PharmaCheckSA

Johnson & Johnson - $3,38 Billion in Fines By Ronald Gibson 24 July 2017 Johnson & Johnson, an American based medical devices, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods manufacturing company, was founded in 1886 by brothers Robert Wood Johnson, James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson, based on the idea to manufacture a line of ready-to-use surgical dressings. Two years later J&J pioneered the use of the  first commercial first aid kits designed to help railroad workers, but soon became widely used to treat injuries by both corporate and household consumers. 1894 Marked the year in which J&J entered the soon to be lucrative baby business by selling maternity kits and the ever famous J&J Baby Powder. Johnson & Johnson grew and expanded to include companies and brands like Ethicon (surgical sutures and wound closure devices), McNeil Consumer Healthcare (over-the-counter and prescription medicines like Tylenol), Janssen-Cilag (prescription medicines),...

#MedicalMisconduct   #Corruption My third installment on corruption in the pharmaceutical trade - AstraZeneca Ronald Gibson 19 July 2017 To clarify the facts below, only transgressions relating to gross ethical and legal matters are included. Civil cases are not mentioned as the outcomes are mostly based on a jury system and may be open to emotional interpretation. This pharmaceutical giant is based in London, UK, the result of a merger between Zeneca, and Sweden’s Astra AB in 1999. This company has a vast portfolio of products in the cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation fields. AstraZeneca is one of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies in the world, with manufacturing facilities in 19 countries, 9 Research and Development sites, and sales in over 100 countries with total revenue for 2016 stated as $23 Billion. 1. 2003 - Federal officials announced that AstraZeneca had pleaded guilty to criminal and civil charges relat...

#MedicalMisconduct #Abbott Corruption in the pharmaceutical trade – Abbot Laboratories By Ronald Gibson 17 July 2017 Abbott Alkaloidal Company was founded in 1888 by Dr Wallace Calvin Abbott. This fledgling company innovated the use of the active molecules in medicinal plants, most notably alkaloids like morphine, strychnine, quinine, and codeine, into dosimetric granules, much like some naturopathic compounds  of today. Abbott quickly spread its wings into an international company with many diverse products, by 1965 establishing interests in Canada, Pakistan, Japan, Europe and India, with Abbott at present being the largest healthcare products company in India. The first official smudge in their record occurred in 1966 when, according to Lester Grinspoon and Peter Hedblom’s book, “The Speed Culture: Amphetamine Use and Abuse in America”, Abbott sold two million doses worth of methamphetamine in powder form to a Long Island criminal dealer. It seems Abbo...

#MedicalMisconduct - Novartis Misconduct in the Pharmaceutical Sector - Novartis By Ronald Gibson 12 July 2017 As the South African Government and Novartis recently signed a memorandum of understanding relating to pharmaceutical research for the development of new medicinal compounds in South Africa, I decided to do my first article covering misconduct in the pharmaceutical sector about Novartis, as we need to have an idea of the ethics we might expect from them. I will mainly focus on information related to their business dealings in the USA, as there are quite a few Government Oversight institutions and non-profit consumer protection bodies that keep track of companies in the USA. Novartis was formed in 1996 after the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz. Both these companies started off in the production of synthetic fabric dyes, later branching off into pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals. During the merger the pharmaceutical and agrochemical divisions of both companies fo...