News
- 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.
- January 26, 2010 | from The Washington Post Minn. legislators seek new drug industry controls Minnesota legislators seek new drug industry controls. The AP reports that Minnesota lawmakers outlined proposals Monday "to block drug companies' access to physicians' prescribing data for marketing purposes" and to "create an academic drug-vetting program to take that responsibility away from pharmaceutical representatives." A third proposals "would tighten an existing gift ban for drug companies, lowering the limit from $50 to about $5, and require medical device manufacturers and distributors to report compensation payments to physicians."
- January 26, 2010 | from Wall Street Journal Health Blog N.Y. Governor Pushes to Ban Drug-Industry Gifts to Docs The Wall Street Journal's "Health Blog" reports that a vice president from pharmaceutical trade group PhRMA said that Gov. Paterson's proposal "calls for unneeded government intrusion into a competitive private marketplace that is already working well."
- December 14, 2009 | from The New York Times Senator Grassley Seeks Financial Details From Medical Groups A top Republican senator, Charles E. Grassley, has sent letters to the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society and 31 other disease and medical advocacy organizations asking them to provide details about the amount of money that they and their directors receive from drug and device makers.
- December 12, 2009 | from The New York Times Menopause, as Brought to You by Big Pharma Wyeth, now part of Pfizer, faces litigation over whether the company oversold the benefits of menopausal hormones and failed to properly warn of the risks.
- November 04, 2009 | from Wall Stree Journal Doctor: I Was Fired for Fighting Hospital Ties to Medtronic A Lahey Clinic cardiologist believes he was fired for being a whistleblower for improper ties between Medtronic and the hospital.
- October 19, 2009 | from MSNBC.com Drugmaker reveals which docs it paid to speak Merk paid $3.7 million to more than 1,000 health professionals this summer.
- September 24, 2009 | from TheBostonChannel.com Mass. Doctors Get Big Money From Drug Companies Pharmaceutical companies are paying doctors in Massachusetts and across the country stunning amounts of money, Team 5 Investigates reported Thursday.
