In a settlement with the United States, Consumers Energy, a subsidiary of CMS Energy Corporation, has agreed to install pollution control technology, continue operating existing pollution controls and comply with emission rates to reduce harmful air pollution from the company’s five coal-fired power plants.

Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has signed an antitrust cooperation agreement with the Colombian antitrust agency on behalf of the Department of Justice. The agreement also was signed by Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, and went into effect today with the signature of Pablo Felipe Robledo, Colombia’s Superintendent of Industry and Commerce.

The general manager of a Southern California ambulance company pleaded guilty yesterday in Los Angeles to conspiracy to commit Medicare fraud, conspiracy to obstruct a Medicare audit, and making materially false statements to law enforcement officers.

A Detroit-area hematologist-oncologist pleaded guilty today for his role in a health care fraud scheme, admitting that he administered unnecessary chemotherapy to fraudulently bill the Medicare program and private insurance companies. According to court records, the scheme enabled the doctor to submit approximately $225 million in claims to Medicare over six years.

A Plus Home Health Care Inc. and its owners, Tracy Nemerofsky and her father, Stephen Nemerofsky, have agreed to pay $1.65 million to the United States to settle allegations that A Plus paid spouses of referring physicians for sham marketing positions in order to induce patient referrals.

Qui tam cases are a vital part of the Criminal Division’s future efforts. We encourage you to reach out to criminal authorities in appropriate cases, even when you are discussing the case with civil authorities. The sooner we on the criminal side learn about potential criminal conduct, the sooner we can investigate.

A true cooperator – whether a mobster or a company – must forthrightly provide all the available facts and evidence so that the most culpable individuals can be prosecuted. If a corporation wants credit for cooperation, it must engage in comprehensive and timely cooperation; lip service simply will not do. Corporations do not act criminally, but for the actions of individuals. The Criminal Division intends to prosecute those individuals, whether they’re sitting on a sales desk or in a corporate suite.

An Alabama real estate investor pleaded guilty yesterday for his role in a conspiracy to commit mail fraud related to public real estate foreclosure auctions held in southern Alabama, the Department of Justice announced today

The Justice Department announced today that under its settlements with five of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers, 952 service members and their co-borrowers are eligible to receive over $123 million for non-judicial foreclosures that violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)

Misled More Than 50 Individual Investors Who Bought Bonds

A former Queenstown, Maryland, resident pleaded guilty today to securities fraud and filing a false tax return

The Justice Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, along with 49 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia’s attorney general, have reached a $470 million agreement with HSBC Bank USA NA and its affiliates (collectively, HSBC) to address mortgage origination, servicing and foreclosure abuses

ALEXANDRIA, Va

By Alice Li, MD, MSc, RAC(CAN), Regulatory Scientist, Cato Research Special Interest Guidances/Information Date Posted Guidance for Industry: Serving Sizes of Foods That Can Reasonably Be Consumed At One Eating Occasion, Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed, Serving Size-Related Issues, Dual-Column Labeling, and Miscellaneous Topics – Final Guidance 30 Dec 2019 Submission of Plans for Cigarette Packages …

Continue reading »

By Sheila Plant, PhD, MHS, RAC, Senior Director, Regulatory Strategy, CATO SMS Special Interest Guidances/Information Date Posted Recommendations to Reduce the Possible Risk of Transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease by Blood and Blood Components; Draft Guidance for Industry: Draft Guidance for Industry – Draft Guidance 30 Jan 2020 Arthroscopy Pump Tubing Sets …

Continue reading »

By Sheila Plant, PhD, MHS, RAC, Senior Director, Regulatory Strategy, CATO SMS    Special Interest Guidances/Information Date Posted Policy for Diagnostics Testing in Laboratories Certified to Perform High Complexity Testing under CLIA prior to Emergency Use Authorization for Coronavirus Disease-2019 during the Public Health Emergency: Immediately in Effect Guidance for Clinical Laboratories and Food and …

Continue reading »

By Sheila Plant, PhD, MHS, RAC, Senior Director, Regulatory Strategy, CATO SMS FDA guidances from March 2020 as well as upcoming advisory committee meeting announcements are below.  We note that approximately one-third of FDA’s guidances this past month are related to COVID-19.    Special Interest Guidances/Information Date Posted Enforcement Policy for Gowns, Other Apparel, and …

Continue reading »

By Ashley Henderson, PhD, CATO SMS Scientist 1.0 INTRODUCTION The COVID‑19 pandemic has added an unprecedented set of challenges to the conduct of clinical trials including quarantines, travel limitations, site closures, and interruptions in the supply chain of investigational products. In acknowledgement of these challenges, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes that protocol modifications …

Continue reading »

By Zachary Swan, PhD, RAC, Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs at CATO SMS    Special Interest Guidances/Information Date Posted Exemption and Exclusion from Certain Requirements of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency: Guidance for Industry – Final Guidance 30 April 2020 FDA Deems Certain Tobacco Products Subject to FDA Authority, …

Continue reading »

Baltimore, Maryland-based Medifast, Inc. is recalling certain Optavia Oatmeal products citing undeclared milk, a known allergen, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement. The recall involves around 24,923 boxes of OPTAVIA Essential Old Fashioned Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal. The product is packaged in yellow and white cardboard boxes with the brand name.

Let's take a look at the biotech/pharma companies that are slated to report clinical trial results this quarter.

Today's Daily Dose brings you news about Blueprint Medicines' disappointing results from gastrointestinal stromal tumor trial; revised timeline of Clearside Biomedical's resubmission of XIPERE NDA; encouraging trial results of INOVIO's MERS coronavirus vaccine and initial data from Syndax Pharma's acute leukemia trial.

The COVID-19 pandemic is providing a grim reminder of an unfortunate truism: Public health often does not receive the attention it deserves until a disaster hits.

Neuroscience has had a tough run of news lately. With Amgen deprioritizing neuro this year, Pfizer doing the same last year, and others like BMS, GSK, and AZ cutting back on CNS a few years earlier, it would seem dark

The post The Promise Of Precision Neuroscience And Launch Of Arkuda Therapeutics appeared first on LifeSciVC.

This blog was written by Aoife Brennan, CEO of Synlogic, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. I have never participated in trench warfare and I am sure it was pretty grim for those who lived and

The post Coming Together While Staying Apart appeared first on LifeSciVC.

This blog post was written by Deanna Petersen, CBO of AVROBIO, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. When AVROBIO went public in June 2018, I found myself on the steep end of an unexpected but interesting

The post Recipe For Managing Data Disclosure Successfully With Academic Partners: A Public Gene Therapy Company Perspective appeared first on LifeSciVC.

In the throes of a full COVID-19 pandemic, most business leaders’ top priority is rightfully the health and safety of their employees, families, and communities. Even though business disruptions are significant and overwhelming, the primary efforts focused on both safety

The post Strategic Planning In Biotech During A Pandemic Crisis appeared first on LifeSciVC.

Venture capital is a long investment cycle business, and never before has that been so clear as now in the face of the ongoing COVID pandemic. Even with the unprecedented public equity market volatility, venture investing into private biopharma companies

The post Booming VC-Backed Biopharma: Strong Market Despite Pandemic appeared first on LifeSciVC.

This blog post was written by Gerhard Koenig, CEO of Arkuda Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. When I discussed the topic of writing about my experience as an immigrant biotech CEO with Bruce Booth,

The post Reflections of an Immigrant CEO  appeared first on LifeSciVC.

This blog was written by Andrea DiMella, VP and Head of Talent at Atlas Venture, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC. What a difference a little time makes. When Bruce originally encouraged me to be a

The post Running Rehab: Managing Talent In A Pandemic appeared first on LifeSciVC.

Rend Al-Mondhiry has joined the firm Amin Talati from the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) as Senior Counsel, resident in the Washington, D.C. Office.

Valensa International announced today a joint venture agreement between Valensa’s parent company EID Parry and Synthite Industries Ltd., expanding plans to lead development and distribution of value-added microalgae extracts.

The American Herbal Products Association submitted nearly 100 pages of comments to the Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition identifying ways to improve regulations, guidance documents and enforcement practices to better protect public health.

A study demonstrated Wellmune® may protect intestinal barrier function in adults when faced with stress.

Valensa International announced Non-GMO Project has been awarded to Valensa’s Organic Spirulina, Chlorella and Microalgae products.

DSM today published the first part of a new report in its Global Insight Series, focused on breakfast habits and behavior in Europe and the US.

Alkemist Labs is pleased to announce a move to a new facility with over four times more space to expand capacity and accommodate continued growth.

A doctor, researcher and former chronic migraine sufferer, has launched her own biotech startup company named KetoSwiss selling supplements that she argues can help control migraine pain by tapping into our own biological mechanisms.

Obese mice with unhealthy lifestyles gain significantly less weight and avoid type 2 diabetes when they receive bacteriophages from the faeces of a lean mouse, according to a new University of Copenhagen study.

Ministers convened this week in Concepcion to talk about one of the most underrepresented but vital business sectors of the region.

Ministers in charge of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the APEC region issued a statement following their meeting in Concepcion, Chile, on 5-6 September 2019.

A comprehensive study on the health needs of Filipino migrant workers has won the inaugural APEC Healthy Women Healthy Economies award.

Ministers in charge of women’s economic participation in the APEC region issued a joint statement following their meeting in La Serena, Chile, on 4 October 2019.

APEC member economies launched the APEC Women in STEM Principles and Actions, a set of suggested principles and actions for encouraging women’s participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, commonly referred to as STEM.

Ministers address developments in the global economy and take action to safeguard the region’s growth.

Finance Ministers from APEC member economies issued a joint statement reflecting the outcomes of the APEC Finance Ministers’ Meeting in Santiago, Chile, chaired by Chile’s Minister of Finance Felipe Larrain.

2020 APEC Science Prize Open for Nominations

The first Senior Officials Meeting for APEC Malaysia 2020 begins

La Serena Roadmap for Women and Inclusive Growth to bolster progress

Malaysia, the host of APEC 2020, has announced the postponement of the upcoming Second Senior Officials’ Meeting, the 2020 APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting, and the 2020 APEC Ministers Responsible of Trade Meeting, which were scheduled for April this year.

Trade Ministers agree to work together towards a healthy, resilient and inclusive Asia-Pacific community.