pharma

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Disgraced Doctors Land at Big Pharma
 Disgraced Doctors 
 Land at Big Pharma 

investigation
Oct 19, 2010 7:59 AM CDT

Disgraced Doctors Land at Big Pharma

Hundreds of pitchmen found to have blemished records

(Newser) - Pharmaceutical companies say they hire highly respected doctors as their white-coat sales force, peddling their drugs to other physicians. But a Pro Publica investigation has discovered that hundreds of these pitchmen have been accused of professional misconduct, been disciplined by state boards, or lacked credentials. Medical board records in the...

McCain Slams Obama for Backroom Deals
 McCain Slams Obama for 
 Backroom Deals 
Health Care Summit
Feb 25, 2010 11:52 AM CST

McCain Slams Obama for Backroom Deals

Obama doesn't want to focus on process

(Newser) - When John McCain finally got a chance to speak at the health care summit today, he let Barack Obama have it, slamming him for crafting the legislation with backroom deals. In particular, he hit on the deal the White House struck with Big Pharma, in which Obama promised to block...

Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign
Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign
sausage and politics
Oct 16, 2009 11:19 AM CDT

Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign

Meeting raises questions about ties to big business

(Newser) - Aides to President Obama and Max Baucus met with a variety of lobbyists for corporate health care companies on April 15, to help form two industry coalitions and launch a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, Politico has learned. Though both sides insist no quid pro quo was laid out, some participants say...

Pharma Ghostwriters Penned Medical Papers on HRT

Drug firms may play bigger role than thought in medical lit

(Newser) - Ghostwriters funded by a drug firm were deeply involved in writing papers supporting therapies that helped the firm’s sales boom, court papers show. The 26 scientific papers, published in medical journals from 1998 to 2005, highlighted the benefits of hormone replacement therapy over the risks, a boon to Wyeth,...

Obama? Big Pharma. Here's an $80B Drug Discount

(Newser) - Big Pharma has offered the feds a discount of up to $80 billion on drugs for programs like Medicare, the Washington Post reports. The pledge, which comes at a crucial moment in the health-reform debate, may be a pre-emptive strike before President Obama pushes for a proposed $100 billion price...

Big Pharma Sickens Universities
 Big Pharma
 Sickens Universities 
OPINION
Jun 22, 2008 6:07 PM CDT

Big Pharma Sickens Universities

It's too easy for drug companies to skirt lax academic regulations

(Newser) - Weak legislation allows professors to collect huge under-the-table payments from Big Pharma, and it’s time to fight back, Dan Greenberg writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Pharmaceutical companies pay professors to shill drugs and lend their names to industry research, and the only oversight is an honor-system mechanism...

Generics Curb Rise in Drug Costs
Generics Curb Rise in Drug Costs
Aug 8, 2007 6:37 PM CDT

Generics Curb Rise in Drug Costs

Cheap alternatives to brand-name meds appear as patents expire

(Newser) - Scores of prescription drugs are getting cheaper, as name-brand patents expire and open the door to generic imitators. That's bad news for pharmaceutical companies, the Times reports, but it means that an aging population ever more reliant on drugs will be paying as much as 80 percent less for them.

Grocery Chain Offers Free Rx Meds
Grocery Chain Offers Free
Rx Meds
Aug 6, 2007 3:17 PM CDT

Grocery Chain Offers Free Rx Meds

Publix pharmacies will dispense 7 antibiotics at no cost

(Newser) - Pharmacies in Publix supermarkets across five Southern states will distribute seven antibiotics free to patients with prescriptions, the chain said today. The CEO allows that one goal is to drive customer traffic, but it's also an example of the private sector assisting access to affordable health care, the AP reports....

Nigeria Sues Pfizer Over Deadly Tests

$7B suit claims drug giant carried out disastrous trials on children

(Newser) - Nigeria is suing pharma giant Pfizer for $7 billion, claiming the company carried out improper trials on children. 200 children in the state of Kano died, and others developed deformities, after Pfizer tested Trovan, an experimental antibiotic, during a 1996 meningitis outbreak. Nigeria claims the tests were unauthorized, but Pfizer...

Glaxo Stems Stock Slide Over Avandia

Medical chief rebuts findings on heart risks; claims comparable to other drugs

(Newser) - Glaxo shares pulled out of a tailspin after the pharma giant defended its second biggest selling drug, Avandia, against claims that it triggers heart attacks.  A sharply worded letter from the company's chief medical officer on the website of medical journal The Lancet pointed out that the increased incidence...

FDA Warned of Avandia Risks Years Ago

Doctor alerted agency to cardiovascular concerns in 2000

(Newser) - A diabetes doctor warned the FDA of heart risks posed by the diabetes drug Avandia seven years ago, the New York Times reports. The same concerns raised by Dr. John Buse in a 2000 letter were reiterated in a study published by cardiologist Steven Nissen this week.

Diabetes Drug Ups Heart Risk
Diabetes
Drug Ups
Heart Risk
May 21, 2007 3:15 PM CDT

Diabetes Drug Ups Heart Risk

New study documents dangers of Avandia, but company nixes recall

(Newser) - A popular diabetes drug may increase heart attack risks, a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes. Patients who took Avandia, which treats Type 2 diabetes, were 43% more likely to have a heart attack than those who took a placebo, the Cleveland Clinic study found.

Psych Drugs Drove Kid Crazy
Psych Drugs Drove Kid Crazy
May 18, 2007 9:44 PM CDT

Psych Drugs Drove Kid Crazy

Careless prescriptions turned shy chess nerd into into belligerent hulk

(Newser) - The careless prescription of anti-psychotic drugs, often by psychiatrists who draw pay checks from the companies who make them, has drawn attention in the New York Times recently. Now Ann Bauer, writing in Salon, draws an intimate portrait of the effects of such carelessness on one autistic teenager, who turned...

Big Pharma Loses Generic Drug Fight
Big Pharma Loses Generic
Drug Fight
May 17, 2007 10:23 AM CDT

Big Pharma Loses Generic Drug Fight

Deal for developing nations first blow by Dems in Congress

(Newser) - Congress and the White House have agreed to give developing nations more access to affordable generic drugs by easing some patent enforcement rules. Tucked into a broader trade agreement passed last week, the provision is the first blow to American pharmaceutical companies since the Democrats won control of Congress, the ...

Vaccine May Not Prevent Cervical Cancer

Mandated for all girls in some states, HPV vaccine fails to deliver

(Newser) - Pharma behemoth Merck is defending what it touted as a miracle cervical-cancer vaccine against charges of ineffectiveness. Merck lobbied states to mandate Gardasil for young girls—Texas and Virginia did—and got a glowing endorsement from the CDC. But new studies show that it works only to prevent sexually-transmitted HPV,...

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