Schering

German drug company Schering may sue to force the Brazilian government to lift a ban on its products after some placebo birth-control pills used to test packaging methods found their way onto the market. Brazil banned the company from selling its products there after a birth-control mix-up left at least seven women pregnant. The ban follows a probe of Schering's Brazilian operations, which produced 13 million placebos that entered the market, health ministry officials said.

Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. will pay $5.4 million to settle a multistate investigation into whether they delayed the release of test results casting doubt on the effectiveness of two blockbuster cholesterol drugs. The firms settled with attorneys general from 35 states and the District of Columbia. The probe centered on allegations that they kept quiet the results from an unfavorable study. Merck and Schering-Plough will pay the costs of the investigation but don't have to admit wrongdoing or liability.

Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. will pay $5.4 million to settle a multistate investigation into whether they delayed the release of test results casting doubt on the effectiveness of two blockbuster cholesterol drugs. The firms settled with attorneys general from 35 states and the District of Columbia. The probe centered on allegations that they kept quiet the results from an unfavorable study. Merck and Schering-Plough will pay the costs of the investigation but don't have to admit wrongdoing or liability.

Big Pharma got bigger on Monday with Merck Co.'s announcement that it would acquire rival Schering-Plough Corp. in a cash-and-stock transaction worth $41.1 billion. And the deal is being made easier by U.S. taxpayers. Faced with tough competition from generics, fewer potential blockbuster drugs in development and the prospect of a government overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system, drug makers are consolidating. In January, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer Inc.

Let's get the whole picture. Schering-Plough Corp. was fined for manufacturing problems ["Schering to Pay a Fine of $500Million," May 18]. Abbott Laboratories paid $100million for the same problem. I'd love to know their marketing budgets and profits in comparison with the fines. Charleen Siegler Granada Hills The argument posed by the major pharmaceutical companies, that they alone can produce pure drugs and therefore should be granted exclusive rights to production, thus depriving those in need of cheaper generic drugs, lost major ground in the FDA's $500-million fine against Schering.

Drug makers Merck & Co. and partner Schering-Plough Corp. both posted fourth-quarter results Tuesday that topped analysts' expectations, sending their shares up, but revenue from their crucial cholesterol franchise plunged. Both companies beat profit expectations primarily because of aggressive cost-cutting, including eliminating thousands of jobs. Merck's revenue fell 3%, to $6 billion, while Schering-Plough's revenue climbed 17% to $4.35 billion, largely from its acquisition of Organon Biosciences.

The heavily advertised drug Vytorin is no better than an inexpensive generic drug at blocking the damaging effects of high cholesterol levels, according to new data released by the drug's manufacturers Monday. In a study of 720 patients funded by the manufacturers, Vytorin -- a combination of the drugs simvastatin and ezetemibe -- reduced levels of LDLs, the so-called bad cholesterol, by about 29% more than simvastatin alone.

Schering-Plough Corp. will pay $346 million to settle charges that it paid a kickback to a big health insurer to protect the price of its top-selling allergy drug, the company and federal prosecutors announced Friday. A subsidiary, Schering Sales Corp., also will plead guilty to violating an anti-kickback law and will be banned from participating in federal health programs for five years, authorities said.

Schering-Plough Corp. said President and Chief Operating Officer Raul Cesan will resign, effective July 15. The announcement comes five days after Schering-Plough said it failed to meet U.S. regulatory manufacturing standards, the second such occurrence this year. Cesan's resignation makes it appear that he is taking the blame for setbacks with a successor to Claritin, the top-selling allergy medicine, while the drug maker's shares have dropped by about a third this year, analysts said.

Schering-Plough Corp., the maker of Claritin allergy pills, retracted its estimate for profit this year and said first-quarter earnings tumbled 71% as competition from generic drugs hurt sales. Net income fell to $173 million, or 12 cents a share, from $600 million, or 41 cents, in the first quarter of last year. Sales decreased 19% to $2.07 billion, the company said. Shares of Kenilworth, N.J.-based Schering rose 41 cents to $18.71 on the New York Stock Exchange. From Bloomberg News

Drug makers Merck & Co. and partner Schering-Plough Corp. both posted fourth-quarter results Tuesday that topped analysts' expectations, sending their shares up, but revenue from their crucial cholesterol franchise plunged. Both companies beat profit expectations primarily because of aggressive cost-cutting, including eliminating thousands of jobs. Merck's revenue fell 3%, to $6 billion, while Schering-Plough's revenue climbed 17% to $4.35 billion, largely from its acquisition of Organon Biosciences.

Days after top cardiologists criticized Schering-Plough Corp.'s crucial cholesterol drugs Vytorin and Zetia, sending its stock price tumbling, the drug maker said Wednesday that it would make $1 billion in cost cuts through layoffs and other reductions. The cutbacks come on top of $500 million in reductions announced previously after the Kenilworth, N.J.-based company acquired biopharmaceutical firm Organon BioSciences late last year.

Fred Hassan rode to the rescue of a foundering Schering-Plough Corp. in 2003, and by 2006, with a remarkable turnaround declared complete, the company was back on a growth trajectory. But the highly regarded chief executive unexpectedly finds himself at the center of a firestorm involving the cholesterol drug that fueled the company's reversal of fortune. The furor over Vytorin threatens the reputation of the drug industry's golden boy and, some say, his job. Schering-Plough and Merck & Co.

Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. suspended television ads Tuesday for the cholesterol pills Vytorin and Zetia after a study questioned the benefit of the medicines. The Vytorin commercials were among the most widely aired drug ads, featuring people dressed as food items to show the pill lowers cholesterol from food as well as from genetics. The ads were voluntarily and temporarily halted, Schering-Plough spokesman Lee Davies said.

Drug companies were hit with a series of bad breaks Monday, led by Novo Nordisk's announcement that it discontinued its experimental AERx inhaled insulin system and is expected to fire most of its 360-person team on the project in Hayward, Calif. In addition, Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. said their cholesterol pill Vytorin worked no better than an older, cheaper drug, threatening the medicine's sales. And U.S.

Pharmaceutical companies Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp., partners in a lucrative cholesterol drug joint venture, posted hefty jumps in second-quarter profit Monday and beat analysts' expectations. Merck, which again raised its 2007 earnings forecast, got a pat on the back from Wall Street, with its shares jumping nearly 9% at one point. But Schering-Plough, whose profit more than doubled, saw its initial 2% rise in share price fizzle and ended the day flat, puzzling analysts.

PHARMACEUTICALS * Schering-Plough Corp. cut profit estimates, saying wholesalers are slashing orders for its top-selling allergy treatment Claritin so they can unload supplies before cheaper versions are introduced. The drug maker's shares fell for a sixth day, extending a 28% drop since it lost a court bid in August to stop generic competitors for Claritin. The pill, which had sales of $3.16 billion last year, may face cheaper rivals in December.

Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. plan to dig more deeply into the lucrative market for cholesterol-lowering drugs by developing a pill that combines their drug Zetia with Lipitor, the world's bestselling medicine. Pfizer Inc.'s U.S. patent on Lipitor is expected to expire as soon as 2010, paving the way for other companies to make generic versions of the blockbuster drug. Pfizer is not involved in the deal.