A satirical video on pharmaceutical advertising
January
"The authors investigate the globalization of the pharmaceutical industry, and the U.S. Government’s failure to rein in a lethal profit machine."
..
Johnson & Johnson
What J&J Officials Knew… But Failed To Do
Just before the holiday break, an interesting lawsuit was filed charging Johnson & Johnson board members and high-ranking execs with malfeasance, incompetency and indifference to patients and shareholders. And the 111-page complaint reads like an indictment as it delves into off-label marketing of prescription drugs, kickback schemes and manufacturing failures that led to those infamous product recalls of tens of millions of over-the-counter meds and surgical devices.....read more
.
.
Merck
Charge This! A Fired Merck Sales Rep & A Credit Card
The background: Jennifer Scott was a Merck sales rep in central Maryland from 1992 until January 2008, when she was fired by her supervisor, William Liberato, according to court documents. He allegedly insisted repeatedly that Scott charge the expenses, because the other rep did not yet have a company card, even though she showed him documents indicating this violated company policy.
She also objected to his orders that she and other reps allegedly disparage a study for a rival drug and to take doctors to dinner, which contradicted Merck policies that such activities are best done in clinical settings. Scott then received poor performance ratings, even though she maintained she was Merck’s 13th highest-ranked sales rep nationally. Then, she complained to Merck’s ethics office.....read more
.
French Health Minister Linked To Drug Scandal
The admission came less than a month after French authorities began investigating the possiblity that Mediator, which was prescribed as appetite suppressant for overweight diabetes, may have been linked to up to 2,000 deaths. The drug was banned in 2009, although there were concerns dating back to 1998. Now, though, there are reports that two former Bertrand advisers - a doctor and a public health expert who was in charge of research at the ministry - had worked for Servier...read more
.
Inverse Benefits Due To Drug Marketing Undermine Patient Safety And Public Health - Health News - redOrbit
Inverse Benefits Due To Drug Marketing Undermine Patient Safety And Public Health
Posted on: Thursday, 13 January 2011, 18:23 CST
Medical ethicists examine aggressive marketing tactics' influence on medical practice and outline strategies to protect patients
Drugs that pharmaceutical companies market most aggressively to physicians and patients tend to offer less benefit and more harm to most patients — a phenomenon described as the "inverse benefit law" in a paper from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston...read more
.
Update 2-Bristol-Myers recalls Avalide blood pressure drug
* 64 million tablets recalled in U.S., Puerto Rico
* Second recall of drug in less than four months
* Recall over potential for reduced efficacy (Adds affected doses, background, company comment, share price)
By Bill Berkrot
NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) -
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) said it has recalled 64 million tablets of the blood pressure medicine Avalide in the United States and Puerto Rico due to the potential for reduced effectiveness....read more
.
Most Health-Advocacy Groups Don’t Disclose Drug Maker’s Grants: Study - Health Blog - WSJ
By Katherine Hobson
Only a quarter of health-advocacy organizations that received grants from Eli Lilly noted the contributions on their websites — and none disclosed the amount, according to a new study.
The analysis, published in the American Journal of Public Health, covered the $3.2 million in grants made during the first half of 2007. (Lilly was chosen because it was the first drug maker to publicly release its grant registry, the authors write.)... read more
,
December
,
GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Merck’s Schering-Plough
What 20 Years Of Pharma Fraud Has Wrought
The findings: Of 165 settlements comprising $19.8 billion in penalties during the past 20 years, 73 percent of the settlements and 75 percent of the penalties - representing $14.8 billion - have occurred in just the past five years. And four drugmakers - GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Merck’s Schering-Plough -accounted for 53 percent, or $10.5 billion, of all financial penalties. The chart below shows there were 10 deals in 2006, 27 in 2008, and 38 last year. Through Nov. 1, 32 settlements have been reached this year, but there have been more recent deals (see here and here).....read more
Rapidly Increasing Criminal and Civil Penalties Against the Pharmaceutical Industry: 1991-2010
Sammy Almashat, M.D., M.P.H, Charles Preston, M.D., M.P.H,Timothy Waterman, B.S., Sidney Wolfe, M.D.Public Citizen’s Health Research Group
View entire report as pdf.
Conclusion
Over the past two decades, especially during the past 10 years, there has been a marked increase in both the number of government settlements with pharmaceutical companies and the size of the accompanying financial penalties. The reasons for these increases are likely related to a combination of increased violations by companies and increased enforcement on the part of federal and state governments.
The danger to public safety and the loss of state and federal dollars that comes with these violations require a more robust response than the government’s current practices. Given the relatively small size of current financial penalties when compared to the perpetrating companies’ profits, both increased financial penalties and appropriate criminal prosecution of company leadership may provide a more effective deterrent to unlawful behavior by the...read more
The year in nonsense
December 17th, 2010
by Ben Goldacre in bad science
Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, Saturday 18 December 2010
It’s been a marvellous year for bullshit. We saw quantitative evidence showing that drug adverts aimed at doctors are routinely factually inaccurate, while pharmaceutical company ghostwriters were the secret hands behind letters to the Times, and a whole series of academic papers. We saw more drug companies and even regulators withholding evidence from doctors and patients that a drug was dangerous – the most important and neglected ethical issue in modern medicine — and that whistleblowers have a rubbish life.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment