cephalon

[sef-uh-lon, -luhn]

noun

Zoology.

plural

cephala 

1. the head, especially of an arthropod.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cephalon¹

1870–75; < New Latin, for Greek kephalḗ head

Example Sentences

Among them: a 2010 email from a senior director of global compliance at Cephalon Inc., a small drug company that was subsequently acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals.

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In the message, the director notes that what ProPublica found — Cephalon had paid doctors who had been sanctioned by their states to deliver promotional talks on its behalf — was, indeed, true, and that the company was undertaking a review of all of its doctors in light of our findings.

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By comparison, Teva’s branded opioid drugs Actiq and Fentora, made by its Cephalon unit, were “a barely perceptible blip on the opioid market in San Francisco,” James said.

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Much of Friday’s testimony focused on materials produced by Cephalon Inc., a company bought by Teva, to sell fentanyl-based medications Actiq and Fentora.

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The evidence at trial included a parody video made for a Cephalon sales meeting in 2006 in which the villain, Dr. Evil from the "Austin Powers" films, talks about promoting the drugs for non-cancer pain, and another video, based on a courtroom scene in the film "A Few Good Men," in which a Cephalon employee tells a lawyer played by Tom Cruise that he "can't handle the truth" about what sales representatives need to do to meet quotas.

Read more on Reuters