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Pharmafile.com’s top ten stories of 2017

pharmafile | December 22, 2017 | News story | Business Services, Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing Abbott, Actelion, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Cyber attack, EMA, European Commission, Humira, J&J, JJ, Johnson & Johnson, MSD, Sanofi, Shire, Teva, biosimilar, brexit 

After a packed year that has flown by, we’ve reached the final top ten of 2017. Below you can find the biggest stories of the year that proved most popular with our readers.

It’s been a year characterised by uncertainty and scandal, but eventful throughout. From J&J’s massive acquisition of Actelion bringing in the year, to Teva’s increasingly tragic fall from grace and the shadows cast on the industry and beyond by President Trump and Brexit, 2017 was a standout year for more than just a few reasons.

We at Pharmafile.com wish all of our readers a great holiday period and New Year. We’ll be back in 2018 to bring you all the breaking news in the pharma industry as it happens.

10. J&J finally seals $30 billion deal for Actelion

Opening the year on a bang, Johnson & Johnson successfully agreed a deal to acquire Actelion – a deal which had been the source of much anticipation in the industry for months before the official announcement.

9. 57% of cancer drugs uses approved by EMA show no benefit

Coming to light in October, a shocking study conducted by King’s College London and LSE found that half of all treatments approved by the EMA failed to show clinical benefit.

8. 26 die after attempting to replace Abbott’s blood pump controller themselves

In May, 26 advanced heart failure patients died and 19 were injured by attempting to change the controller on Abbott Laboratories’ HeartMate II blood pumps themselves at home.

7. AstraZeneca’s CEO set for shock switch to Teva

Speculation was rife in July that Teva was looking to snatch up AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot to fill its own CEO position that was eventually fileld by Kare Schultz – speculation which shook the industry but ultimately amounted to nothing.

6. MSD struck in second global cyber attack

When the world found itself in the midst of another wave of cyber attacks in June, among the affected firms was US pharmaceutical company MSD, or Merck as it is known in North America.

5. Teva looks set to axe thousands of positions and a big name

With the appointment of KÃ¥re Schultz in November, the new CEO has been forced to make some fairly hard-nosed decision. Swinging the axe has had some serious repercussions since, with strikes wracking Israel and emergency negotiations to try limit the number of exits within the country.

4. European Commission warns UK over drug authorisation validity due to Brexit

The European Commission issued a warning in May to pharmaceutical firms in the UK over the validity of current and future drug authorisations in the wake of Brexit.

3. Amgen drug pair become first Humira biosimilars to win EU approval

Amgen’s two biosimilar versions of AbbVie’s blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira were awarded recommendation for approval by the EMA in January for the treatment of moderate to severe RA.

2. Sanofi issues US-wide recall for arthritis product, after adverse events

Sanofi recently announced a recall of 12,380 syringes of its Synvisc-One product for the treatment of osteoarthritis, after it was noted that a particular batch was associated with unusually high levels of adverse events.

1. Shire fined $350 million in largest-ever bribery case of its kind

In January, Shire was accused of bribing clinicians and physicians by using kickbacks to encourage the use of Dermagraft, a diabetic foot ulcer treatment in a record-breaking bribery case.

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