Prime Time Crime
The War on Legal Drugs: Follow The Money
The US is the only industrialized country that doesn’t regulate the price of prescription drugs.
OTTAWA - A federal Conservative MP whose 15-year-old daughter collapsed and died after taking a prescription medication will this week introduce a private member's motion calling for an arm's length drug safety agency. (CBC) MORE: Loophole in unapproved drugs process Death by Prescription
Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism. (Times online) PREVIOUS: MMR vaccine controversy
UnitedHealth settles cheating claims
UnitedHealth Group Inc., the biggest US health insurer, said it will spend $400 million to settle allegations it has manipulated payments to doctors and patients for the last 15 years. (Bloomberg) MORE: Insurer will pay over 'rigged' information
Canadians still waiting too long
Canadians are waiting less long for surgery, but are still experiencing delays of more than 17 weeks for treatment, according to new research published by the Fraser Institute. (Vancouver Province) MORE: Waiting your turn CHC blames wait lists on private clinics
US bans key Indian drug imports
WASHINGTON - The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it has banned the import of more than 30 generic drugs made by Indian drug firm Ranbaxy. (BBC) PREVIOUS: Ranbaxy Canada FDA defends plastic linked with health risks Common plastics chemical linked to human diseases Medical experts fight drug industry influence
NEW YORK - It's big business, but it may not have the impact that drug companies hope and that medical ethicists have long worried about. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising has only a modest effect on the sale of drugs, according to research released online by BMJ, a British medical journal. (Washington Post) RELATED: Outsourcing the Drug Industry
EU broadens inquiry
BRUSSELS - European antitrust investigators are expanding the scope of a major inquiry into the $942B pharmaceutical market in a bid to determine whether companies are blocking generics makers from getting less-expensive medicines to market quickly. MORE: Pharmaceuticals sector inquiry
VANCOUVER - Drug companies can do in Canada what they can’t in the US: advertise prescription drugs even if they carry risks for life-threatening complications, according to a UBC study. (Vancouver Sun)
US manufacturers, including major drug makers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water - contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation. (AP) PREVIOUS: Factories dumping drugs into sewage
TORONTO - Last year, doctors prescribed $54 million of OxyContin - called "hillbilly heroin" by street dealers - under a provincial program that provides free medications to people on social assistance, seniors and people with disabilities. (Toronto Star)
Psychiatry manual's secrecy criticized
Whether revisions to the bible of mental illness (DSM) should be carried out in secret might seem like an academic question. It also speaks to citizens' concerns over news accounts of an overmedicated America and of the troubling financial links between some psychiatric researchers and the pharmaceutical industry. (Los Angeles Times)
The PEI Pharmacy Board is looking for help from the public to find out if some pharmacies on the Island are selling for full price drugs that were provided as samples to doctors. The doctors get the samples for free from drug companies. (CBC) RELATED: New deal gives ON MDs 12% pay increase
Technology could change health care
Advances in health care run the gamut from mind-boggling medicines to simple web solutions that, if adopted, could slice huge slabs of fat from a bloated system. Whatever form innovation takes in the coming years, much of it will spring from start-ups, not pharma and tech giants. (Forbes)
WASHINGTON - The chorus of consumer complaints about the drug, Chantix (Champix in Canada) is getting louder and louder. (Injury Board) PREVIOUS: Safety signal seen for Varenicline risks Champix wins Health Canada approval
OTTAWA - Total drug spending soared to almost $30B last year in Canada - roughly $897 per person - making it the fastest-rising expense in health care in the past decade, according to a report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. (CanWest)
Drug spending estimated at $30B in 2008
Drug costs have ballooned in Quebec
Canadians spent $30B on legal drugs in 2008
Part 1: Cost of Cancer drugs .pdf
Doctors signed Merck's Vioxx studies
AUSTRALIA - Scientists were allegedly recruited by a pharmaceutical giant to put their names on research done by the drug company to promote the safety of its anti-arthritis drug Vioxx. The Federal Court has heard that Merck & Co “prepared and gathered" doctors and academics to write the company's own research on Vioxx, which was then published in prestigious medical journals as independent studies. (Australian)
Another shoe drops in faked studies
Court told of plot to destroy drug critics
Merck ruling 'huge' impact for Canada
Brazil issues compulsory 'licence'
Journal challenges Canadian led Vioxx study
Merck denies holding back damning Vioxx info
Merck & co. vows to appeal $253M judgment
With Vioxx gone, now what do I do?
Report: Vioxx linked to thousands of deaths
10 on FDA Vioxx panel had ties to companies
VANCOUVER – 12% of patients who rush to the emergency room at Vancouver General Hospital are there because of adverse effects from medications, according to study findings being published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. (Vancouver Sun) PREVIOUS: Drug errors hurt 1 in 15 More profit than progress in research Your kid's drug source
ATLANTA - A prominent Emory University psychiatrist received at least $2.8 million in consulting fees from companies whose drugs he was evaluating and failed to report a third of it, congressional investigators studying medical conflicts of interest said. (Los Angeles Times) MORE: Psychiatrist failed to report $1.2M Charles B. Nemeroff
OTTAWA - Canada's progress in renewing health-care delivery halfway into the 10-year term of a historic accord is spotty, a new report says. (CTV) REPORT: Health care renewal in Canada 2003-2008 Canadian drug spending estimated at $27B in 2007
TORONTO - A class action by nearly 600,000 Canadians suing the makers of the popular antipsychotic drug Zyprexa has been given the go-ahead by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to target the company's profits. (Toronto Star)
NEW YORK - In western Virginia, far from the limelight, US Attorney John L. Brownlee found himself on the telephone last year with a political and legal superstar, Rudolph W. Giuliani. For years, Mr. Brownlee and his small team had been building a case that the maker of the painkiller OxyContin had misled the public when it claimed the drug was less prone to abuse than competing narcotics. (NY Times)
THUNDER BAY - The local health unit warned today of a possible streptococcal disease outbreak in the city that has already killed 10 people. The Thunder Bay District Health Unit is investigating an outbreak of invasive Group A streptococcal infection. Since August 2007, there have been 75 cases in Thunder Bay and District. (Thunder Bay Source) MORE: Strep outbreak kept secret Strep outbreak likely to spread
Widespread off-label drug prescription
Thousands of times a day in Canada, patients are prescribed drugs “off-label,” meaning for conditions for which they have never been approved. (CanWest)
Fentanyl pain patches recalled
OTTAWA - In the latest of several alerts on the safety of fentanyl pain-relief patches, Health Canada has announced the recall of two brands of the powerful patches. (CTV)
Health care lags far behind Europe
TORONTO - Universal health care is something many Canadians cherish and want to fiercely protect, but a new study finds it lags far behind the standard of care that is commonplace in Western Europe. (CP)
Euro-Canada Health Consumer Index 2008
Harmful drugs in St Lawrence River
Montreal's waste-water treatment plant in Rivière des Prairies is treating an average of 32 square metres of waste water a second before releasing it into the St. Lawrence River. (Montreal Gazette) PREVIOUS Meds in treated Montreal wastewater World's highest drug levels Traces of drugs in tap water More testing sought Drugs in drinking water
MONTREAL - Less than two months after quitting politics, Quebec's former health minister Philippe Couillard accepted a lucrative private-sector job that trumpets the future of private health care. Couillard was recruited as a partner at Persistence Capital Partners, Canada's first private equity fund that invests in health care businesses. (Montreal Gazette)
Few doctors use electronic records because of costs
BOSTON - Electronic health records (EHR), touted by the government as a way to reduce medical costs, are used by few doctors in the US because they are too expensive for their practices, a Harvard University survey found. The poll, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that just 4% of doctors use software that includes electronic prescriptions and drug-interaction warnings. (Bloomberg) EHR priority for Canada
Currently, continuing medical education activities are, for the most part, sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry, which has a vested interest in promoting its products. This is big business: of the $2.6B spent in the US on accredited continuing medical education activities in 2006, $1.45B (60%) came from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers. (CMA Journal) PREVIOUS: CMA Journal takes on drug firms Global Pharmaceutical market $643B in 2006
Report faults FDA on trial audits
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration does very little to ensure the safety of the millions of people who participate in clinical trials, a federal investigator has found. In a report released Daniel R. Levinson, said federal health officials do not know how many clinical trials are being conducted, audit less than 1% of the nation's testing sites, and, on the rare occasions when inspectors do appear, generally show up long after the tests are completed. (NY Times)
FDA’s oversight of investigators’ financial information .pdf
FDA may miss researchers' financial conflicts
Scientists complain of 'corruption'
More than one in four Canadian seniors are still taking medications that are potentially harmful for their age group, finds a study released today by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. (CTV) STUDY: Drug claims by seniors: 2000-2006 More bad news for diabetes drug
LONDON - Work really can kill you, according to a study on Wednesday providing the strongest evidence yet of how on-the-job stress raises the risk of heart disease by disrupting the body's internal systems. (Reuters) PREVIOUS: Whitehall II Miscarriage risk with 2 coffees a day
Deadly parasite taint child medicines
OTTAWA - Health Canada is advising consumers not to use two foreign natural health products to treat digestive upset in infants and children because of potentially dangerous contamination. (Toronto Star) MORE: Health Canada issues warning
Power to probe hospitals urged
TORONTO - Ontario is the only Canadian province where hospitals aren't subject to the scrutiny of an ombudsman - an "extremely alarming" oversight that compromises public safety, according to Ontario Ombudsman André Marin. (Toronto Star)
FDA wants warning on flu drugs
WASHINGTON - Government health regulators recommended adding label precautions about neurological problems seen in children who have taken flu drugs made by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline. (AP)
RENO, Nev. - A jury levied a $134.5 million judgment against pharmaceutical giant Wyeth in a lawsuit filed by three Nevada women who claimed the company's hormone replacement drugs caused their breast cancer. (AP)
Judge throws out price-fixing case
LONDON - The criminal prosecution against Goldshield and four other drug companies over allegations they conspired to overcharge the NHS for generic medicines was part of the largest case ever launched by the agency. Judge Pitchford made an order banning the reporting of his reasons for rejecting the SFO's case. (Times online)
Drug giants accused over doctors' perks
NHS pays too much for its drugs
5 companies charged in NHS price fixing row
A cancer vaccine with political will or powerful lobbying
It has been called "the medical breakthrough of the 21st century" and the most significant development in women's reproductive health since the Pill. (National Post) PREVIOUS: Gardasil Merck & Co. Cervarix GlaxoSmithKline
'Bio-Identical' hormone claims unsupported
WASHINGTON - US health officials warned seven pharmacy operators on Wednesday that their claims about the safety and effectiveness of "'bio-identical" hormones were false, misleading and not supported by medical evidence. (Reuters)
Doctors rely too heavily on drug company data: CMA
Most of the information doctors receive about prescription drugs comes from the very companies making the product, a doctor said Wednesday, pointing to a possible reason why doctors continue to prescribe dangerous drugs to seniors. (CBC) PREVIOUS: Drugs continue to be prescribed Off Limits
Nigeria buys baby poison antidote
Nigerian medical authorities are flying in 100 doses of an antidote to try and stem the deaths of babies poisoned by a contaminated teething syrup. (BBC) PREVIOUS: My Pikin tragedy Nigeria takes on Pfizer Violence, 'Godfathers' and corruption in Nigeria
Ontario needs to crack down on doctors who have turned drug addiction therapy into a money-making venture, a provincial report says. (Toronto Star)
Blunders 'kill 90,000 patients'
LONDON - More than 90,000 patients die and almost one million are harmed each year because of hospital blunders, research suggests. (Telegraph UK)
TORONTO - A Toronto family doctor admitted yesterday to pumping more than 130,000 prescription sedatives into the black market and defrauding Ontario's health care system of more than $750,000. (Toronto Star)
WINNIPEG - Twelve Manitoba doctors topped the medical millionaire mark in billings to the province last year, including one pathologist who claimed $9.2 million in fees. (Winnipeg Free Press)
MYRTLE BEACH, SC - People in the US are living in a world of pain and they are popping pills at an alarming rate to cope with it. The amount of five major painkillers sold at retail establishments rose 90 percent between 1997 and 2005, according to an Associated Press analysis of statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration. (AP)
A quarter of a century after the outbreak of AIDS, the World Health Organization (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared. (Independent UK) REPORT: World health statistics 2008 WHO's department of HIV/Aids HIV patients live years after diagnosis
REGINA - The West Nile virus has killed an elderly woman in the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region and, as health officials predicted last week, the number of cases this year has reached a record high. (Regina Leader-Post) PREVIOUS: Canada invests $199M in flu vaccine GlaxoSmithKline
A year after Ontario introduced new legislation that promised to make drug approvals more transparent, key parts of that legislation have still not been implemented. (Ottawa Citizen) PREVIOUS: Statistics Canada: Deaths by selected grouped causes List of causes of death by rate
OTTAWA - Health Canada is trying to halt the sale and use of Resolve, a product used to help quit smoking, because of a potential health risk to consumers. (CanWest) MORE: Smoking cessation product is risky
Avandia raises heart-death risk
CHICAGO - Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline Plc's widely used drug for treating type 2 diabetes, increased the risk of heart death by 64 percent and the risk of heart attack by 43 percent, U.S. researchers said on Monday. (Reuters)
Free trade zones ease passage
DUBAI, UAE - Three months ago, when the authorities announced that they had seized a large cache of counterfeit drugs from Euro Gulf's warehouse deep inside a sprawling free trade zone here, they gave no hint of the raid's global significance.
Chinese gangs 'behind fake drugs'
MONTREAL - Relatives of patients who either were infected or died from C. difficile diarrhea during an outbreak at a St. Hyacinthe hospital in 2006 have launched a class action against the local health authority for up to $10 million in damages. (Montreal Gazette)
Physicians signal frustration, elect private-care chief
CHARLOTTETOWN - Canadian doctors signalled their frustration with Canada's health care system yesterday, overwhelmingly approving a call to allow physicians to practise both private and public medicine, and choosing the co-owner of a private clinic as their new president. (CanWest) PREVIOUS: When doctors do politics Canadian Government Directive on Regulating National Professional Organizations
OTTAWA - The number of Canadian deaths caused by cancer may soon overtake those caused by cardiovascular disease, according to a new study. Statistics Canada reported Friday that over the past 25 years, the number of deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases has been declining while cancer-caused deaths have been on the rise. (CTV) REPORT: Mortality, summary list of causes 2004 Tables Cancer from X-rays kills hundreds a year
Medical journal criticizes WHO for neglecting evidence
When developing "evidence-based" guidelines, the World Health Organization routinely forgets one key ingredient: evidence. That is the verdict from a study published in The Lancet online Tuesday. The medical journal's criticism of WHO could shock many in the global health community, as one of WHO's main jobs is to produce guidelines on everything from fighting the spread of bird flu and malaria control to enacting anti-tobacco legislation. (AP) MORE: WHO guidelines report .pdf
Unapproved drugs given to kids
Antipsychotics are being widely prescribed to children with behaviour and mood problems, with a significant proportion going to children under nine, new research shows. Ninety-four per cent of 176 child psychiatrists in Canada surveyed are prescribing powerful drugs known as atypical antipsychotics for a variety of disorders and symptoms, including anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and "poor frustration tolerance." (CanWest) MORE: Child's death raises concerns about psychiatric drugs Nursing homes give seniors antipsychotic drugs they don't need
WASHINGTON - Four out of five doctors surveyed in the United States said they let drug and device makers buy them food and drinks despite recent efforts to tighten ethics rules and avoid conflicts of interest. (AP) PREVIOUS: National survey of physician-industry relationships Characteristics and Impact of Drug Detailing The drug pushers Big business behind your doctor's diagnosis
Free drug samples go to wealthy
WASHINGTON - The pharmaceutical industry contends that the samples help the uninsured and people with low incomes, but the study of prescription use by nearly 33,000 US residents during 2003 found that the neediest were least likely to get samples. (Reuters) PREVIOUS: Characteristics of recipients of free prescription drug samples The Cost of pushing pills
US drug company to move trials to Canada
MONTREAL - SFBC International, a controversial drug development company under Senate investigation in the United States says it will close its beleaguered Florida labs and transfer planned clinical trials to Canada. (CTV) PREVIOUS: Big Pharma's shameful secret
AIDS drugs fiasco a tale of red tape
As Canadian officials bickered about why Canada's Access to Medicines Regime failed to send one generic AIDS pill to needy countries, thousands of people died of the disease in Rwanda. (Toronto Star) PREVIOUS: US super market to offer free antibiotics Rwanda launches key test
BC doctors are being put on alert that the most commonly prescribed antidepressant in BC is increasingly being observed to have toxic overdose consequences like seizures and even deaths. (Vancouver Sun) MORE: Venlafaxine Wyeth Popular painkillers can raise heart risk
FBI raids office of Bristol-Myers CEO
NEW YORK - Agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the office of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Chief Executive Peter Dolan as part of a criminal antitrust probe, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter. (Reuters)
USFDA alleges counterfeit net drugs
WINNIPEG - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration blindsided Canada's online pharmacists Wednesday with a report that found fake versions of Lipitor and other widely used prescription drugs were sold by websites linked to a co-founder of the industry. (CP)
Africa has 400 million cases of acute malaria per year; up to 2 million die. Countless millions are too sick to work or go to school, countless millions more must stay home to care for them, and meager family savings are exhausted on anti-malaria drugs. (Canadian Free Press)
No 'rational discussion' at AIDS conference
ANTIGONISH, NS - The federal minister of health says he didn't make funding or policy announcements at the International AIDS Conference because overwrought delegates were making it impossible to have a "rational discussion." (CP)
AIDS cases drop, but due to revised data
Suit over Aids drug price hike
In the almost two decades since Prozac - the first of the antidepressants known as SRIs, or serotonin reuptake inhibitors — hit the market, many patients have reported extreme reactions to discontinuing the drugs. (AP)
Spending to death: How much is living worth?
Dying of lung cancer, Carolyn Hobbs tried a new biotechnology drug that produced an unanticipated side effect: acute sticker shock. (AP)
Report: Ex-FDA chief faces criminal inquiry
NEW YORK - Lester M. Crawford, the former commissioner of the US Food & Drug Administration is under federal investigation amid accusations of financial improprieties and making false statements to Congress, a newspaper reported Saturday. (AP)
WASHINGTON - The federal government yesterday awarded $1 billion in contracts to five pharmaceutical companies to help them develop modern methods of producing influenza vaccine that would replace the current slow, laborious and unpredictable technique. (Washington Post)
Study: Teens use medicines to get high
WASHINGTON - Teens increasingly are getting high with legal drugs like painkillers and mood stimulants, and they're turning to cough syrup as well, says a government survey released Thursday. (AP)
NIDA: Decrease in illicit drug use
Teen prescription drug abuse 'entrenched'
Partnership attitude study (PATS) 2005
Teen develops way to detect disease in body
MANILA - Use of existing, low-cost tools and knowledge could save more than 6 million of the 9.7 million children who die yearly from easily preventable or curable causes, the report said. They include antibiotics that cost less than $0.30 to treat pneumonia and oral rehydration therapy (cost about $0.10) for diarrhea. (AP)
Annual Report 2007 .pdf
State of the World's Mothers 2008 .pdf
18,000 kids dies each day from hunger: UN
UN: Lack of sanitation kills millions every year
Antidepressants linked to suicide
TORONTO - Elderly people who take a popular type of antidepressants are almost five times more likely to commit suicide than those on other antidepressants, concludes a major new Canadian study that adds to the controversy around the drugs known as SSRIs. (CanWest)
Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES)
WASHINGTON - About two-thirds of Food and Drug Administration scientists are less than fully confident in the agency's monitoring of the safety of prescription drugs now being sold, according to an FDA internal survey. (CBS)
Claritin maker coughs up $346M
A Review of 2004's drug controversies
FDA 'incapable of protecting America'
Petitions to FDA delay generic drugs
When its hot-selling antidepressant Wellbutrin XL was facing the prospect of competition from cheaper generics late last year, Biovail Corp. filed a "citizen petition" with the Food and Drug Administration, raising concerns about the safety of its potential rivals. (Washington Post) RELATED: The lawlessness of the FDA
Drug firms' research spending falls short
OTTAWA - Brand-name drug makers spent $1.2 billion or 8.7 per cent of their sales on research and development, marking the fifth consecutive year that the industry has failed to meet the 10-per-cent-of-sales ratio pledged when patent rules were strengthened in 1987. At the same time, the industry's revenues continue to climb. (Ottawa Citizen)
Health-care spending still increasing
OTTAWA - The study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information says that's a $10.3B increase over estimated expenditures for 2008, or a growth of 6.4%. It predicts health expenditures will comprise 10.7% of the gross domestic product, their highest share ever. (CP)
Canada's health care tab grows to $172B
Ad ban likely saved Canadians $150M in 2006
CGPA Agency eyeing drug prices
Health care spending to reach $148B
Hospital responses to babies' deaths
Health-care spending on the rise
Drug firms get 8-year buffer against generics
Province lays charges in generic-drug payment scheme
Key players in scheme to boost generic drug profits
Canadians still paying too much
Drug prices in Canada & the US 2008
Canadians still getting gouged
Canada's drug price paradox 2008
Drug firms' sway over PharmaCare Task Force
Rebates keep generic drugs pricey
Drug companies win appeal against watchdog
Comparison of prescription drug plans
Access to drugs is a 'postal cored lottery'
Health authority reviews 15,000 reports
Graduated drug licensing proposed
Questions loom over 'similar' deaths
Provincial expected to spend $96B on health
Global health study grades Canada low
Health spending continues to rise
Smitherman tells drug companies to tone down rhetoric
Family income and the well-being of children
Canada spends more on drugs, finds survey
Drug spending in OECD countries since 1998
Canada has four-tier health care
SC strikes down Que medicare law
Province $5.5 M to enforce smoke-free plan
Norovirus spreading in Winnipeg
Medicines sending thousands to hospital
Court rules Ontario can't be sued
Ruling shields negligent public officials
CIHI: Drug Expenditure in Canada 1985 - 2005
Distorted claims feared if remedy ads allowed
Canadian Institute for Health Information
Ruling rattles Canada Health Care
Prescription drug spending in Canada $19.6B
Drug spending in Canada still on the rise, public sector's share increasing
Why Non-Patented Prescription Drugs cost more in Canada than in the US and Europe
Canadian drugmaker labelled a bio-pirate in study
UN - The Canadian maker of a supposed natural treatment for impotence is branded a suspected "bio-pirate" by U.S. and South African environmental groups in a new study. (CanWest) STUDY: Out of Africa: Mysteries of Access and Benefit Sharing .pdf
Africa Malaria day- action or bombast?
Every year, over 400 million African mothers, fathers and children are stricken by acute malaria. Every year, Africa Malaria Day (April 25) is marked by promises to bring malaria under control. (Canadian Free Press) MORE: Africa fighting Malaria
Private health firm built on tax dollars
TORONTO - As politicians here debate the private sector's role in health care, InterHealth Canada, a Canadian company with ties to provincial governments, public hospitals and universities is opening and operating new private medical facilities in Britain and the Persian Gulf. (National Post)
Health fraud's new frontiers: Part 1
Health fraud's new frontiers: Part 2
Part 3 is subscription
Ontario health care: 5 part series
ONTARIO - Lengthy wait times, pervasive doctor shortages and medical errors are among the major health problems ailing Ontario’s system. Health care management in Ontario is perhaps 10 to 20 years behind the rest of Canada. At least one expert says the lag is costing money and lives. (Osprey Media Special Report)
Hospitals price gouging uninsured
Hospitals claim there is only one sticker price for a given service, but, Medicare then gets a big discount. Insurance companies and HMOs also negotiate a discount. At the end it really is only patients without insurance who are ever asked to pay full fare. (CBS) RELATED: $1,133 hospital bill to clip toenail prompts suit
Pfizer drafting customers to lobby
WASHINGTON - Ward Wetherell is used to receiving health tips about such topics as "good" cholesterol from Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug company. Congress needs to hear that market forces, not the government, should control prices, said the "For Living" brochure, which included form letters addressed to Wetherell's representatives in Congress. (Boston Globe)
Pfizer's stop smoking drug wins Health Canl
Drug giant backs anti-smoking guide
Pfizer quarterly profit tripled
AIDS group sues Pfizer over Viagra ads
Pfizer faulted over drug trials in Nigeria
Pfizer withdraws Bextra from market
20% of human genes have been patented in US
A new study shows that 20 percent of human genes have been patented in the United States, primarily by private firms and universities. (National Geographic)
Most OTC cough syrups don't work
Most over-the-counter cough syrups don't work, according to guidelines released Monday from the American College of Chest Physicians. (Forbes)
The study reported about 6% of the 3,000 junior high and high school students surveyed said they used prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet and Tylenol 3. (CBC) Teens say no to drugs Teens turning to prescription painkillers
NEW YORK - The nation’s teenagers are increasingly trying prescription drugs such as Vicodin and OxyContin to get high, with the pill-popping members of “Generation Rx” often raiding their parents’ medicine cabinets, according to the latest national study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. (AP) The land of the medicated
In response to growing criticism, the National Institutes for Health is set to ban its research scientists from accepting consulting deals and any other form of income from drug companies. (CBS)
Traces of prescription drugs found in tap water
A study of water samples taken from locations near 20 drinking water treatment plants in southern Ontario found evidence of nine different drugs. (CTV) RELATED: Lead levels in water misrepresented across US
ALBANY, NY - New York authorities sued one of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit managers on Wednesday accusing Express Scripts Inc. of pocketing as much as $100 million in drug rebates that should have gone to the state. (CBS News)
ABINGDON, Virginia - Purdue Pharma L.P., the maker of OxyContin, and three of its executives were ordered Friday to pay a $634.5 million fine for misleading the public about the painkiller's risk of addiction. (AP) PREVIOUS: OxyContin execs misled public New street drug DEA: Oxycontin Purdue Phamaceuticals
NEW YORK - GlaxoSmithKline PLC agreed to a schedule for releasing negative data on the safety and effectiveness of its drugs to settle a lawsuit by New York's attorney general that accused the pharmaceutical maker of misrepresenting data on prescribing its antidepressant drug Paxil to children. (CBS News)
195,000 US deaths blamed on hospital error
HeathGrades Inc. said its data covers all 50 states and is more up-to-date than a 1999 study from the Institute of Medicine that said 98,000 people a year die from medical errors. (MSNBC)
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. yesterday agreed to pay $150 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that the drugmaker fraudulently boosted earnings by more than $1 billion over 2000 and 2001. (Washington Post)
FDA may call for stronger antidepressant warning
WASHINGTON - All drugs used to treat depressed children should carry a “black box” warning of the antidepressants’ link to increased suicidal thoughts and actions, says a panel of federal advisers. (AP)
Clinical drug trials 'distorted'
FDA mum on suicidal side effects
Medical bills make up half of bankruptcies
Costly illnesses trigger about half of all personal bankruptcies, and most of those who go bankrupt because of medical problems have health insurance, according to findings from a Harvard University study. (MSNBC)
Medicare Rx cost estimate zooms
Drugstores sue makers over prices
Drug costs soar before 'discount'
AARP Watchdog Report: Drug prices
Drug prices outpacing inflation
Medicare discount cards from Hell
Drug Industry employs 675 Washington Lobbyists
WASHINGTON DC - Public Citizen found that the drug industry hired 675 different lobbyists from 138 firms in 2002 – nearly seven lobbyists for each U.S. senator, according to federal lobbying disclosure records. The industry spent a record $91.4 million on lobbying activities in 2002, an 11.6 percent increase from 2001. Full Public Citizen Report .pdf Public Citizen
Note: Mitch Daniels, Bush’s director of the office of management and budget, is a former executive at the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. Whether or not prescription drug coverage can added to Medicare depends on whether there’s money in the federal budget to pay for it. And the man in charge of budgeting the money for the benefit - and determining if there’s a need for price controls is Mitch Daniels.
Money paid by the Pharmaceuticals/Health Products industry 2004
Pharmaceutical companies have enjoyed unprecedented increases in profits over the last ten years, with drugs like Viagra and Prozac becoming household names. And, as profits went up, so did the industry’s campaign contributions. The pharmaceutical and health products companies industry, which includes not only drug manufacturers, but also dealers of medical products, and nutritional and dietary supplements, is consistently one of the top 20 industries for campaign contributions. The industry now gives eight times what it did in 1990. (Center for Responsive Politics)
There is also the matter of rebates and supplemental rebates drug companies pay to state public aid departments for permission to sell drugs to Medicaid beneficiaries. Which creates a condition of state governments wanting the money on one hand while trying to keep its citizens happen by fighting for lower prices on the other. This is not unlike the Pension funds which invest funds in the Pharmaceutical companies because of their high profitability while at the same time being pressured by the Pension members who need a higher return on their pension because they have to pay so much for drugs. Nice cause and effect loops.
All of this of course doesn't take into account any of the politics that are going on between the two US parties.
One of the current arguments is that price regulation would stop or slow the development of new drugs. This appears to be a spin-doctor’s wish as the extensive tax credits to offset research and development costs are too important to the bottom line. The US government also spends about $23 billion a year on biomedical research though the National Institutes of Health, most of which passes through the NIH to contractors, universities and research institutions. National Institutes of Health
Drug Companies spend almost 2 1/2 more on marketing and administration as on R&D
WASHINGTON - U.S. drug companies that market the 50 most often prescribed drugs to seniors spent almost two-and-one-half times as much on marketing, advertising, and administration as they spent on research and development.
Research spending 2nd to marketing
TV ads influence drug prescriptions: US study
Influence of Patients' requests for direct-to-consumer advertised antidepressants
Company - Percent of Revenues Spent on Marketing/ Advertising/ Administration
Abbott Laboratories 23%
Allergan 42%
Merck 13%
Pfizer 35%
Schering-Plough 36%
Wyeth 37%
According to Public Citizen, an advocacy group, the industry's advertising costs rose from $791 million in 1996 to $2.5 billion in 2001.
Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus Consumer:
Follow the Money. The Pharmaceutical Industry: The Other Drug Cartel .pdf
America's Other Drug Problem: A Briefing Book on the Rx Drug Debate .pdf