NEW YORK (Reuters) – As drug counterfeiters step up their sales of bogus medicines, global health regulators have few protections in place to prevent them from reaching patients, and new laws aimed at addressing the problem could be years away.

Scrutiny of the supply chain has grown since fake versions of Roche’s multibillion-dollar cancer drug Avastin turned up at U.S. oncology practices late last year, sparking an international investigation that so far stretches from southern California back to Turkey with a stopover in a Cairo suburb.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As drug counterfeiters step up their sales of bogus medicines, global health regulators have few protections in place to prevent them from reaching patients, and new laws aimed at addressing the problem could be years away.

Scrutiny of the supply chain has grown since fake versions of Roche’s multibillion-dollar cancer drug Avastin turned up at U.S. oncology practices late last year, sparking an international investigation that so far stretches from southern California back to Turkey with a stopover in a Cairo suburb.

March 8 (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson’s drug
for advanced prostate cancer, Zytiga, was deemed so beneficial
in patients who had not received chemotherapy that safety
advisors said those in the placebo group of a late stage trial
should be offered the treatment, the company said

The unanimous recommendation by independent safety monitors
was based on improvements in overall survival data, progression
free survival — or how long it takes the disease to worsen –
and other secondary goals of the 1,088-patient trial, as well as
a favorable safety profile, the company said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An experimental therapy for a rare, often fatal genetic disorder appears to offer hope for infants and very young children with the condition, according to data from a small clinical trial reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.

The enzyme-replacement drug, asfotase alfa, acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc with its $610 million purchase of Canada-based Enobia Pharma, could become the first approved treatment for the metabolic disease hypophosphatasia, or HPP.

By Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – U.S. health regulators will add warnings to the labels of widely used cholesterol lowering drugs, such as Lipitor, to indicate that they may raise levels of blood sugar and could cause memory loss.

The Food and Drug administration announced the changes to the safety information on the labels of statins such as Pfizer Inc’s Lipitor, AstraZeneca’s Crestor and Merck & Co’s Zocor.

By Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – - Express Scripts Inc (ESRX.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which is buying rival pharmacy benefit manager Medco Health Solutions Inc (MHS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for $29 billion, reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday on higher costs, including an unexpected tax expense.

Express said it would not provide a detailed forecast for 2012 until after completion of the Medco deal, which both companies still expect will close in the first half of the year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive William Weldon will step down from his post in April after a series of recalls called into question the quality of the healthcare giant’s products, from artificial hips to infant Tylenol.

Weldon, 63, will remain chairman, the company said on Tuesday. He has held both roles for nearly 10 years, after three decades spent working his way through the company from his first job as a sales representative at J&J’s McNeil consumer division.

NEW YORK/COPENHAGEN, Feb 16 (Reuters) – The trail of
fake versions of the multibillion-dollar cancer drug Avastin
that reached southern California has been traced as far away as
Egypt in an investigation by international health regulators.

Danish health authorities first became suspicious about
potentially bogus Avastin in December after a legitimate drug
distributor in that country sounded the alarm, a spokesman for
the Danish Medicines Agency told Reuters on Thursday.

NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters) – A U.S. distributor of
phony vials of the widely-used cancer drug Avastin aroused
suspicion at doctor’s offices as early as July, well before
health regulators issued their own warning and sparked new alarm
over counterfeit medicines.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said this week it
notified 19 oncology practices they had purchased drugs from a
supplier not approved by the agency, including a counterfeit
version of Roche Holding AG’s , Avastin, that did not
contain the multibillion-dollar drug’s active ingredient,
bevacizumab.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. distributor of phony vials of the widely-used cancer drug Avastin aroused suspicion at doctor’s offices as early as July, well before health regulators issued their own warning and sparked new alarm over counterfeit medicines.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said this week it notified 19 oncology practices they had purchased drugs from a supplier not approved by the agency, including a counterfeit version of Roche Holding AG’s, Avastin, that did not contain the multibillion-dollar drug’s active ingredient, bevacizumab.