…and the clichéd. Sorry. Couldn’t resist.  

Novartis is expanding in Cambridge. From the Globe: 

Pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG will disclose today that it is doubling the size of a planned office and lab complex in Cambridge, spending $600 million to bolster its research operations and strengthen partnerships with local universities and biotechnology start-ups.

Already Cambridge’s largest corporate employer, the Swiss firm expects to hire an additional 200 to 300 employees over the next five years, bringing its total workforce in the city to around 2,300. Novartis’s global research operations are already headquartered in Cambridge, across Massachusetts Avenue from the site of the new four-acre campus.

Glaxo spanked for fake drugs in Boston suit. From the NYTimes:

GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug giant, has agreed to pay $750 million to settle criminal and civil complaints that the company for years knowingly sold contaminated baby ointment and an ineffective antidepressant — the latest in a growing number of whistle-blower lawsuits that drug makers have settled with multimillion-dollar fines.

… Justice Department officials announced the settlement in a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Boston, saying a $150 million payment to settle criminal charges was the largest such payment ever by a manufacturer of adulterated drugs. The outcome also provides $600 million in civil penalties. The share to the whistle-blower will be $96 million, one of the highest such awards in a health care fraud case.

When asked whether any individual could be charged in addition to the corporation charges, Carmen M. Ortiz, the United States attorney for Massachusetts, would say only that the investigation was not yet complete. According to the Globe, The case was filed in Boston to take advantage of the Massachusetts DA’s office, which has “expertise” in such cases.  

And,  Weston-based Biogen-Idec reported an 8 percent drop in third quarter profits.