The Pharmaceutical "Business with Disease"

http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/THE_FOUNDATION/News/2004/pharmaceutical_business/index.htm

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October 14, 2004
State Files Class Action Suit Against Vioxx
A class action lawsuit has been filed in
Albuquerque against the makers of Vioxx. The suit was filed late Thursday afternoon against Merck. The pharmaceutical giant pulled the arthritis drug off the shelf last month.This is the first lawsuit of the kind that Dr. Rath predicted in the Chemnitz speech, June 21, 1997!
>> Read article at TheNewMexicoChannel.com

October8, 2004
Codex is coming and the pharma cartel starts to spin the news:
Vitamins Raise Deaths Risk From Cancer?

On Friday, October 1, 2004 The Guardian newspaper (UK) along with many other venerable newspapers and media sources throughout the world prominently featured reports of a study to be published the following day in the well known medical journal The Lancet. The Guardian report carried the disturbing headline.
>> more...

October 8, 2004
Arthritis Drug Has Blood Cancer Risk
Johnson & Johnson is warning doctors that patients taking its rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade may have a higher risk of lymphoma, a blood cancer, the company said on Friday. The warning will be added to the drug's package insert and means the drug's safety profile will more closely match that of rival drugs in the same class. The label will warn of a three-fold increase in the risk for rheumatoid arthritis patients taking the drug compared with the normal population, said Michael Parks, a spokesman for Centocor, the J&J unit that markets Remicade.
>> Read article at Reuters.com

October 8, 2004
Time for a 'regime change' in attitude about medicine
Poof!
Half of our flu vaccine is gone, because the British government suspended the license of a major manufacturer, Chiron, over a contamination problem. Is this a public health nightmare, as the "authorities" are crying, or an opportunity to stop and think?
>> Read article at SFgate.com

October 8, 2004
Drug giants 'ignored dangers of painkiller in pursuit of profits'
The multibillion-pound global pharmaceutical industry was accused yesterday of ignoring safety risks in pursuit of profits after the largest withdrawal of a prescription drug in history. Doctors on both sides of the
Atlantic said the removal from sale of Vioxx, a painkiller for arthritis, demonstrated the failure of the industry and drug regulators to protect people. They warned of a public health emergency over other painkillers in the same class, known as Cox 2 inhibitors, which could also pose a risk. Articles in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine said the companies making the painkillers knew of the potential risk for five years but failed to run the necessary trials to check whether the drugs posed a real danger.
>> Read article at Netdoctor.co.uk

October 8, 2004
Bill Aims to Force Drug Makers to Register Trials of Products
Democratic lawmakers in Congress introduced legislation yesterday that would require makers of drugs and medical devices to register clinical trials of their products in a public database when they start and report the test results on it. The legislation would require trial registration before a clinical trial involving patients could be conducted at an academic institution or a private clinic.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

October 7, 2004
Head injury drug increases deaths
A head injury treatment used for the past 30 years could be killing rather than saving patients, experts warn. A Medical Research Council (MRC) study of more than 10,000 patients found giving anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce brain swelling increased the risk of death. The anti-inflammatory drugs, called corticosteroids, increased the risk of death by about 20% within two weeks of patients with head injuries being admitted to hospital and the trial was stopped early as a result.
>> Read article at News.BBC.co.uk

October 7, 2004
Vioxx News
Kenneth B. Moll & Associates, a
Chicago law firm, on Tuesday said it filed the first worldwide Vioxx class action lawsuit against Merck & Co., on behalf of all patients who were prescribed the drug.
>> Read article at LegalNewsWatch.com

October 7, 2004
Diabetes 'catastrophe' means twice as many will suffer from it by 2010
Britain is facing a huge increase in diabetes in what doctors are calling one of the greatest health catastrophes the developed world has seen. In the UK, 1.8 million people live with the condition, which reduces life expectancy by 10 years, is the leading cause of blindness and increases by 15 times the risk of amputation of the legs, according to a report published yesterday.
>> Read article at Netdoctor.co.uk

October 6, 2004
New analysis of HRT risks
Taking combined HRT can sharply increase the risk of developing a blood clot for some women, according to new research, that adds to the other risks associated with the therapy. HRT has also been connected in recent research to an elevated risk of breast cancer and heart attack, prompting many women to seek herbal or other alternatives to ease menopausal symptoms.
>> Read article at NutraIngredients.com

October 6, 2004
Kerry camp shifts focus to 'imploding' US health system
A study released by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds insurance premiums in the United States have soared by 59 per cent since 2000. On average, a family health plan costs workers and their employers $10,000 (£6,000) a year. Moreover, those without any health coverage increased by 3.2 per cent in 2003 compared to the year before to reach no less than 45 million Americans. Both John Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards, are seizing on those figures and other health care-related statistics - notably the soaring cost of prescription drugs - to indict the Bush administration for failing to take action.
>> Read article at Independent.co.uk

October 6, 2004
FDA Study Estimates Vioxx Linked to 27,000 Heart Attacks
A study led by a Food and Drug Administration safety official projects that the widespread use of Vioxx may have led to more than 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths before the drug's abrupt withdrawal last week by Merck & Co., Wednesday's Wall Street Journal reported. The number is in comparison to how many similar incidents would have occurred had the same patients been taking Celebrex, the Pfizer Inc. drug that competed with Merck's blockbuster arthritis treatment. The analysis specifically found that from Vioxx's approval in 1999, through 2003, an estimated 27,785 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths "would have been avoided" had Celebrex been used instead of Vioxx.
>> Read article at Nadaq.com

October 5, 2004
Merck Faces Class-Action Complaint in Illinois Over Vioxx
Illinois residents have joined a growing line of plaintiffs suing the maker of arthritis drug Vioxx, after Merck & Co.'s shock announcement last week that it decided to withdraw its product from the worldwide market for safety reasons. Attorneys filed a class action complaint Monday in Cook County Circuit Court that covers the estimated 300,000 people in
Illinois who took Vioxx.
>> Read article at Money.IWON.com

October 4, 2004
Are there problems with FDA safety review process?
Vioxx was the first prescription drug since 2001 to be taken off the market for safety reasons. The problems with Vioxx raise questions about the FDA’s safety review process and the length of time it took Merck to pull the drug, observers say. The FDA has come under intense pressure from the industry and elsewhere to approve drugs more quickly, despite clinical trials that some say enrol too few patients and for too short a time for worrisome side effects to surface.
>> Read article at MSNBC.MSN.com

October 4, 2004
Why Medicare Wants More Drug Studies
The medical profession has a costly, little-known secret: Many treatments don't work all that well for many -- even most -- people. And doctors often don't know what are the best therapies for any given disease, especially when faced with competing classes of drugs for, say, high blood pressure. As a result, many people aren't getting the best possible treatment -- and the resulting costs to the health-care system are estimated to be in the billions.
>> Read article at BusinessWeek.com

October 3, 2004
Vioxx pulled from market: But is this reason to celebrate?
The cable news channel I was watching today proclaimed the startling news that Merck had withdrawn its multi-billion-dollar arthritis drug, Vioxx, from shelves worldwide because the medication had been linked to severe and even fatal heart complications. The report advised anyone taking Vioxx to contact their physicians about prescribing alternative medications. The station then broke immediately to a commercial for Celebrex. As a physician who has been cautioning patients about the ills of both medications, I did not feel the urge to dance like the stars of so many commercials for arthritis remedies. Both Celebrex and Vioxx are known as COX-2 inhibitors, a sub-class of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS. Older NSAIDS include ibuprofen, naproxen, indomethacin, and many others, including the prototype aspirin. In 1998, fatalities due to NSAIDS among arthritis sufferers rivalled deaths from AIDS.
>> Read article at PRWeb.com

October 3, 2004
New Epidemiologic Study Showed Vitamin D Inadequacy Is Highly Prevalent Among Women Treated for Osteoporosis in North America
More than half of women currently treated for osteoporosis have suboptimal levels of vitamin D, according to new research presented today at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) meeting in Seattle. More than 10 million people in the
United States are estimated to have osteoporosis and 80 percent are women. Vitamin D, an essential component of osteoporosis therapy, helps to ensure that the body absorbs and retains calcium and phosphorus, both critical for building bone.
>> Read article at PRNewswire.com

October 2, 2004
Merck The Subject Of Purported Class Action Suit
Lawyers filed a purported class-action lawsuit against Merck & Co. (MRK), which Thursday recalled its blockbuster arthritis medication Vioxx, which increases risk of a heart attack or stroke.
>> Read article at DowJonesNews.com

October 2, 2004
Good Riddance to a Bad Drug
After three years of denying that the arthritis drug Vioxx could induce heart attacks and strokes, this week Merck bowed to reality: it withdrew Vioxx from the market. The impact of this decision is far-reaching, and not only because tens of millions of people have tried Vioxx. It also highlights the absence of Food and Drug Administration oversight of the pharmaceutical industry as well as the lack of comprehensive long-term studies of not only Vioxx but its entire class of arthritis drugs.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

October 1, 2004
US consumer body calls for review of cholesterol guidelines
Cholesterol lowering guidelines issued in July by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) are being challenged by a consumer organisation that is petitioning the NIH to appoint an independent panel to review them. The petition, organised by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy organisation funded by subscribers to its newsletter and by individual donors, has asked the NIH to "create an independent review panel free of conflicts of interest to review all the data in the five studies that led to [the July] update... If warranted, [the NIH] should issue revised conclusions."
>> Read article at BMJ.com

October 1, 2004
Protecting profits
With several successful drugs due to come off-patent soon, pharmaceutical companies are starting to worry about future revenues. But changes in EU legislation could offer respite for these firms by granting tighter controls over generic drugs makers. Pharmaceuticals are big business. It is the world's most profitable industry: In 2002, (according to author and former New England Journal of Medicine editor Marcia Angell) the combined profits of the top ten drugs companies in the Fortune 500 list were greater than the profits of the 490 other companies in the list combined, at US$56 billion. But the sources of future earnings are looking increasingly uncertain.
>> Read article at Lancet.com

September 30, 2004
Merck Announces Withdrawal of Vioxx Painkiller
Merck & Company announced today that it was immediately pulling its arthritis and acute pain medication Vioxx from the worldwide market after data from a clinical trial showed that the drug produced an increased risk for heart attacks and strokes. Worldwide sales of Vioxx in 2003 amounted to $2.5 billion, the company statement said and Merck's shares plunged by more than $12 — reducing the company's market capitalization by about $26 billion.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

September 29, 2004
European Commission proposes regulation aimed at promoting medicines for children
The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a regulation on medicines for children that aims to improve the health of the children of Europe by ensuring the authorisation of medicines, specifically researched and developed to meet their therapeutic needs.
>> Read article at MedicalNewsToday.com

September 29, 2004
Sales reps told not to divulge Paxil data
In a memo last September, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) provided an update on concerns over its Paxil medicine, including study results showing a high incidence of suicide and hostility, but instructed its sales representatives in bold letters not to "discuss the contents" with doctors. A Glaxo spokeswoman denied any attempt to conceal information from doctors but ethics experts questioned the drug maker's intentions.
>> Read article at NJ.com

September 29, 2004
Side effects limit Tamoxifen use
Researchers at the
University of North Carolina say it's unlikely that the breast cancer drug tamoxifen will ever be given widely to women as a preventive medication because the drug would avert only a maximum of 6% to 8.3% of breast tumors in eligible women. Tamoxifen's possibly harmful side effects, including blood clots and stroke, would rule out some 90 percent of women who might benefit from taking it.
>> Read article at SouthBendTribune.com

September 27, 2004
NIH seeks consulting ban
Under a proposal announced last week, all employees of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including intramural scientists, would be barred from engaging in paid consulting activities with drug and biotech companies for at least 1 year while the agency reviews its procedures and develops more effective oversight systems. The proposed ban, disclosed to employees in an E-mail message last Friday (September 24), will affect more than 5000 scientists, including several hundred who have existing consulting arrangements in place. Those scientists will be instructed to cease those collaborations once the ban is implemented, NIH officials said.
>> Read article at BioMedCentral.com

September 24, 2004
Insider Challenges Drug Industry on Imports
A dissident executive from Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, denounced the pharmaceutical industry on Thursday for resisting legislation that would allow imports of low-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other countries. His comments gave new life to a flagging effort by members of Congress from both parties and both houses to pass such legislation this year.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

September 20, 2004
The Raid on Medicare
The real cost of the Medicare prescription drug bill is finally emerging: The drug industry gets more than $100 billion in profits, while seniors and taxpayers get the tab.
>> Read article at Alternet.org

August 20, 2004
Antidepressant Study Seen to Back Expert
A top government scientist who concluded last year that most antidepressants are too dangerous for children because of a suicide risk wrote in a memo this week that a new study confirms his findings.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

August 16, 2004
Seniors getting risky drugs
Medicines deemed hazardous to the elderly are still too often prescribed, researchers have found.
>> Read article at latimes.com

August 14, 2004
Heart Ailment Warning on Cancer Drug
The government and Genentech are warning doctors that Avastin, which is used to treat colorectal cancer, increases patients' risk of chest pain, strokes, ministrokes, heart attacks and potentially lethal heart ailments. A Genentech spokeswoman, Colleen Sweeney, said Friday that heart ailments had killed some patients who took the drug, but she could not say how many.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

August 11, 2004
Wyeth to Appeal $1 Billion Diet Drug Judgment
Drugmaker Wyeth will appeal a $1 billion judgment against it over a drug used in the so-called fen-phen diet drug combination, after a
Texas court denied its motion for a new trial, a securities filing shows.
>> Read article at Reuters.com

August 10, 2004
Starting Young in Treating High Blood Pressure
As blood pressure levels rise among
America's youth, doctors are increasingly prescribing antihypertensive medications to children and teenagers. They hope that by catching and treating hypertension early, they will save lives.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

August 9, 2004
Some Elderly Are Given Inappropriate Drugs, Study Says
One in five elderly Americans filled prescriptions for drugs deemed inappropriate for older patients, a study of 1999 insurance claims said on Monday.
>> Read article at Reuters.com

August 8, 2004
Prozac 'found in drinking water'
Traces of the antidepressant Prozac can be found in the nation's drinking water, it has been revealed.
>> Read article at BBCNews.com

August 8, 2004
City Sues Drug Companies, Claiming Medicaid Fraud
New York City has filed a lawsuit against the nation's leading pharmaceutical companies, accusing them of deceptively inflating the cost of their drugs and defrauding taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars. The complaint, filed late Wednesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, charges that 44 pharmaceutical companies and their subsidiaries - nearly every major drug maker in the nation - have violated federal and state Medicaid laws by committing fraud, engaging in unfair and deceptive trade practices and seeking unjust enrichment.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

August 6, 2004
Parkinson's Drug Linked to Heart Valve Damage
Parkinson's Drug Linked to Heart Valve Damage
>> Read article at Reuters.com

August 6, 2004
Pfizer Says Named In Suit Involving Zoloft Marketing
Pfizer Inc. says that it has been named in a lawsuit alleging the company violated
California law in marketing its antidepressant drug Zoloft. The purported class-action suit was filed last month in Los Angeles Superior Court. The suit, on behalf of all California residents, seeks unspecified damages and injunctive relief, Pfizer said in its quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
>> Read article at DowJonesNewswires.com

August 6, 2004
Facts & Statistics from the pharmaceutical industry
Some fascinating facts & statistics from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry showing the extent of big pharma's financial activities.
>> Read article at ABPI.org.uk

August 5, 2004
Autoimmune Drugs Linked to Tuberculosis Cases
Drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases have been linked to tuberculosis cases in
California , U.S. health officials say.
>> Read article at Reuters.com

August 5, 2004
New York City Files Lawsuit Against 44 Drug Makers
New York City officials filed a lawsuit in federal court late Wednesday against 44 drug makers, claiming they overcharged Medicaid for prescription drugs. The suit filed in the Southern District of New York names some of the largest makers of prescription medications, including Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Eli Lilly and Co., Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. Inc., Schering-Plough Corp. and Wyeth.
>> Read article at Forbes.com

August 4, 2004
Spitzer Asks Drug Maker for Off-Label Use Material
Johnson & Johnson said yesterday that the New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, had asked for information about six of its drugs, including marketing materials, the results of clinical trials and data on prescriptions for so-called off-label use. Johnson & Johnson is the third drug company to come under scrutiny from Mr. Spitzer in recent months over its handling of clinical trial data and drug marketing practices.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

August 4, 2004
Bristol-Myers Squibb to Pay $150 Million in Settlement
Drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is paying $150 million to settle federal regulators' charges that it manipulated its inventory of medicines in a fraudulent scheme to inflate its earnings and meet Wall Street targets, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday. The company agreed to pay a $100 million civil fine and an additional $50 million to go to a fund for shareholders in its settlement with the SEC.
>> Read article at Forbes.com

August 3, 2004
New York to Sue Pharmacy Benefit Company
New York 's Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is set to announce a lawsuit against one of the biggest pharmacy benefit managers in the United States.
>> Read article at Reuters.com

August 3, 2004
AIDS Medicines Are Approved
Federal regulators said on Monday that they had approved two AIDS drug combinations designed to simplify treatment for patients in the United States and in poor countries - and no doubt to maximize the marketing opportunities.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

August 3, 2004
Crestor Side Effect Report Delayed
A drug company illegally delayed reporting side effects linked to its anti-cholesterol drug Crestor, a consumer advocate contended Tuesday in urging a Food and Drug Administration investigation. It's the latest attack on Crestor by the private group Public Citizen, which argues that Crestor is riskier than its competitors and should be banned.
>> Read article at APNews.MyWay.com

August 2, 2004
Hazards of Modern Medicine
Iatrogenic illness -- disease produced as a result of medical treatment -- is now recognised as a health hazard of global proportions. MEDLINE (the computerised medical research database of the United States National Library of Medicine) includes over 7,000 articles, reports, and scientific research papers since 1966 that show a substantial number of patients suffer treatment-caused disorders and adverse drug reactions. These harmful effects, which can be serious and even lethal, are associated with every facet of modern medicine including drugs, other medical therapies, diagnostic procedures, and surgery.
>> more...

July 31, 2004
Scandals have eroded US public's confidence in drug industry
Only 13% of Americans believe that pharmaceutical companies are "generally honest and trustworthy," putting the industry on a par with tobacco, oil, and managed care companies, a recent Harris Poll survey has found. Public confidence in drug companies has plunged harder and faster than for any other industry, the survey indicates.
>> Read article at BMJ.com

July 29, 2004
First OTC Cholesterol Drug Launched in
Britain
In a clear move designed to increase the earning potential of these drugs,
Britain has become the first country in the world to sell a cholesterol-lowering drug over the counter, without a prescription.
>> Read article at Reuters.com

July 24, 2004
In a Shift, Bush Moves to Block Medical Suits
The Bush administration has been going to court to block lawsuits by consumers who say they have been injured by prescription drugs and medical devices. The administration contends that consumers cannot recover damages for such injuries if the products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The administration said its position, holding that individual consumers have no right to sue, actually benefited consumers. The threat of lawsuits, it said, "can harm the public health".
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

July 8, 2004
Pfizer Reports China Has Lifted Its Viagra Patent
Regulators in
China took away Pfizer's patent there on Viagra, the drug company said yesterday, in a case that the Bush administration considers an important test of China's commitment to international trade agreements.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

June 16, 2004
Glaxo, Pressured by Spitzer, Publishes Paxil Data
GlaxoSmithKline Plc, responding to a lawsuit claiming it suppressed negative data about its antidepressant Paxil, published results of trials showing the drug is broadly ineffective in children and adolescents and could increase risks of suicidal behaviour.
>> Read article at Reuters.co.uk

June 16, 2004
A Large Medicine Maker But Not Competitive
China has become the world's second largest producer of raw medicine, with an annual output of some 800,000 tones.
>> Read article at China.Org.cn

June 15, 2004
President Bush Proposes Spending $15 Million To Begin New G8 HIV Vaccine Initiative
President Bush proposed that the
United States contribute $15 million to start a new global consortium to collaborate and share research to develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine. Group of Eight leaders from the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Russia on Tuesday at a summit in Sea Island, Ga., announced the formation of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise to speed the development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine and streamline research and development efforts.
>> Read article at MedicalNewsToday.com

June 15, 2004
Over half of COX-2 patients take aspirin, possibly negating the COX-2 GI benefits
Findings reported in a study published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that over half of patients within a predominantly retiree population taking COX-2 anti-inflammatory drugs on a long-term basis were also taking aspirin therapy for its cardio-protective benefit. Previously published clinical research has shown that using aspirin along with COX-2 therapies can negate the gastrointestinal (GI) benefit of using COX-2's, one of the primary reasons for using these more costly medications.
>> Read article at MedicalNewsToday.com

June 12, 2004
GlaxoSmithKline faces US lawsuit over concealment of trial results
The British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is facing a major lawsuit in the United States over alleged concealment>of negative trial results involving its antidepressant paroxetine(marketed there as Paxil and in Britain as Seroxat
>> Read article at BMJ.com

June 12, 2004
Greek authorities probe illegal clinical studies on elderly people
Prosecutors in
Greece are investigating claims that elderly people have been used for clinical studies without their knowledge. According to a leaked report by health inspectors, residents of an old people’s home in Athens were allegedly used in a clinical study on their cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations without their written consent.
>> Read article at BMJ.com

June 11, 2004
Experts Urge Integrated AIDS Strategy
Mistakes made by industrialized nations in dealing with the AIDS epidemic could be repeated in developing countries unless HIV prevention efforts are expanded along with treatment, experts warned. In a report published ahead of the International AIDS Conference in
Bangkok next month, scientists cited an unprecedented opportunity to integrate HIV prevention with treatment programs in poor countries, where most of the infections now are.
>> Read article at ABCNews.com

June 11, 2004
Glaxo climbdown over Seroxat trials
Battered by accusations of a cover up of clinical data, GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to release summaries of studies examining the safety and efficacy of a key anti-depression drug.
>> Read article at ThisIsMoney.com

June 11, 2004
GlaxoSmithKline warned by FDA over TV ads for Paxil CR drug
GlaxoSmithKline PLC late Thursday was warned by the US Food and Drug Administration that TV ads for its anxiety drug Paxil CR are too broad.
>> Read article at III.co.uk

June 2, 2004
US Health Corps Prepare to Swoop on NHS
The UK government has issued a report which shows that a
US health maintenance organization, Kaiser Permanente, can offer the same level of service as the NHS, but at cheaper prices. There's only one problem. The report is wrong.
>> Read article at CorporateWatch.org

May 25, 2004
Aspirin May Lower Risk of Breast Cancer, Report Shows
Aspirin seems to prevent the most common type of breast cancer, tumors stimulated by the hormone estrogen, which account for 60 to 70 percent of all cases. Women who took aspirin 7 or more times a week had a 26 percent lower risk of having those tumors develop than women who did not take it, according to a report being published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

May 24, 2004
Drug firm threatened us, say MMR families
Families who claim the MMR vaccine has caused illnesses in their children have accused one of the three drug companies involved in the case of trying to intimidate them into dropping legal action.
>> Read article at Guardian.co.uk

May 15, 2004
Whistleblower removed from job for talking to the press
A whistleblower who uncovered evidence that major drug companies sought to influence government officials has been removed from his job and placed on administrative leave. His findings showed that the pharmaceutical company Janssen had paid honorariums to key state officials who held influence over the drugs prescribed in state-run prisons and mental hospitals.
>> Read article at BMJ.com

May 15, 2004
Two more medicines advertisements blocked by regulator
Promotional material for two anti-hypertensive agents has been withdrawn after complaints to the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The complaints were made in March, shortly before the MHRA issued advice to companies not to make claims that imply that medicines have no side effects when their summaries of product characteristics made clear that they do.
>> Read article at PharmJ.com

May 14, 2004
Pfizer guilty, to pay $430M
Pfizer Inc. will plead guilty to criminal charges and pay $430 million in fines to settle charges that a company it bought illegally promoted non-approved uses for a drug. The settlement with the world's largest pharmaceutical company over Warner-Lambert, which Pfizer bought in 2000, includes a $240 million criminal fine -- the second-largest ever imposed in a health-care fraud prosecution.
>> Read article at CincyPost.com

April 16, 2004
FDA Move On Antidepressant Study Scrutinized
The Food and Drug Administration is coming under scrutiny for its handling of a staffer's conclusion that there were likely links between some antidepressant drugs and suicidal tendencies among young people
>> Read article at DownJonesNews.com

April 16, 2004
Cholesterol Drugs Tied to Birth Defects
Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health found that statin use during the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with severe central nervous system defects and limb deformities
>> Read article at HealthDay.com

April 8, 2004
Doctors Without Borders: Why You Can't Trust Medical Journals Anymore
Should research scientists who have financial stakes in the products they are writing about be forced to disclose those ties? To which the average person might reasonably respond, of course they should. But the more pertinent question is why scientists with financial stakes in the outcome of scientific studies are allowed anywhere near those studies, much less reviewing them in elite journals.
>> Read article at WashingtonMonthly.com

April 7, 2004
Nominal Benefits Seen in Drugs for Alzheimer's Disease
The drugs now available to treat the memory and thinking problems of Alzheimer's disease have not lived up to the public's high expectations for them and offer such modest benefits on average that many doctors are unsure about whether to prescribe them.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

April 6, 2004
Eli Lilly Gives Research Foundation $6 Million
Eli Lilly settle out of court with Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in patent infringement case. The lawsuit contended that work by two of the foundation's doctors helped in the development of the Lilly drug Xigris to treat blood infections. The foundation wanted an up-front payment for the development plus a share of Lilly's sales.
>> Read article at WLFI.com

April 6, 2004
FDA kept suicide findings secret
Ten months ago, when concerns arose about a possible link between children taking antidepressant drugs and suicide attempts, senior officials at the Food and Drug Administration ordered their leading expert to head up an examination of the evidence. When the government scientist filed his report last winter, however, his bosses decided to keep it secret — even though it found that children who took the drugs were twice as likely to be involved in serious suicide-related behaviour as those who did not
>> Read article at AJC.com

April 4, 2004
UK firm tried HIV drug on orphans
GlaxoSmithKline embroiled in scandal in which babies and children were allegedly used as 'laboratory animals'
>> Read article at Guardian.co.uk

March 23, 2004
Supplement, drug reactions may not pose serious risk
The growing use of dietary supplements has caused alarm in recent months among the medical community who fear dangerous interactions with prescription medicines. But a new study concludes that most potential drug-supplement interactions are not serious
>> Read article at Nutraingredients.com

March 19, 2004
U.S. FDA looks at anemia drugs, cancer risks
U.S. regulators are considering whether two anemia-fighting drugs, often given to cancer patients, may in some cases stimulate tumor growth, a question raised by studies of similar products sold in Europe . The Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a meeting of outside experts for May 4 to gather input on safety issues surrounding the medicines, Amgen Inc.'s Aranesp and Johnson & Johnson's Procrit
>> Read article at Forbes.com

March 15, 2004
Antibiotic use linked to breast cancer risk
A new study has found evidence that antibiotics use is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in women. According to the latest findings by US researchers, women who take antibiotics are at a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer, and the risk rises depending on the number of prescriptions taken
>> Read article at DiscoveryHealth.co.uk

March 04, 2004
U.S. Lawmakers Push for Drug Monitoring Systems
U.S. lawmakers on Thursday called for better government oversight of legal but potentially addictive prescription drugs, including painkillers, stimulants and sedatives. Democrats and Republicans said more monitoring programs are needed to track sought-after drugs that are easily obtained through prescription forgery, corrupt physicians, and patients switching from one doctor to another collecting prescriptions.
>> Read article at Reuters.com

March 04, 2004
Consumer Group Says Ban Cholesterol Drug
A consumer group has asked the U.S. government to ban an AstraZeneca cholesterol drug approved only months ago, citing reports of dangerous reactions and one death. The prescription drug, Crestor, hit the
U.S. market last September. Since the drug's launch, seven patients who took it developed life-threatening muscle deterioration, and nine experienced kidney failure or damage. One 39-year-old U.S. woman died from kidney damage and muscle breakdown, a known side effect of the statin drugs such as Crestor
>> Read article at Reuters.com

February 27, 2004
FDA considers tighter restrictions on drug
Recent restrictions have failed to reduce the number of pregnancies among women using Accutane , an acne drug that causes serious birth defects — prompting critics to call Thursday for major government curbs on who can get a prescription and how. The Food and Drug Administration is asking its scientific advisers what additional safeguards are needed to battle the birth-defect problem that Accutane has posed since it first hit the market in 1982
>> Read article at Redding.com

February 27, 2004
HRT risks 'were known years ago'

Women could have been told about the risks of taking hormone replacement therapy years ago. Researchers say studies showing HRT may increase the risk of heart disease were published as early as 1997. But most were done by drug companies and were not publicly available. The risk was only formally acknowledged in 2002 when a large
US trial was halted
>> Read article at BBCNews.com

February 25, 2004
More negative effects from HRT
Diminished hearing may be a further side effect of hormone-replacement therapy (HRT), according to a small pilot study funded by the US National Institutes of Health. Depending on the measure, HRT recipients on average did anywhere from 10 to 30 per cent worse on hearing tests than women who had not received HRT
>> Read article at Nutraingredients.com

February 24, 2004
A Debate on Radiation in Breast Cancer
Radiation treatment is being prescribed for more and more breast cancer patients, including women who would have been told just a few years ago that they could skip it. The added therapy mostly affects those women who are treated with mastectomy and chemotherapy, and have fairly good prognoses at what is called Stage 2 cancer. But cancer experts and doctors are divided over whether these women really need radiation to improve their chances of survival
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

February 20, 2004
The human right to health and medicine
The public needs to know the truth about the healthcare system, said Ismail Sukkariyyah , a medical doctor and former member of Parliament. One area that has been lacking in particular, says Sukkariyyah , speaking a day after a lecture on “Public Health as a Human Right” by health and human rights activist Aida Seif El- Dawla at the
American University of Beirut , is the dissemination of facts about corruption surrounding the sales of pharmaceuticals in Lebanon . Lebanon had a $600 million pharmaceutical bill last year,” he said, sitting in his Hamra clinic. That bill, he noted, includes monies from drugs being sold at inflated prices, the sales of mislabelled and ineffectual drugs, as well as profits from drugs that are available here that have been banned from the world market.
>> Read article at Terra.net.lb

February 17, 2004
Pharmaceutical industry to lose out
More than R2 billion will be lost in the pharmaceutical industry if the draft regulations on the Medicine Control Act are implemented. This is according to some delegates meeting today at a Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (PSSA) seminar
>> Read article at SABCNews.com

February 16, 2004
Bush's AIDS Initiative
In his State of the Union address a year ago, President Bush announced an ambitious new program to combat AIDS overseas. He pledged to spend $15 billion over five years to prevent new AIDS infections, provide antiretroviral treatment and care for the sick and orphans.
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

February 16, 2004
Germany Launches HIV/AIDS Vaccine Trial
Scientists in
Germany on Monday launched the country's first test of an HIV vaccine, a yearlong program that will involve up to 50 volunteers and is backed by the New York-based International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. The trial will be conducted at university clinics in Bonn and Hamburg , and also at Belgian hospitals in Brussels and Antwerp
>> Read article at ABCnews.com

February 14, 2004
Controversial disease dropped from Prozac product information
The drug manufacturer Lilly has been forced to drop one of the disorders it had previously listed for its antidepressant drug fluoxetine (Prozac), following a finding by the European drug regulator that the condition was not a well-established disease entity. Some health researchers welcomed the regulator's decision, saying premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), which was only recently described, was an invented illness and a strong example of the medicalisation of ordinary life
>> Read article at BMJ.com

February 5, 2004
Schering-Plough Halts Lung Cancer Study
Schering-Plough ends study of new cancer drug. The company said its drug Sarasar, one of the most important products in its pipeline of experimental medicines, was not adequately effective against non-small-cell lung cancer to justify continuation of the study
>> Read article at Reuters.com

February 3, 2004
Single Drug for Cholesterol, Blood Pressure Approved
The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Pfizer drug Caduet for simultaneous treatment of both high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the company says. The single pill contains ingredients from both the cholesterol drug Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) and the blood pressure medication Norvasc (amlodipine besylate)
>> Read article at Healthday.com

February 3, 2004
HRT raises risk of breast cancer recurrence, alternatives needed
A Swedish study established to assess the effect of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for women with a history of breast cancer has been stopped early after preliminary results show 'unacceptably high' risks of breast cancer recurrence for HRT users
>> Read article at Nutraingredients.com

February 2, 2004
Inquiry Sought in House Vote on Drug Plan for Medicare
A leading House Democrat has called on Speaker J. Dennis Hastert to initiate an ethics investigation into accusations of bribery during last November's vote on the new Medicare drug plan, warning that Democrats will conduct their own inquiry if the House leader does not act. In a Jan. 20 letter to the speaker, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip, said an investigation by the House ethics committee was needed to protect the reputation of the House after Representative Nick Smith, Republican of Michigan, said groups and lawmakers had offered support for his son's Congressional campaign if Mr. Smith backed the measure, which passed 220 to 215
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

February 1, 2004
Making Drugs, Shaping the Rules
Since the mid-1990's, a group of drug companies, led by Johnson & Johnson, has campaigned to convince state officials that a new generation of drugs - with names like Risperdal, Zyprexa and Seroquel - is superior to older and much cheaper antipsychotics like Haldol. The campaign has led a dozen states to adopt guidelines for treating schizophrenia that make it hard for doctors to prescribe anything but the new drugs
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

January 30, 2004
Vatican accuses drug companies of genocide
The Vatican has become embroiled in the battle to reduce the cost of anti-HIV medications, after a
Vatican spokesman yesterday accused drug companies of “genocide” by refusing to lower their antiretroviral prices in Africa.
>> Read article at Aidsmap.com

January 30, 2004
Trying to Police Misleading Drug Ads
"The F.D.A. is in a semi-lawless mode with respect to enforcing drug advertising rules," said Sidney M. Wolfe, director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen in Washington, an advocacy group. "It began in the
Clinton administration, but it's gotten much worse. The amount of enforcement has gone down when the amount of advertising has gone significantly up."
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

January 20, 2004
FDA Set to Step Up Its Scrutiny of Effects of Herbal Supplements
In the wake of its decision to ban the weight-loss treatment ephedra, the Food and Drug Administration is planning to step up its scrutiny of the health effects of a number of other herbal supplements. In a speech Tuesday, FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan is expected to highlight herbal products that the agency wants to examine more closely
>> Read article at WSJ.com

January 20, 2004
Drug Companies Get Too Close for
Med School's Comfort
A report from Harvard School of Public Health in The New England Journal of Medicine indicates that the pharmaceutical industry spends roughly $15.7 billion annually marketing medications, with $4.8 billion dedicated to detailing individual physicians, or roughly $6,000 to $11,000 a doctor a year. Studies indicate that most physicians meet with pharmaceutical representatives four times a month. Studies also reveal that most physicians erroneously believe the representatives do not influence prescribing habits
>> Read article at NYTimes.com

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