Word: astrazeneca
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...treatment Prilosec has long been the most successful. The stomach soother reaped an astonishing $6.2 billion in sales last year to make it the best-selling prescription drug ever--a title Prilosec stands to lose when its patent expires in October. But if the drug's maker, British firm AstraZeneca, behaves like many of its counterparts in the industry, it won't easily relinquish its monopoly. Indeed, sources confirmed to TIME that the Federal Trade Commission has quietly launched an investigation into whether AstraZeneca illegally blocked generic competition to protect its Prilosec franchise. A company spokesperson said the firm would...
...plenty of exercise and losing a little weight, most people can reduce their total cholesterol levels an average of 10% to 20%. Yet that's only about half the effect of the weakest of the currently available statins. Stronger drugs, like Pfizer's Lipitor, can lop off 50%, and AstraZeneca is testing a "superstatin" that reportedly reduces cholesterol levels as much as 70%. (In each case, statins work best when a low-fat diet is adopted...
...soon discovered, however, that giving away golden rice was not going to be as easy as they thought. The genes they transferred and the bacteria they used to transfer those genes were all encumbered by patents and proprietary rights. Three months ago, the two scientists struck a deal with AstraZeneca, which is based in London and holds an exclusive license to one of the genes Potrykus and Beyer used to create golden rice. In exchange for commercial marketing rights in the U.S. and other affluent markets, AstraZeneca agreed to lend its financial muscle and legal expertise to the cause...
...sooner had the deal been made than the critics of agricultural biotechnology erupted. "A rip-off of the public trust," grumbled the Rural Advancement Foundation International, an advocacy group based in Winnipeg, Canada. "Asian farmers get (unproved) genetically modified rice, and AstraZeneca gets the 'gold.'" Potrykus was dismayed by such negative reaction. "It would be irresponsible," he exclaimed, "not to say immoral, not to use biotechnology to try to solve this problem!" But such expressions of good intentions would not be enough to allay his opponents' fears...