In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology and life science news:

  • An independent group is criticizing the price of GSK’s new asthma drug
  • Google to invfest $600 million in Tennessee data center expansion
  • Kim Dotcom faces extradition to the U.S.
  • Drug company Turing is looking for a new CEO to replace Martin Shkreli

The details:

  • Nonprofit says new GSK drug too expensive

A new GlaxoSmithKline asthma drug is being criticized as too expensive but GSK disagrees.

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review in Boston said it believes GSK’s Nucala, which was recently approved by the FDA, should be priced at around $7,800 to $12.000 per year. GSK’s list price is $32,500 a year.

GSK told Reuters it believes the price is fair.

“We believe that Nucala is fairly priced, balancing innovation and market value with patient access,” GSK spokeswoman Sarah Spencer said.

The drug is injected once a month.

  • Google to invest $600M in new Tennessee data center

Google is investing $600 million to bring the company’s eighth U.S. data center to Clarksville, Tennessee and create 70 new jobs.

Google acquired the former Hemlock Semiconductor site in Clarksville, which it will transform into the data center.

Construction on a polysilicon plant began at the site in 2009, and the facility was nearly complete when Hemlock announced in 2013 it would not begin manufacturing there because of disputes with China over tariffs and an oversupply of the compound used in solar energy panels.

Officials say the new data center will be powered 100 percent by renewable energy thanks to an arrangement with the Tennessee Valley Authority, which serves 9 million people in seven states.

  • New Zealand judges rules Kim Dotcom can be extradited to US

A New Zealand judge has ruled that colorful Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and three of his colleagues can be extradited to the United States to face criminal copyright charges.

Dotcom’s lawyers said they will appeal the decision.

Judge Nevin Dawson’s ruling on Wednesday comes nearly four years after U.S. authorities shut down Dotcom’s Megaupload website, which some visitors had used to illegally download songs and movies.

The U.S. has charged the men with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering. If found guilty, they could face decades in jail.

The case could have broader implications for Internet copyright rules. Dotcom’s lawyer Ron Mansfield said earlier that if the U.S. side prevails, websites from YouTube to Facebook would need to more carefully police their content.

  • Turing cuts jobs, looking for new CEO after Shkreli left

Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company formerly led by Martin Shkreli, says it has cut jobs, “realigned its business priorities” and is looking for a new permanent CEO.

Shkreli resigned Friday, a day after his arrest on charges of securities fraud related to a company he previously ran. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $5 million bail.

Shkreli had been reviled for hiking the price of Daraprim by 5,000 percent. It’s the only approved drug for a life-threatening parasitic infection that mainly strikes pregnant women, cancer patients and AIDS patients.

Shkreli was also fired from a California drug developer called KaloBios last week.