Pharm company feud

Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals will pay $67 million as part of a federal court settlement over misleading claims about the drug Tarceva which was approved to treat non-small-cell lung cancer and advanced stage pancreatic cancer.

Between January 2006 and December 2011, both companies led doctors to believe that Tarceva would work in a broad patient population when it was intended to be used on a narrower patient population that included patients who had never smoked and people who carried a particular mutation in a protein that is involved in the spread and growth of cancer cells.

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Knocking heads in the courtroom

Johnny Football has had a harder time escaping and eluding public headlines, compared to collegiate and professional defensive players. The good news is that he does not seem to mind, which gives reporters plenty of fresh content while keeping his name relevant.  Manziel is being sued for over $40,000 by The Goodwin Group Inc., for physical damage and rule violations with regard to a property he rented from April 4^th – April 6^th.  Damages have exceeded $19,000, including “extensive burn marks from cigarettes and marijuana” and wine stains “that cannot be removed” from the carpet, according to the ESPN.com news article.  As a part of the rental documentation, Manziel agreed to terms that the property was strictly for his personal and private use and that he would pay a fine of $10,000 any time 15 or more people were at the property.  Staying true to form, Johnny violated this rule twice, resulting in two separate $10,000 fines.

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Publicly traded donuts

On May 9^th, it was announced that Krispy Kreme Donuts, a publicly traded company, would be taken private through its purchase by a subsidiary of the JAB Holdings Company. The terms of the deal call for JAB to pay $21 per share as part of taking the company private. However, shareholder, Barbara Grajzl is asking the court to stop the proposed deal until “the company puts in place a process to obtain the highest price” possible to satisfy the shareholders.

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Affordable housing?

New York real estate is the mecca for eager buyers, determined sellers, and more recently, unlawful discrimination.  On May 23, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman established a settlement with real estate firms that have deliberately disregarded housing laws. Potential tenants who hold Section 8 housing vouchers or are affiliated with government assistance programs had been illegally denied the opportunity to live in certain residences that might otherwise be considered affordable housing.

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A less healthy option

On Thursday, a class-action complaint was filed against Kellogg, the maker of Cheez-It over the use of the term whole grain. The complaint alleges that the so-called “whole grain” version is nearly identical to the original version and they are asking Kellogg to stop marketing the Whole Grain Cheez-Its as it is. The plaintiffs content that the whole grain version contains enriched white flour rather than the whole wheat flour, which contains high amounts of fiber. They contend that the flour used mainly consists of starch and the fiber is either very little or none at all.

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