M and C Group

Google and its directors have been sued by a shareholder who is unhappy with the company’s decision to facilitate the illegal importation of prescription medicines from Canada into the US – a slip that cost the company a $500 million settlement with the federal government. Chief Executive Officer Larry Page and the company’s board knew or should have known it was illegal for pharmacies outside the U.S. to ship prescription drugs into the country, according to a lawsuit filed in California recently by a Pennsylvania woman who owns Google shares.

It’s well known that many of the more unusual treatments which emerged in recent decades, such as erectile dysfunction medication and nicotine replacement therapy, derived from existing medicines that had an entirely different purpose.  Such serendipity pales into significance when placed alongside the potential financial windfall facing Allergan Inc, the Co Mayo-based eye specialist and Botox manufacturer. A product they initially developed for glaucoma is entering a second phase of clinical testing as a baldness treatment after doctors spotted a curious side effect – rapid eyelash and eyebrow growth.

UK regulators are actively considering the benefits of allowing drug reaction reports to be logged using smartphones, Facebook and Twitter. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which is an executive agency of the Department of Health, floated the idea following the success of a pilot scheme allowing direct reporting from more than a thousand GP practice IT systems.

Occasionally, Take Two’s articles name check active clients or mention companies we hope to do business with in the future. As you might imagine, this usually sparks debate about whether carrying such coverage might inadvertently harm our business prospects. This story – featuring a company who fitted out their offices in gold leaf and crystal – is unlikely to carry such a risk. But the fall-out experienced by China’s Harbin Pharmaceuticals might nevertheless contain useful learnings for Irish companies, even if local décor is likely to be less ostentatious than such Oriental peers.