How Genentech, Novartis Stifled A Promising Drug – WSJ Tue, 05 Apr 2005 A front page story in The Wall Street Journal should be distributed to every Congress person who will be considering Bioshield II providing yet additional financial incentives and give-a-ways to pharmaceutical companies. The story perfectly illustrates this…
Cymbalta Contract: How Eli Lilly Influences What Prescribers Learn about Lilly’s drugs Fri, 5 Aug 2005 The Wall Street Journal reports that not only do drug manufacturers control what the public is told about patented drugs, but companies, such as Eli Lilly and Pfizer dictate by contract what doctors are…
July 14, 2002 Corporate Influence on Medicine, Healthcare Budgets, Investors FYI Because medicine’s pronouncements are so widely propagated and affect so many people’s lives, corporate influence and manipulation of the truth is more devastating than mere corporate accounting malfeasance. Recent revelations demonstrate how corporate influence and greed – rather than…
Police recruit volunteers to binge on drugs-alcohol_ WSJ Tue, 29 Oct 2002 In 1998, The Washington Post reported about the accidental death of a volunteer firefighter who had been recruited by the police to be a test subject whose purpose was to get drunk: “A Lanham man who volunteered to…
Not-So-Public-Relations: Drug Industry & Bioethics – is it casuistry or sophistry? Fri, 19 Dec 2003 Carl Elliott is a clear eyed academic who teaches bioethics at the University of Minnesota . He is currently a visiting associate professor at School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton….
AMA Serves Pharma Marketing Priority/ FDA To Add Warnings on ADHD drugs–Concerta, Ritalin, Strattera, Adderall Wed, 29 Jun 2005 The FDA is finally taking note of the fact that many drugs prescribed for the treatment of psychiatric problems are CAUSING serious psychiatric and cardiovascular problems in children and adolescents !…
Universities Misappropriate Federal Grants – Cornell Doctor Blows Whistle Alleging Phantom Studies – WSJ Wed Aug 17, 2005 Scott Fitzgerald’s opener to The Great Gatsby, “the rich are different from you and me…” is most aptly applied today to an elite corps of rich academic scientists. Academia once symbolized a…
Doctors On the Take-Engaging in Vairous Dubious Activities for Cash / Stock Options Tue, 16 Aug 2005 A series of current articles in The Wall Street Journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the New York Times describe the many questionable non-medical income-producing activities that America¹s physicians…
Drug Testing Debate – Parenting Mag 4 Pt. Series Tue, 22 Oct 2002 Parenting Magazine published a 5-part report about the impact on children of FDA’s “The Pediatric Rule.” That Rule provides drug companies six month patent extension on drugs tested in children. This financial windfall could translate into some…
Just Say NO to (Legal) Drugs_The Other War on Drugs_WSJ Feb 13, 2003 For the second time in 24 hours, the FDA has approved an anti-depressant to treat a new “ailment”–social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia. On February 10 Zoloft was approved for this ailment, and on the…
Smallpox vaccine: Experts Urge Caution, Administration Pushes Hard Sat, 29 Mar 2003 In our earlier Infomail today, the focus was on the Administration’s difficulty in recruiting volunteers for the anthrax vaccine trial. This Infomail focuses on the determined push to implement the smallpox vaccine program, despite the advice of medical…
Merck / Johnson & Johnson/ Lilly-Zyprexa: $690 Million settlement / a Flowering of Diabetes Drugs Fri, 10 Jun 2005 A cluster of news reports about three pillars of the pharmaceutical industry– Merck, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson–leave no doubt that this industry has shown its disregard for the welfare…
