit. “It is the rare settlement where economic damages are compensated in full,” the judge said, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. Read more »

Last Monday, I argued that renewed investment in research and development would be the pharmaceutical industry’s surest route back to prosperity. An investment that Novartis (Basel) made a few days later indicated that the company seems to agree with me. What’s more, the investment will create new jobs in the US. Read more »

Having acquired 77% of Alcon, Novartis now has its eyes on the remaining few shares, which lie in the hands of minority shareholders, but will it be able to acquire them? Novartis says yes — and that it has the law on its side — but Alcon says no — and that it also has the law on its side. Read more »

Last week, the pharmaceutical industry struck a blow against sexism. In May, a US District Court found Novartis (Basel) guilty of gender discrimination. Novartis and the law firm that represented a class of 5600 female employees reached a settlement agreement that became public last Wednesday. The terms of the agreement seem to indicate that the company is making a legitimate effort to treat its employees fairly. Read more »

Management at Novartis (Basel) may be looking for a pill to combat employee-induced headaches. Not even two months after the company lost a class-action lawsuit that alleged discrimination against female workers, a federal appeals court ruled that the company’s sales representatives are entitled to overtime pay. Read more »

In this day and age, many of us believe that men and women have equal rights at work, but this is not always the case, as demonstrated by the result of a gender discrimination class action against Novartis. In a unanimous verdict delivered earlier this week, a New York (USA) jury found the drug giant guilty of discriminating against women in pay, promotional opportunities and pregnancy-related matters. Read more »