Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
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Corporations in the news
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Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
Beef from a Massachusetts slaughterhouse is being recalled after testing positive for E. Coli and sickening people in several states including two in Connecticut according to state and federal agencies.
The Connecticut Department of Public Health and the United States Department of Agriculture said this weekend, meat products sold at farmers markets from the Adams’ Slaughterhouse in Athol, Massachusetts, including veal, bison and beef, tested positive for E. coli. The contamination made two people in Connecticut sick as well as others in nearby states.
http://fox61.com/2016/09/25/beef-sold-in-connecticut-recalled-after-2-hospitalized-due-to-e-coli/
The Connecticut Department of Public Health and the United States Department of Agriculture said this weekend, meat products sold at farmers markets from the Adams’ Slaughterhouse in Athol, Massachusetts, including veal, bison and beef, tested positive for E. coli. The contamination made two people in Connecticut sick as well as others in nearby states.
http://fox61.com/2016/09/25/beef-sold-in-connecticut-recalled-after-2-hospitalized-due-to-e-coli/
Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
When Mylan NV’s chief executive testified before a congressional committee last week about steep price increases on its lifesaving EpiPen drug, House members badgered her to provide more evidence for the company’s claim that its profit was $100 for a two-pack of the injectors, despite a $608 list price.
The committee members left unsatisfied. Now it appears they were right to seek clarity.
Mylan now admits the $100 figure presented by CEO Heather Bresch included something the company didn’t convey to Congress.
The company substantially reduced its calculation of EpiPen profit by applying the statutory U.S. tax rate of 37.5%.
The 37.5% tax rate Mylan applied to EpiPen “has nothing to do with reality,” said Ryan Baum, an analyst with SSR Health LLC, a health care investment-research firm in Stamford, Conn., because the company didn’t pay that much tax on the product.
Mylan had a low 7.4% overall tax rate last year, he said, and a negative effective tax rate in the U.S. where the EpiPens were sold.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/mylan-clarifies-epipen-profit-figures-it-provided-to-congress-last-week-1474902801
The committee members left unsatisfied. Now it appears they were right to seek clarity.
Mylan now admits the $100 figure presented by CEO Heather Bresch included something the company didn’t convey to Congress.
The company substantially reduced its calculation of EpiPen profit by applying the statutory U.S. tax rate of 37.5%.
The 37.5% tax rate Mylan applied to EpiPen “has nothing to do with reality,” said Ryan Baum, an analyst with SSR Health LLC, a health care investment-research firm in Stamford, Conn., because the company didn’t pay that much tax on the product.
Mylan had a low 7.4% overall tax rate last year, he said, and a negative effective tax rate in the U.S. where the EpiPens were sold.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/mylan-clarifies-epipen-profit-figures-it-provided-to-congress-last-week-1474902801
Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
Even in an age when prescription drugs are increasingly expensive, a $9,500 tube of gel to combat scaly skin can gain notice — especially when the price spikes 128 percent overnight.
That’s what happened earlier this month when a little-known company called Novum Pharma suddenly hiked wholesale prices for all three of its dermatology products by whopping amounts.
We were curious. So we started poking around to learn more about Novum Pharma.
What did we learn? It appears to be a furtive vehicle for scooping up older medicines from other companies and then boosting prices significantly. And its chief executive did the very same thing at a previous job, at Horizon Pharma.
Let’s start at the beginning: Novum bought three gels to treat skin conditions in March of 2015. Two months after it acquired them, it jacked up the prices tenfold. That’s right, tenfold. For instance, the wholesale price for Alcortin A, a gel used to treat dermatitis and eczema, went from $226 to $2,995.
There was another big price hike earlier this year.
And this month, Novum boosted prices again. Alcortin A and Aloquin each now list for $9,561 per tube. And the wholesale price for its Novacort gel rose to $7,142 from $4,186 for a small tube.
With an army of mostly young and attractive sales reps (type in “Novum Pharma” on LinkedIn to see for yourself), getting doctors to write scripts may not be too difficult.
A Novum spokesman sent us a statement insisting the prices were inaccurate and saying they include “thousands of dollars in extra charges” added by third-party middlemen and passed on to patients. “This practice reflects one of the many fundamental challenges inherent in the healthcare system today that add to the cost of access for patients,” the statement said.
This is the same explanation Mylan Pharmaceuticals Chief Executive Heather Bresch gave for EpiPen price hikes.
Though its statement blamed middlemen for passing on extra costs to patients, Novum then went on to claim that patients don’t actually pay much for its products. The company said people with commercial insurance “only pay $0” for Novum gels, “even when their insurance doesn’t cover them.” It added that “cash-paying patients never have to pay more than $35.”
We asked for more detailed explanations, but never received a reply.
https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2016/09/23/drug-price-skin-gel/
That’s what happened earlier this month when a little-known company called Novum Pharma suddenly hiked wholesale prices for all three of its dermatology products by whopping amounts.
We were curious. So we started poking around to learn more about Novum Pharma.
What did we learn? It appears to be a furtive vehicle for scooping up older medicines from other companies and then boosting prices significantly. And its chief executive did the very same thing at a previous job, at Horizon Pharma.
Let’s start at the beginning: Novum bought three gels to treat skin conditions in March of 2015. Two months after it acquired them, it jacked up the prices tenfold. That’s right, tenfold. For instance, the wholesale price for Alcortin A, a gel used to treat dermatitis and eczema, went from $226 to $2,995.
There was another big price hike earlier this year.
And this month, Novum boosted prices again. Alcortin A and Aloquin each now list for $9,561 per tube. And the wholesale price for its Novacort gel rose to $7,142 from $4,186 for a small tube.
With an army of mostly young and attractive sales reps (type in “Novum Pharma” on LinkedIn to see for yourself), getting doctors to write scripts may not be too difficult.
A Novum spokesman sent us a statement insisting the prices were inaccurate and saying they include “thousands of dollars in extra charges” added by third-party middlemen and passed on to patients. “This practice reflects one of the many fundamental challenges inherent in the healthcare system today that add to the cost of access for patients,” the statement said.
This is the same explanation Mylan Pharmaceuticals Chief Executive Heather Bresch gave for EpiPen price hikes.
Though its statement blamed middlemen for passing on extra costs to patients, Novum then went on to claim that patients don’t actually pay much for its products. The company said people with commercial insurance “only pay $0” for Novum gels, “even when their insurance doesn’t cover them.” It added that “cash-paying patients never have to pay more than $35.”
We asked for more detailed explanations, but never received a reply.
https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2016/09/23/drug-price-skin-gel/
Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
Tyson Foods is recalling more than 130,000 pounds of cooked chicken nuggets because they contain hard plastic, the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service said.
"The plastic material ranged in size from 21mm in length and 6.5mm in diameter and may have come from a round, hard plastic rod used to connect a plastic transfer belt. The firm said the products pass through a metal detector, but the plastic is not detectable to this technology," the USDA recall announcement said.
In all, 132,520 pounds of chicken are subject to this recall, which applies to 5-pound bags of fully cooked chicken nuggets with a "use by" date of July 18, 2017. They also have case code 2006SDL03 and 2006SDL33 on the package.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/27/health/tyson-chicken-nugget-plastic-recall/
"The plastic material ranged in size from 21mm in length and 6.5mm in diameter and may have come from a round, hard plastic rod used to connect a plastic transfer belt. The firm said the products pass through a metal detector, but the plastic is not detectable to this technology," the USDA recall announcement said.
In all, 132,520 pounds of chicken are subject to this recall, which applies to 5-pound bags of fully cooked chicken nuggets with a "use by" date of July 18, 2017. They also have case code 2006SDL03 and 2006SDL33 on the package.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/27/health/tyson-chicken-nugget-plastic-recall/
Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
Eexecutive's fall from grace is cushioned by a big pile of cash:
Roger Ailes, $40 million
POSITION: Chairman, Fox News
WHAT: Sexual harassment claims and a lawsuit alleged that Ailes demoted and fired female anchors and other employees who rejected his overtures.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Advising Trump's presidential campaign.
Jeff Smisek, $29 million
POSITION: CEO, United Airlines
WHAT: A federal investigation found the airline had added back a money-losing flight between Newark and Columbia, South Carolina. An official with the Port Authority, which oversees Newark airport, happened to own a weekend house near Columbia, and had whined about the flight being dropped.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Smisek's initially reported severance of $8.4 million was later found out to be $20 million higher, on the condition that he cooperated with investigators following his resignation.
Scott Thompson, $7 million
POSITION: CEO, Yahoo (for four months)
WHAT: Claimed he held a bachelor's in computer science and accounting, but he only had the second one. Was able to keep his signing bonus but got no severance.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Thompson is the CEO of ShopRunner, an online shopping service.
Mark Hurd, $35 million
POSITION: CEO, Hewlett Packard
WHAT: Stepped down amid sexual harassment claims by an adult movie actress, who Hurd hired as a "company hostess" and then made advances on in his hotel room. Hurd's replacement was ousted after 10 months on the job — and received $10 million in severance.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Hurd is the CEO of Oracle Corporation.
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/it-s-not-just-wells-fargo-disgraced-executives-who-get-n653576
Roger Ailes, $40 million
POSITION: Chairman, Fox News
WHAT: Sexual harassment claims and a lawsuit alleged that Ailes demoted and fired female anchors and other employees who rejected his overtures.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Advising Trump's presidential campaign.
Jeff Smisek, $29 million
POSITION: CEO, United Airlines
WHAT: A federal investigation found the airline had added back a money-losing flight between Newark and Columbia, South Carolina. An official with the Port Authority, which oversees Newark airport, happened to own a weekend house near Columbia, and had whined about the flight being dropped.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Smisek's initially reported severance of $8.4 million was later found out to be $20 million higher, on the condition that he cooperated with investigators following his resignation.
Scott Thompson, $7 million
POSITION: CEO, Yahoo (for four months)
WHAT: Claimed he held a bachelor's in computer science and accounting, but he only had the second one. Was able to keep his signing bonus but got no severance.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Thompson is the CEO of ShopRunner, an online shopping service.
Mark Hurd, $35 million
POSITION: CEO, Hewlett Packard
WHAT: Stepped down amid sexual harassment claims by an adult movie actress, who Hurd hired as a "company hostess" and then made advances on in his hotel room. Hurd's replacement was ousted after 10 months on the job — and received $10 million in severance.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Hurd is the CEO of Oracle Corporation.
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/it-s-not-just-wells-fargo-disgraced-executives-who-get-n653576
Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
Wells Fargo & Co., reeling from weeks of pummeling over fraudulent customer accounts, was sanctioned by the Justice Department over improperly repossessing cars owned by members of the military.
Federal authorities are punishing the San Francisco-based lender for as many as 413 alleged violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, according to a statement Thursday from the Justice Department, which said the bank agreed to pay more than $4 million to compensate borrowers involved in unlawful repossessions spread over seven years. The bank’s regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, also fined the company $20 million for a decade of transgressions, the agency said in a statement.
“Wells Fargo Bank unlawfully repossessed hundreds of servicemembers’ cars without the proper process, and the bank will now rightfully pay for its violations,” Bill Baer, the Justice Department’s No. 3 official, said in a statement. The department “is committed to protecting our country’s servicemembers as they continue to fight for our freedom.”
The enforcement actions against the bank follow a $185 million settlement over more than two million unauthorized accounts that may have been opened to meet sales goals. The matter has sparked weeks of sharp criticism, congressional hearings and the forfeit of tens of millions in bonuses for top executives.
Wells Fargo’s stock declined 1.5 percent to close at $44.37 after Bloomberg News reported on the car-seizure sanctions Thursday afternoon -- at the same time that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf answered questions in a House hearing on the accounts scandal.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/wells-fargo-troubles-mount-with-penalty-for-soldiers-car-loans
Federal authorities are punishing the San Francisco-based lender for as many as 413 alleged violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, according to a statement Thursday from the Justice Department, which said the bank agreed to pay more than $4 million to compensate borrowers involved in unlawful repossessions spread over seven years. The bank’s regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, also fined the company $20 million for a decade of transgressions, the agency said in a statement.
“Wells Fargo Bank unlawfully repossessed hundreds of servicemembers’ cars without the proper process, and the bank will now rightfully pay for its violations,” Bill Baer, the Justice Department’s No. 3 official, said in a statement. The department “is committed to protecting our country’s servicemembers as they continue to fight for our freedom.”
The enforcement actions against the bank follow a $185 million settlement over more than two million unauthorized accounts that may have been opened to meet sales goals. The matter has sparked weeks of sharp criticism, congressional hearings and the forfeit of tens of millions in bonuses for top executives.
Wells Fargo’s stock declined 1.5 percent to close at $44.37 after Bloomberg News reported on the car-seizure sanctions Thursday afternoon -- at the same time that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf answered questions in a House hearing on the accounts scandal.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-29/wells-fargo-troubles-mount-with-penalty-for-soldiers-car-loans