Biography for Tracy Staton
Tracy Staton is the editor of FiercePharma. She has been a freelance writer for five years, but before that served as editor of the Dallas Business Journal, editor of Texas Business magazine, and a senior editor at American Way, the inflight magazine of American Airlines. She is based in Vermont, and can be reached at tracy@fiercemarkets.com or find her on LinkedIn.
Articles by Tracy Staton
European regulators tag 100-plus drugs with 'black triangle'
The labeling logo is designed to encourage doctors and patients to report side effects, as part of a new effort to more closely monitor drug safety. The list of 100-plus products includes all new drugs and biologics approved since January 2011.
Japan's Eisai amps up in China with new manufacturing plant
The Japanese drugmaker will use the plant to tap growing demand in that country, as well as an export base for other emerging markets in Asia.
Analysts skeptical as AstraZeneca sales, earnings sink
AstraZeneca's first-quarter sales dropped by 12%. Core earnings fell by 21%. Neither number approached Bristol-Myers Squibb's scary declines. Both companies are suffering big-time hits to their top drugs, because of generic competition. AstraZeneca's earnings actually beat expectations. So why are AstraZeneca analysts less positive about the company's results? It's all about the future.
New Bristol-Myers drug growth cushions plummeting Plavix sales
Bristol-Myers Squibb's first-quarter earnings dropped 44%, on a 27% decline in sales. Fortunately, the $3.83 billion revenue line was only slightly worse than analysts expected, given generic competition for blockbuster heart drugs Avapro and Plavix.
Bayer drug sales up 2.3%, as new products offset older drugs' suffering
Poor Bayer HealthCare. Its new drugs and modest sales growth couldn't make up for lagging sales and soaring costs at Bayer's plastics business. Announcing its first-quarter results, Bayer Group understandably leaned on its healthcare unit's strengths, but headlines focused on the German company's overall disappointments: profits up only 0.4%, sales up just 2.1%, both below analyst expectations.
Merck nabs 'breakthrough' label for anti-melanoma drug
The designation was based on Phase Ib data that showed significant early signs of antitumor activity in some patients with aggressive cases of the deadly skin cancer.
Is GlaxoSmithKline prepping older products for spinoff?
The U.K.-based drugmaker posted disappointing profits for the first quarter as sales took a backwards step, partly because of revenue lost in the sale of over-the-counter products.
Lilly cost-cutting and price hikes pay off with Q1 earnings beat
The moral of Eli Lilly's first-quarter performance is this: Raise prices and cut costs.
Busy Novartis announces layoffs, taps new CFO, and slashes chairman's pay
While the U.S. government was announcing its kickbacks lawsuit against Novartis, the Swiss drugmaker was putting the finishing touches on a few press releases of its own.
Feds sue 'repeat offender' Novartis in Myfortic kickback scheme
Federal prosecutors sued the Swiss drugmaker, accusing it of offering "disguised" kickbacks to pharmacies for switching patients to one of its drugs. And switch they did, the prosecutors say.
