News
- June 24, 2010 | from New York Times Debate Over Industry Role in Educating Doctors In the latest efforts to break up the often cozy relationship between doctors and the medical industry, the University of Michigan Medical School has become the first to decide that it will no longer take any money from drug and device makers to pay for coursework doctors need to renew their medical licenses.
- June 24, 2010 | from Journal Sentinel Drug Firms Banished from Medical Talks The ongoing controversy over drug industry influence in continuing medical education has taken a sharp twist: Pharmaceutical industry employees will not be allowed to make medical education presentations later this year at the one of the largest medical meetings in the world, the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Sessions.
- June 12, 2010 | from BMJ GlaxoSmithKline Denies it has Settled Thousands of Lawsuits Over Rosiglitazone (Avandia) GSK is being sued by over 13,000 patients who claim that taking rosiglitazone caused them cardiovascular problems.
- June 05, 2010 | from British Medical Journal Company Pays over $81m for Allegedly Promoting Topiramate for Unapproved Uses Two subsidies of Johnson & Johnson are together paying $81 million in fines after they pleaded guilty to counts of misdemeanor after they were accused of promoting Topiramate for uses that were not approved by the FDA.
- June 05, 2010 | from British Medical Journal Controversy over Generic Substitution
- June 05, 2010 | from British Medical Journal Pharmaceutical Industry Braces Itself for Government Changes in Drug Pricing This article is about the pharmaceutical industry in the UK. Recently, the government has decided to implement a new pricing scheme for medication in the UK. Under this new plan, drugs will be priced using a value based system as oppoesed to allowing manufacturers set the price. The hope is that this will lower the costs of medications and allow more effective drugs to be obtained at a lower cost. The article also outlines the issues associated with this form of pricing.
- March 31, 2010 | from New York Times Pfizer Gives Details on Payments to Doctors The drug company said it paid about $20 million to 4,500 doctors and other professionals for consulting and speaking on its behalf.
- February 08, 2010 | from New York Times Ally for the Poor in an Unlikely Corner Through his work in poor countries, Andrew Witty, chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, has positioned his company as the leader among drug makers in advancing world health issues.
- January 26, 2010 | from Pioneer Press Effort targets prescription drug industry at Minnesota Legislature The Pioneer Press reports, "A spokeswoman for PhRMA, the trade group for the nation's drugmakers, said the bills would generate extra cost, making healthcare more expensive and slowing the growth of Minnesota's medical industry." Marjorie Powell, PhRMA's senior assistant general counsel, noted, "The package of legislative proposals could have a chilling effect on Minnesota's life sciences."
- January 26, 2010 | from The New York Times Gov. Paterson seeks to ban drug-industry incentives for doctors in New York. The AP reports that New York Gov. David Paterson (D) "is proposing new, tougher prohibitions on pharmaceutical companies, restricting them from dispensing gifts and misleading production information to doctors while promoting the use of specific drugs." According to Paterson, the legislation "will benefit patient care and reduce costs in the Medicaid program, as more expensive drugs will not be prescribed for the wrong reasons." However, "the pharmaceutical industry is fighting the proposal," arguing that the federal government already regulates its marketing practices through the FDA's Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications.
