Ben Venue is a division of Boehringer Ingelheim who makes the drug for Johnson and Johnson and stated it would help J and J find another
manufacturer. The company has spent millions to upgrade the factory and is still projecting losses when trying to meet manufacturing standards. Watch for fire sales on Doxil in the future as all stock up.
There are other drugs that will no longer be manufactured but the big one is Doxil which is prescribed for ovarian, multiple myeloma and other cancers. Oh but all is not lost as Johnson and Johnson is suing the Ben Venue division, so what good does that do as far as the drug supply goes? Johnson and Johnson could kick in some money maybe to keep the factory going? Sounds better than a lawsuit to me. 67 batches are said to be owed to J and J. Ben Venue is also the largest employer in Bedford, Ohio so the double whammy with the economic impact as well.
Johnson and Johnson Cautions Doctors Not To Begin Treatments with Doxil Cancer Drug–Shortages from Manufacturer Boehringer
This is not the first shortage as issues were there in 2011 and to me it looks like 2 years of time didn’t do much to explore alternatives or anything to put a plan together that was long term either? Not a good time either to have the FDA off the job right now. BD
A Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH unit that has been beset by manufacturing difficulties said it plans to shut down starting this month, eliminating 1,100 jobs and exacerbating shortages of cancer and other drugs.
The Ben Venue Laboratories unit, which makes drugs for other companies and for its own sale, has struggled over the past few years with production problems that prompted tight monitoring by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and disrupted the supply of cancer drugs like Doxil. Johnson & Johnson, JNJ +0.86% which sells Doxil made for it by Ben Venue, said last week that it expected more shortages of the drug because of "external difficulties."
A J&J spokeswoman said the company is talking with Ben Venue about ways to ensure continued supplies of Doxil into 2014. The spokeswoman said that Ben Venue was just "one of several options we continue to explore in order to keep this therapy accessible for patients, in both the short- and long-term."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304176904579113733969162434.html
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