Article Title | Sentiment | Date | Summary | Stock | Id | Author |
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Article Title | Sentiment | Date | ||||
Big Pharma bombshell: Judge finds Merck lied in patent trial, overturns $200-million verdict | -26 | 2016-06-08 00:00:00 | That’s what Judge Freeman did — she barred Merck from collecting a dime from Gilead for the two patents it supposedly infringed. Freeman threw out a patent infringement judgment Merck had won against Gilead Sciences, and overturned a $200-million jury award. Gilead’s story left Judge Freeman appalled. Instead, he rewrote Merck’s earlier patent claims so that they would apply to Pharmasset’s upcoming release of its hepatitis-C drug. Federal Judge Beth Labson Freeman of San Jose last week found that Merck & Co. lied to a business partner and to the court itself. | MRK | {"Michael Hiltzik","Los Angeles Times"} | 674 |
Merck to slash annual costs by $2.5 billion, cut 8,500 jobs | -7 | 2013-10-01 18:08:15+00 | The cuts will come equally from marketing and administrative areas and from research and development, Merck said. Merck has focused mainly on development of conventional drugs, or pills, although it is a also leader in vaccines. REUTERS/Jeff ZelevanskyMerck & Co, taking a cue from rival drugmakers that have slashed research spending to bolster earnings, said it will cut annual operating costs by $2.5 billion and eliminate 8,500 jobs, or more than 10 percent of its global workforce. "We're not doing indiscriminate cuts in research and development, we're doing surgery around where we should invest," Merck Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier said in an interview. And sales of Merck's former top seller, its asthma drug Singulair, have plunged 80 percent due to generic competition, and other Merck medicines will also face cheaper generics soon. | MRK | {"Ransdell Pierson"} | 804 |