PHARMA LITERATI

Abbott announced US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of the Advisor HD Grid Mapping Catheter, Sensor Enabled. Advisor HD Grid employs a new design that allows physicians to see things differently, capturing and analysing data in a novel manner to create highly detailed maps of the heart that better differentiate healthy from unhealthy tissue. The new mapping catheter builds upon Abbott's innovative products designed to improve how physicians perform cardiac ablation procedures, including the EnSite Precision Cardiac Mapping System and a broad range of mapping and treatment catheters. Arrhythmias are abnormal heart rhythms caused by improperly conducted electrical signals in the heart. In the US, more than 7 million people have an irregular heartbeat. Abnormal heart rhythms, which include conditions such as atrial fibrillation, make the heart beat too fast, too slow or out of sync. In each case, the heart may pump blood less effectively which can cause a range of s...

Mumbai centre to develop new drug formulations that will be exported to 30 countries Global drug maker Abbott will bolster its branded generics business with a new innovation and development centre in India. Mike Warmuth, executive vice president of Abbott's established pharmaceuticals division , said the proposed innovation hub in Mumbai will help develop new drug formulations, new indications, dosing, packaging and other differentiated offerings which will be shipped to at least 30 countries. Warmuth did not disclose how much money the company will pump into the proposed facility but said the investment will result in doubling of its local scientific manpower. The centre will also have a pilot scale plant, he said. “ We are investing in innovation and scale and we are doing it in areas where people have needs. It is not about getting sales for the sake of getting bigger ,” Warmuth, who is based in Basel, Switzerland, told ET on his second trip to India in the last two ...

Trouble is brewing at Abbott, India's second-largest drug maker by market share, following an alleged suicide last week by a medical representative in Indore purportedly under pressure to achieve periodic sales targets. Abbott has strongly refuted any role in the employee's death, noting that the deceased was rated among the top performers and had recently qualified for a training certification meant for high performers. Ashish Awasthi, who was 35, was found dead on a railway track last week. A note recovered from him blamed the company for his death. The incident sparked unrest among Abbott's local field representatives, who have staged a series of demonstrations, demanding adequate compensation for the dead employee's family and better service conditions for field representatives. Members of the union of medical representatives have written to the company's top executives in India and its headquarters in Chicago, highlighting, what they termed, continuous ...

Crime Investigation Department (CID) has registered a case against Abbott Health Care Pvt Ltd and their associates for smuggling Rs 57.6 crore worth cough syrup containing narcotic components into Bangladesh using fake bills. Based on an alert by customs sleuths based in Shillong six months ago, the Drugs Control Administration (DCA), Telangana, launched a probe after 5,100 bottles of Phensedyl cough syrup were seized by the customs sleuths while being smuggled into Bangladesh. The batch numbers on the seized cough syrup bottles indicated that they were supposed to be marketed in Nizamabad. According to director of DCA, Telangana, Akun Sabharwal, Phensedyl syrup contains the narcotic compound codeine (isolated from opium) and it was being used for substance abuse in Bangladesh, where sale of alcohol is prohibited . Explaining how the fraud was executed, the DCA chief said: "Abbott Health Care Pvt Ltd transports stocks of Phensedyl from their Baddi plant in Himachal Pr...