HEALTH
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Health Products Survey Finds Worrisome Symptoms: Signs of slight financial ills emerged in an industry group’s survey of leading health products makers, including giants Merck & Co. and Johnson & Johnson. The 1993 survey of 16 major companies in New Jersey, which has the nation’s heaviest concentration of health care businesses, found modest declines in domestic sales, more companies cutting research expenditures, and layoffs after years of job growth. The industry in its report blamed managed health care and its pressure on drug prices, higher taxes, bigger rebates to government agencies and a recently imposed $100,000 fee for federal review of new drugs.
