According to the justice department, in 2002 Brisbane-based InterMune put out a press release under the direction of former CEO Scott Harkonen saying a clinical trial showed Actimmune effective in treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
The trial however, showed the exact opposite.
Actimmune has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration only for severe osteoporosis and chronic granulomatous disease.
As a result, former Intermune CEO Scott Harkonen was indicted Tuesday on charges he falsely promoted the company’s drug Actimmune as a lung disease treatment. InterMune agreed in October 2006 to pay almost $37 million to resolve criminal and civil charges in connection with the allegations.
According to Health care executives in the know, the best opportunities for healthcare industry growth are overseas. And Medtronic CEO William Hawkins says China is the world’s hottest international market.
Hawkins said next to the United States, Japan is currently the company’s second biggest market but he expects China to assume that position within the next eight to 10 years.
Here is why Hawkins is so optimistic that China is about to bring riches:
China’s economic and social reforms over the past 25 years have met tremendous success. However, the development of the healthcare sector is now far behind its economic development.
A review of China’s key health indicators shows that change is inevitable.
Life expectancy and infant mortality trends, for example, illustrate that although China’s healthcare system has made progress over the last ten years, improvements have slowed recently. Similarly, indicators such as the reported incidence and mortality rates from infectious diseases have increased in recent years.
Inadequate spending is only part of the problem. Just as serious are the lack of access to affordable healthcare, the inefficient use of healthcare resources and a lack of high-quality patient care.
The healthcare sector in China will need to undergo drastic changes to achieve the government’s objectives of improved patient care.
The Chinese government clearly understands the magnitude of the problem and has articulated its commitment to closing the significant gaps in the healthcare sector and has emphasized the need for public and private sector cooperation.
Medtronic is one company that plans to cooperate.
Business Week reports that the board of medical device maker Medtronic Inc. has followed through on a previously announced decision to promote William Hawkins to chief executive officer. Former CEO Arthur Collins retired but will remain chairman of the board, the company said.
Hawkins’ ascension to CEO was part of a succession plan put in place when Collins told the company of his retirement plan several years ago. Collins had a 15 year stint with Medtronic and was CEO since 2001.
New CEO William Hawkins has been in the medical device industry for 30 years has been president and COO since 2004.
Last night Barry Bonds broke the all-time home-run record when he hit career homer # 756.
It didn’t take long for Victor Conte, the man at the center of the BALCO scandal to come forward and steal some of the spotlight from Bonds. Conte said that he’s convinced he played a small, but important, role in Barry Bonds’ coronation as Major League Baseball’s home run king, saying he designed a complex nutritional regimen from 2000 to 2003 in conjunction with an intense weightlifting program that enabled Bonds to significantly increase his power.
Conte who served prison time for selling designer steroids from his Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, said the supplements he sold Bonds were all legal. “I never gave him steroids,” Conte said. “I never had those discussions with Barry because there was no need to.”
He said Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson also deserves some credit for helping Bonds break Hank Aaron’s home-run record.
Anderson has been in a federal minimum security prison since November for refusing to testify in the federal government’s perjury probe of the new home-run king. There is speculation that Bonds has plans to “Take Care” of Anderson once he’s released.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded a five-year grant to the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI), to be used for the develpment of an HIV/AIDS vaccine.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley says the $15 million is part of the Gates Foundation’s Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery, an international network of research consortia, focused on accelerating the pace of HIV vaccine development started last year with $287 million in grants.
On Monday a federal judge extended his order barring a former CEO of UnitedHealth Group Inc. from cashing in unexercised stock options while shareholders pursue lawsuits over the company’s options award practices.
The court order had been set to expire on Monday, but U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum in Minneapolis extended it to Oct. 15 while a special litigation committee created by the UnitedHealth board finishes its review of options-related lawsuits filed against the company.
The order applies to William McGuire, who stepped down as UnitedHealth chairman and chief executive last year following an internal report by the insurer that concluded many of his option awards were likely backdated.
McGuire, one of the highest-profile executives caught up in the U.S. scandal over options award practices, had accumulated more than $1.6 billion in stock options by the end of 2005.
Following the internal report, he agreed to reprice some of those options, reducing their value.
Judge Rosenbaum’s order also temporarily froze McGuire’s retirement pay, reportedly $5.1 million a year.
The judge, however, said in his new order on Monday that the company could pay McGuire up to $3 million out of the ex-CEO’s executive savings plan while the freeze remains in effect.
