Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
at a later stage. Whether to issue dividends and what amount, is determined mainly on the basis of the company's inappropriate profit (excess cash) and influenced by the company's long-term earning power. When cash surplus exists and is not needed by the firm, then management is expected to pay out some or all of those surplus earnings in the form of cash dividends or to repurchase the company's stock through a share buyback program. If there are no NPV positive opportunities, i.e. projects where returns exceed the hurdle rate, and excess cash surplus is not needed, then finance theory suggests management should return some or all of the excess cash to shareholders as dividends. This is the general case, however there are exceptions. For example, shareholders of a "growth stock", expect that the company will, almost by definition, retain most of the excess earnings so as to fund future growth internally. By withholding current dividend payments to shareholders, managers of growth companies are hoping that dividend payments will be increased proportionality higher in the future, to offset the detainment of current earnings and the internal financing of present investment projects. Management must also choose the form of the dividend distribution, generally as cash dividends or via a share buyback. Various factors may be taken into consideration: where shareholders must pay tax on dividends, firms may elect to retain earnings or to perform a stock buyback, in both cases increasing the value of shares outstanding. Alternatively, some companies will pay "dividends" from stock rather than in cash; see Corporate action. Financial theory suggests that the dividend policy should be set based upon the type of company and what management determines is the best use of those dividend resources for the firm to its shareholders. As a general rule, shareholders of growth companies would prefer managers to have a share buyback program, whereas shareholders of value or secondary stocks would prefer the management of these companies to payout surplus earnings in the form of cash dividends.
Concept
Coming up with a dividend policy is challenging for the directors and financial manager a company, because different investors have different views on present cash dividends and future capital gains. Another confusion that pops up is regarding the extent of effect of dividends on the share price. Due to this controversial nature of a dividend policy it is often called the dividend puzzle. Various models have been developed to help firms analyze and evaluate the perfect dividend policy. There is no agreement between these schools of thought over the relationship between dividends and the value of the share or the wealth of the shareholders in other words. One school consists of people like James E. Walter and Myron J. Gordon (see Gordon model), who believe that current cash dividends are less risky than future capital gains. Thus, they say that investors prefer those firms which pay regular dividends and such dividends affect the market price of the share. Another school linked to Modigliani and Miller holds that investors don't really choose between future gains and cash dividends
Walter's model
Walter's model shows the relevance of dividend policy and its bearing on the value of the share.
Model description
Dividends paid to the shareholders are reinvested by the shareholder further, to get higher returns. This is referred to as the opportunity cost of the firm or the cost of capital, k e for the firm. Another situation where the firms do not pay out dividends, is when they invest the profits or retained earnings in profitable opportunities to earn returns on such investments. This rate of return r, for the firm must at least be equal to ke. If this happens then the returns of the firm is equal to the earnings of the shareholders if the dividends were paid. Thus, it's clear that if r, is more than the cost of capital k e, then the returns from investments is more than returns shareholders receive from further investments. Walter's model says that if r<k e then the firm should distribute the profits in the form of dividends to give the shareholders higher returns. However, if r>k e then the investment opportunities reap better returns for the firm and thus, the firm should invest the retained earnings. The relationship between r and k are extremely important to determine the dividend policy. It decides whether the firm should have zero payout or 100% payout. In a nutshell : If r>ke, the firm should have zero payout and make investments. If r<ke, the firm should have 100% payouts and no investment of retained earnings. If r=ke, the firm is indifferent between dividends and investments.
Mathematical represent
Walter has given a mathematical model for the above made statements :
where, P = Market price of the share D = Dividend per share r = Rate of return on the firm's investments ke = Cost of equity E = Earnings per share'
The market price of the share consists of the sum total of: the present value of an infinite stream of dividends the present value of an infinite stream of returns on investments made from retained earnings.
Therefore, the market value of a share is the result of expected dividends and capital gains according to Walter.
Criticism
Although the model provides a simple framework to explain the relationship between the market value of the share and the dividend policy, it has some unrealistic assumptions. 1. The assumption of no external financing apart from retained earnings, for the firm make further investments is not really followed in the real world. 2. The constant r and ke are seldom found in real life, because as and when a firm invests more the business risks change.
Gordon's Model
Myron J. Gordon has also supported dividend relevance and believes in regular dividends affecting the share price of the firm
Model description
Investor's are risk averse and believe that incomes from dividends are certain rather than incomes from future capital gains, therefore they predict future capital gains to be risky propositions. They discount the future capital gains at a higher rate than the firm's earnings thereby, evaluating a higher value of the share. In short, when retention rate increases, they require a higher discounting rate. Gordon has given a model similar to Walter's where he has given a mathematical formula to determine price of the share.
Mathematical representation
The market prices of the share is calculated as follows:
where, P = Market price of the share E = Earnings per share b = Retention ratio (1 - payout ratio) r = Rate of return on the firm's investments ke = Cost of equity br = Growth rate of the firm (g)
Therefore the model shows a relationship between the payout ratio, rate of return, cost of capital and the market price of the share.
Mathematical representation
From the CSS theory it can be derived that debt-free companies should prefer repurchases whereas companies with a debt-equity ratio larger than
should prefer dividends as a means to distribute cash to shareholders, where D is the companys total long term debt
is the companys total equity is the tax rate on capital gains is the tax rate on dividends
Low valued, high leverage companies with limited investment opportunities and a high profitability use dividends as the preferred means to distribute cash to shareholders, as is documented by empirical research
Conclusion
The CSS theory provides more guidance on dividend policy to company managements than the Walter model and the Gordon model. It also reverses the traditional order of cause and effect by implying that company valuation ratios drive dividend policy, and not vice-versa. The CSS theory does not have 'invisible' or 'hidden' parameters such as the equity risk premium, the discount rate, the expected growth rate or expected inflation. As a consequence the theory can be tested in an unambiguous way.
Two important theories discussed relating to the irrelevance approach, the residuals theory and the Modigliani and Miller approach.
evaluating the amount of equity finance that would be needed for the investment, basically having an optimum finance mix. cost of retained earnings<cost of new equity capital, thus the retained profits are used to finance investments. If there is a surplus after the financing then there is distribution of dividends.
The dividend policy of such a kind is a passive one, and doesn't influence market price. the dividends also fluctuate every year because of different investment opportunities every year. However, it doesn't really affect the shareholders as they get compensated in the form of future capital gains.
Conclusion
The firm paying out dividends is obviously generating incomes for an investor, however even if the firm takes some investment opportunity then the incomes of the investors rise at a later stage due to this profitable investment.
Modigliani-Miller theorem
The ModiglianiMiller theorem states that the division of retained earnings between new investment and dividends do not influence the value of the firm. It is the investment pattern and consequently the [7] earnings of the firm which affect the share price or the value of the firm.
Model description[
The dividend irrelevancy in this model exists because shareholders are indifferent between paying out dividends and investing retained earnings in new opportunities. The firm finances opportunities either through retained earnings or by issuing new shares to raise capital. The amount used up in paying out dividends is replaced by the new capital raised through issuing shares. This will affect the value of the firm in an opposite way. The increase in the value because of the dividends will be offset by the decrease in the value for new capital raising.
Pharmaceutical industries
The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceuticals licensed for [1] use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices. They are subject to a variety of laws and regulations regarding the patenting, testing and ensuring safety and efficacy and marketing of drugs. The wordpharmaceutical comes from the Greek word pharmakeia. The modern transliteration of pharmakeia is pharmacia.
clinical research and demanded that subjects give their informed consent before enrolling in an experiment. Pharmaceutical companies became required to prove efficacy in clinical trials before marketing drugs. Cancer drugs were a feature of the 1970s. From 1978, India took over as the primary center of pharmaceutical production without patent protection.[3] The industry remained relatively small scale until the 1970s when it began to expand at a greater rate.[citation needed] Legislation allowing for strong patents, to cover both the process of manufacture and the specific products, came into force in most countries. By the mid-1980s, small biotechnology firms were struggling for survival, which led to the formation of mutually beneficial partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies and a host of corporate buyouts of the smaller firms. Pharmaceutical manufacturing became concentrated, with a few large companies holding a dominant position throughout the world and with a few companies producing medicines within each country. The pharmaceutical industry entered the 1980s pressured by economics and a host of new regulations, both safety and environmental, but also transformed by new DNA chemistries and new technologies for analysis and computation.[citation needed] Drugs for heart disease and for AIDS were a feature of the 1980s, involving challenges to regulatory bodies and a faster approval process. Managed care and Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) spread during the 1980s as part of an effort to contain rising medical costs, and the development of preventative and maintenance medications became more important. A new business atmosphere became institutionalized in the 1990s, characterized by mergers and takeovers, and by a dramatic increase in the use of contract research organizations for clinical development and even for basic R&D. The pharmaceutical industry confronted a new business climate and new regulations, born in part from dealing with world market forces and protests by activists in developing countries. Animal Rights activism was also a challenge. Marketing changed dramatically in the 1990s. The Internet made possible the direct purchase of medicines by drug consumers and of raw materials by drug producers, transforming the nature of business. In the US, Direct-to-consumer advertising proliferated on radio and TV because of new FDA regulations in 1997 that liberalized requirements for the presentation of risks. The new antidepressants, the SSRIs, notably Fluoxetine (Prozac), rapidly became bestsellers and marketed for additional disorders. Drug development progressed from a hit-and-miss approach to rational drug discovery in both laboratory design and natural-product surveys. Demand for nutritional supplements and so-called
alternative medicines created new opportunities and increased competition in the industry. Controversies emerged around adverse effects, notably regarding Vioxx in the US, and marketing tactics. Pharmaceutical companies became increasingly accused of disease mongering or over-medicalizing personal or social problems.[4]
because the drug business is very risky. For instance, only one out of every ten thousand discovered compounds actually becomes an approved drug for sale. Much expense is incurred in the early phases of development of compounds that will not become approved drugs.[12] In addition, it takes about 7 to 10 years and only 3 out of every 20 approved drugs bring in sufficient revenue to cover their developmental costs, and only 1 out of every 3 approved drugs generates enough money to cover the development costs of previous failures. This means that for a drug company to survive, it needs to discover a blockbuster (billion-dollar drug) every few years.[12] Drug discovery and development is very expensive; of all compounds investigated for use in humans only a small fraction are eventuallyapproved in most nations by government appointed medical institutions or boards, who have to approve new drugs before they can be marketed in those countries. In 2010 18 NMEs (New Molecular Entities) were approved and three biologics by the FDA, or 21 in total, which is down from 26 in 2009 and 24 in 2008. On the other hand, there were only 18 approvals in total in 2007 and 22 back in 2006. Since 2001, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has averaged 22.9 approvals a year.[13] This approval comes only after heavy investment in pre-clinical development and clinical trials, as well as a commitment to ongoing safety monitoring. Drugs which fail part-way through this process often incur large costs, while generating no revenue in return. If the cost of these failed drugs is taken into account, the cost of developing a successful new drug (New chemical entity or NCE), has been estimated at about 1.3 billion USD[14](not including marketing expenses). Professors Light and Lexchin reported in 2012, however, that the rate of approval for new drugs has been a relatively stable average rate of 15 to 25 for decades.[15] Industry-wide research and investment reached a record $65.3 billion in 2009.[16] While the cost of research in the U.S. was about $34.2 billion between 1995 and 2010, revenues rose faster (revenues rose by $200.4 billion in that time).[15] A study by the consulting firm Bain & Company reported that the cost for discovering, developing and launching (which factored in marketing and other business expenses) a new drug (along with the prospective drugs that fail) rose over a five-year period to nearly $1.7 billion in 2003.[17] According to Forbes, development costs between $4 billion to $11 billion per drug.[18] These estimates also take into account the opportunity cost of investing capital many years before revenues are realized (see Time-value of money). Because of the very long time needed for discovery, development, and approval of pharmaceuticals, these costs can accumulate to nearly half the total expense. Some approved drugs, such as those based on re-formulation of an
existing active ingredient (also referred to as Line-extensions) are much less expensive to develop. Calculations and claims in this area are controversial because of the implications for regulation and subsidization of the industry through tax credits and federally funded research grants.[19]
their conference/symposium costs. Lecture scripts and even journal articles presented by academic researchers may actually be 'ghost-written' by pharmaceutical companies.[30] Researchers who have tried to reveal ethical issues with clinical trials, or publish papers showing harmful effects of drugs and who saw themselves as whistleblowers have faced or been threatened with lawsuits from drug companies, or have lost their jobs.[31] For example, Dutch medical researcher Dr. Koos Stiekema was sued by the pharmaceutical company Organon for violating his confidentiality agreement, after he discussed his concerns about a clinical trial design with three ethics committees in 1999. Organon's other experts agreed that the trial design was safe, and a court in Amsterdam awarded Organon 550,000 for the trial-delay costs that resulted from Stiekema's disclosures.[32] The award was overturned on appeal; the court ruled that Stiekema's breach of confidentiality was "justified by a higher interest."[33] In the United States, corporate whistleblowers are given a percentage of any fines levied.[34] Since 2008, pharmaceutical companies have been increasing the cost of name-brand prescriptions to offset declining revenues as out-of-patent drugs become available as generics.[35] Simultaneously, pharmaceutical manufacturers are taking increasing advantage of tax havens to avoid taxation.[36] An investigation by ProPublica found that at least 21 doctors have been paid more than $500,000 for speeches and consulting by drugs manufacturers since 2009, with half of the top earners working in psychiatry, and about $2 billion in total paid to doctors for such services. AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly have paid billions of dollars in federal settlements over allegations that they paid doctors to promote drugs for unapproved uses. Some prominent medical schools have since tightened rules on faculty acceptance of such payments by drug companies.[37]
and if the product is seen as having a positive benefit-risk assessment, approval to market the product in the US is granted.[38] A fourth phase of post-approval surveillance is also often required due to the fact that even the largest clinical trials cannot effectively predict the prevalence of rare side-effects. Post-marketing surveillance ensures that after marketing the safety of a drug is monitored closely. In certain instances, its indication may need to be limited to particular patient groups, and in others the substance is withdrawn from the market completely. Questions continue to be raised regarding the standard of both the initial approval process, and subsequent changes to product labeling (it may take many months for a change identified in post-approval surveillance to be reflected in product labeling) and this is an area where congress is active.[39] The FDA provides information about approved drugs at the Orange Book site.[40] In many non-US western countries a 'fourth hurdle' of cost effectiveness analysis has developed before new technologies can be provided. This focuses on the efficiency (in terms of the cost per QALY) of the technologies in question rather than their efficacy. In England NICE approval requires technologies be made available by the NHS, whilst similar arrangements exist with the Scottish Medicines Consortium in Scotland and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee in Australia. A product must pass the threshold for cost-effectiveness if it is to be approved. Treatments must represent 'value for money' and a net benefit to society. There is much speculation[41] that a NICE style framework may be implemented in the USA in an attempt to decrease Medicare and Medicaid spending by balancing benefits to patients versus profits for the medical industry. In the UK, the British National Formulary is the core guide for pharmacists and clinicians.
pharmaceutical companies endorse tort reform. Recent controversies have involved Vioxx and SSRIantidepressants.
For the first time ever, in 2011, global spending on prescription drugs topped $954 billion, even as growth slowed somewhat in Europe and North America. The United States accounts for almost half of the global pharmaceutical market, with $340 billion in annual sales followed by the EU and Japan.(pdf) Emerging markets such as China, Russia, South Korea and Mexico outpaced that market, growing a huge 81 percent.[44] According to IMS the global pharmaceutical industry can reach to US$1.1 trillion by 2014.[45] Pfizer's cholesterol pill Lipitor remains a best-selling drug world wide.[dubious discuss][needs
update]
Its annual sales were $12.9 billion, more than twice as much as its closest competitors: Plavix, the blood thinner from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis; Nexium, the heartburn pill from AstraZeneca; and Advair, the asthma inhaler from GlaxoSmithKline.[44] IMS Health publishes an analysis of trends expected in the pharmaceutical industry in 2007, including increasing profits in most sectors despite loss of some patents, and new 'blockbuster' drugs on the horizon.[46] Teradata Magazine predicted that by 2007, $40 billion in U.S. sales could be lost at the top 10 pharmaceutical companies as a result of slowdown in R&D innovation and the expiry of patents on major products, with 19 blockbuster drugs losing patent.[47]
Main article: List of pharmaceutical companies The following is a list of the 20 largest pharmaceutical and biotech companies ranked by healthcare revenue. Some companies (e.g.,Bayer, Johnson and Johnson and Procter & Gamble) have additional revenue not included here. The phrase Big Pharma is often used to refer to companies with revenue in excess of $3 billion, and/or R&D expenditure in excess of $500 million.
Revenu e Rank 2008[48] Total Revenues(USD millio
ns)
Company
Countr y
Employe es 2006
Company
Countr y
Employe es 2006
Pfizer
USA
67,809
7,599
19,337
122,200
Novartis
Switzerlan d
53,324
7,125
11,053
138,000
USA
45,987
4,783
4,434
74,372
Bayer
Germany
44,200
1,791
6,450
106,200
42,813
6,373
10,135
106,000
USA
37,020
5,349
7,202
102,695
Sanofi
France
35,645
5,565
5,033
100,735
HoffmannLa Roche
Switzerlan d
33,547
5,258
7,318
100,289
AstraZeneca
United Kingdom
26,475
3,902
6,063
50,000+
10
Abbott Laboratories
USA
22,476
2,255
1,717
66,800
11
Bristol-Myers Squibb
USA
17,914
3,067
1,585
60,000
12
USA
15,691
3,129
2,663
50,060
Company
Countr y
Employe es 2006
Company
13
Amgen
USA
14,268
3,366
2,950
48,000
14
Boehringer Ingelheim
Germany
13,284
1,977
2,163
43,000
15
ScheringPlough
USA
10,594
2,188
1,057
41,500
16
Baxter International
USA
10,378
614
1,397
38,428
17
10,284
1,620
2,870
15,000
18
Genentech
USA
9,284
1,773
2,113
33,500
19
USA
8,964
n/a
10,340
29,258
SUM
497,519
70,843
110,077
1,342,700
AVERAGE
24,876
3,542
5504
67,135
Rank
Company
Sales ($M)
Based/Headquartered in
Pfizer
43,363
United States
GlaxoSmithKline
36,506
United Kingdom
Novartis
36,506
Switzerland
Sanofi-Aventis
35,642
France
AstraZeneca
32,516
United Kingdom
HoffmannLa Roche
30,336
Switzerland
29,425
United States
26,191
United States
Abbott
19,466
United States
10
United States
11
Amgen
15,794
United States
12
Wyeth
15,682
United States
13
Bayer
15,660
Germany
14
Teva
15,274
Israel
Rank
Company
Sales ($M)
Based/Headquartered in
15
Takeda
13,819
Japan
products. It may be in both companies' interest to enter into a deal to capitalize on the synergy between the companies.
Main article: Pharmaceutical marketing Pharmaceutical companies commonly spend a large amount on advertising, marketing and lobbying. In the US, drug companies spend $19 billion a year on promotions.[28] Advertising is common in healthcare journals as well as through more mainstream media routes. In some countries, notably the US, they are allowed to advertise directly to the general public. Pharmaceutical companies generally employ sales people (often called 'drug reps' or, an older term, 'detail men') to market directly and personally to physicians and other healthcare providers. In some countries, notably the US, pharmaceutical companies also employ lobbyists to influence politicians. Marketing of prescription drugs in the US is regulated by the federal Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987.
about 200300 physicians with 120180 targets that should be visited in 12 or 3 week cycle. The number of pharmaceutical sales reps has been shrinking between 2008 and 2010, an estimated 30% industry wide reduction has occurred and current estimates are there may only be 60,000 pharmaceutical sales reps in the United States.[56] In 2008, Senator Charles Grassley began an investigation about unreported payments to physicians by pharmaceutical companies. Grassley led a Congressional Investigation which found that well-known university psychiatrists, who had promoted psychoactive drugs, had violated federal and university regulations by secretly receiving large sums of money from the pharmaceutical companies which made the drugs.[57] The New York Times reported that Dr. Joseph Biederman of Harvard University had failed to report over a million dollars of income that he had received from pharmaceutical companies.[58] Weeks later, Business Week reported that Grassley alleged that Alan Schatzberg, chair of psychiatry at Stanford University, had underreported his investments in Corcept Therapeutics, a company he founded.[59] Dr. Schatzberg had reported only $100,000 investments in Corcept, but Grassley stated that his investments actually totalled over $6 million. Dr. Schaztberg later stepped down from his grant which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).[60]Similarly, Dr. Charles Nemeroff resigned as chair of the psychiatry department at Emory University after failing to report a third of the $2.8 million in consulting fees he received from GlaxoSmithKline. At the time he received these fees, Dr. Nemeroff had been principal investigator of a $3.9 million NIH grant evaluating five medications for depression manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.[61] The book Bad Pharma also discusses the influence of drug representatives, how ghostwriters are employed by the drug companies to write papers for academics to publish, how independent the academic journals really are, how the drug companies finance doctors' continuing education, and how patients' groups are often funded by industry.[62]
In 2008, for the first time, Charles Grassley asked the American Psychiatric Association to disclose how much of its annual budget came from drug industry funds. The APA said that industry contributed 28% of its budget ($14 million at that time), mainly through paid advertising in APA journals and funds for continuing medical education.[63]
Evidence Recognising Hype" program, aimed at educating GPs on methods for independent drug analysis. A 2005 review by a special committee of the UK government came to all the above conclusions in a European Union context[71] whilst also highlighting the contributions and needs of the industry. There is also huge concern about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the scientific process. Meta-analyses have shown that studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies are several times more likely to report positive results, and if a drug company employee is involved (as is often the case, often multiple employees as co-authors and helped by contracted marketing companies) the effect is even larger.[72][73][74] Influence has also extended to the training of doctors and nurses in medical schools, which is being fought.[75] It has been argued that the design of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the expansion of the criteria represents an increasing medicalization of human nature, or "disease mongering", driven by drug company influence on psychiatry.[76]The potential for direct conflict of interest has been raised, partly because roughly half the authors who selected and defined the DSM-IV psychiatric disorders had or previously had financial relationships with the pharmaceutical industry.[77] The president of the organization that designs and publishes the DSM, the American Psychiatric Association, recently acknowledged that in general American psychiatry has "allowed the biopsychosocial model to become the bio-bio-bio model" and that the gifts from drug reps are little more than "kickbacks and bribes".[78]
Pharmaceutical fraud involves activities that result in false claims to insurers or programs such as Medicare in the United States or equivalent state programs for financial gain to a pharmaceutical company. There are several different schemes[81] used to defraud thehealth care system which are particular to the pharmaceutical industry. These include: Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Violations, Off Label Marketing, Best Price Fraud, CME Fraud, Medicaid Price Reporting, and Manufactured Compound Drugs. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimates that health care fraud costs American taxpayers $60 billion a year.[82] Of this amount $2.5 billion was recovered through False Claims Act cases in FY 2010. Examples of fraud cases include the GlaxoSmithKline $3 billion settlement,Pfizer $2.3 billion settlement and Merk $650 million settlement. Damages from fraud can be recovered by use of the False Claims Act, most commonly under the qui tam provisions which rewards an individual for being a "whistleblower", or relator (law).[83] Antipsychotic drugs are now the top-selling class of pharmaceuticals in America, generating annual revenue of about $14.6 billion. Every major company selling the drugs Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson has either settled recent government cases, under the False Claims Act, for hundreds of millions of dollars or is currently under investigation for possible health care fraud. Following charges of illegal marketing, two of the settlements set records last year for the largest criminal fines ever imposed on corporations. One involved Eli Lillys antipsychotic Zyprexa, and the other involved Bextra. In the Bextra case, the government also charged Pfizer with illegally marketing another antipsychotic, Geodon; Pfizer settled that part of the claim for $301 million, without admitting any wrongdoing.[84] On 2 July 2012, GlaxoSmithKline pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to a $3 billion settlement of the largest health-care fraud case in the U.S. and the largest payment by a drug company.[85] The settlement is related to the company's illegal promotion of prescription drugs, its failure to report safety data,[86] bribing doctors, and promoting medicines for uses for which they were not licensed. The drugs involved were Paxil, Wellbutrin, Advair, Lamictal, and Zofran for off-label, non-covered uses. Those and the drugsImitrex, Lotronex, Flovent, and Valtrex were involved in the kickback scheme.[87][88][89] The following is a list of the four largest settlements reached with pharmaceutical companies from 1991 to 2012, rank ordered by the size of the total settlement. Legal claims against the pharmaceutical industry have varied widely over the past two decades, includingMedicare and Medicaid fraud, off-label promotion, and inadequate manufacturing practices.[90][91]
Company
Settlement
Violation(s)
Year
Product(s)
GlaxoSmithKline[92]
$3 billion
2012 Avandia/Wellbutrin/Paxil
Pfizer[93]
$2.3 billion
Off-label promotion/kickbacks
2009
Bextra/Geodon/ Zyvox/Lyrica
Abbott Laboratories[94]
$1.5 billion
Off-label promotion
2012 Depakote
Eli Lilly[95]
$1.4 billion
Off-label promotion
2009 Zyprexa
Trade Organization, countries must allow pharmaceutical products to be patented. In 2001, the WTO adopted the Doha Declaration, which indicates that the TRIPS agreement should be read with the goals of public health in mind, and allows some methods for circumventing pharmaceutical monopolies: via compulsory licensing orparallel imports, even before patent expiration.[98] In March 2001, 40 multi-national pharmaceutical companies brought litigation against South Africa for its Medicines Act, which allowed the generic production of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for treating HIV, despite the fact that these drugs were on-patent.[99] HIV was and is an epidemic in South Africa, and ARVs at the time cost between 10,000 and 15,000 USD per patient per year. This was unaffordable for most South African citizens, and so the South African government committed to providing ARVs at prices closer to what people could afford. To do so, they would need to ignore the patents on drugs and produce generics within the country (using a compulsory license), or import them from abroad. The Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla audaciously offered to make the drugs at 350 USD per patient per year, roughly 1/40th of the lowest price available from a patent holder, which stunned the world community. After massive international protest in favour of public health rights (including the collection of 250,000 signatures by MSF), the governments of several developed countries (including The Netherlands, Germany, France, and later the US) backed the South African government, and the case was dropped in April of that year.[100]
"Merck's Gift," wherein billions of river blindness drugs were donated in Africa[105] Pfizer's gift of free/discounted fluconazole and other drugs for AIDS in South Africa[106] GSK's commitment to give free albendazole tablets to the WHO for, and until, the elimination of lymphatic filariasis worldwide. In 2006, Novartis committed USD 755 million in corporate citizenship initiatives around the world, particularly focusing on improved access to medicines in the developing world
through its Access to Medicine projects, including donations of medicines to patients affected by leprosy, tuberculosis, and malaria; Glivec patient assistance programmes; and relief to support major humanitarian organisations with emergency medical needs.[107] However, some NGOs such as Mdecins Sans Frontires do not routinely accept corporate donations of medicines. More precisely, they do not become reliant on such supplies of medicines because the supply is dependent upon the fluid, profit-driven charities of said pharmaceutical companies, and thus may dry up during a critical or otherwise important time. The book An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action for the 21st Century by ex-MSF president James Orbinski describes this in detail.
European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (EUCOPE) Drug Information Association (DIA) European Generic Medicines Association European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EphMRA) International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (JPMA) New York Health Products Council (NYHPC) Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) Regulatory authorities[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Regulation of therapeutic goods
International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) European Medicines Agency (EMEA) Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia) (TGA) U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (India) (CDSCO) Ukrainian Drug Registration Agency [1]