Related: MSM Monitor Going Through Menopause
Thar's Gold in Them There Bones!
So you CAN'T TRUST a THING you read in the MEDICAL JOURNALS, huh?
"Glaxo used ghostwriting to promote Paxil; Offered to help doctors publish articles on drug" by Matthew Perrone, Associated Press | August 20, 2009
WASHINGTON - Drugmaker
An internal company memo instructs salespeople to approach physicians and offer to help them write and publish articles about their positive experiences prescribing the drug.
Known as the CASPPER program, the paper explains how the company can help physicians with everything from “developing a topic’’ to “submitting the manuscript for publication.’’
But they CARE about YOUR HEALTH, hanh?
The document was uncovered by the Baum Hedlund PC law firm of Los Angeles, which is representing hundreds of former Paxil users in personal injury and wrongful death suits against GlaxoSmithKline. The firm alleges the company downplayed several risks connected with its drug, including increased suicidal behavior and birth defects....
Thank God for the lawyers, huh?
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Drug companies frequently hire outside firms to draft a manuscript touting a company’s drug, retain a physician to sign off as the author, and then find a publisher to unwittingly publish the work.
They sound like the government and newspapers.
According to a ghostwriting specialist, Dr. Leemon McHenry, Glaxo’s program was unusually intertwined with its internal sales and marketing department.
“We know that GSK has engaged in ghostwriting for many years,’’ said McHenry, who works as a research consultant for Baum Hedlund. “But to create an internal ghostwriting program and have the gall to name it after a cartoon ghost demonstrates their juvenile attitude and careless disregard for patients.’’
Articles from the company’s program appeared in five journals between 2000 and 2002, including the American Journal of Psychiatry and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Drug company salespeople often present medical journal articles to physicians as independent proof that their drugs are safe and effective.
Publication in a medical journal also is a point of prestige for physicians, a fact Glaxo’s memo seems to acknowledge: “Physicians will be eager to participate in CASPPER regardless of their professional stature,’’ the brief notes....
Now you know why I don't like going to the doctor.
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And talk about gall:
PITTSBURGH - The generic drug giant Mylan Inc. has sued the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette over stories based on internal documents that prompted a review by the Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA this month concluded Mylan did nothing wrong.
FDA Protects Big Pharma While Telling Americans "F*** You!"
FDA Doesn't Care About Cancer
FDA Approval to Immunize Drug Companies From Lawsuits
Would you believe a liar that works for the drug industry?
The newspaper reported in July that Mylan employees in Morgantown, W.Va., regularly overrode computer-generated warnings about potential problems with making medications. Mylan said its internal investigation found that quality was not affected.
The suit alleges misappropriation of trade secrets. Publisher and editor in chief John Robinson Block said the paper had not seen the complaint, “But the Post-Gazette stands fully behind its reporting and its news gathering.’’
The articles were based on improperly obtained and misconstrued confidential and proprietary documents, according to the suit. The suit asks for the documents back, along with an unspecified amount of money.
The “sensational misuse’’ of the documents harmed Mylan and its shareholders, the suit said.
And THAT is what it is ALL ABOUT!
Hey, no need to be worried, is there?
"Spike in ADHD drug abuse reported" by Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press | August 24, 2009
CHICAGO - Calls to poison control centers about teens abusing attention-deficit drugs soared 76 percent over eight years, evidence about the dangerous consequences of prescription misuse, a study shows.
The calls were from worried parents, emergency room doctors, and others seeking advice on how to deal with the problem, which can be deadly. Four deaths were evaluated in the study.
Teens taking ADHD drugs to get high or increase alertness may not realize that misuse of the drugs can cause serious, sometimes life-threatening symptoms, including agitation, rapid heartbeat, and extremely high blood pressure.
“They say, ‘It’s FDA approved; how dangerous could it be?’ ’’ said Steve Pasierb, head of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, based in New York....
Yes, the schools and media have failed our kids.
The true number of teen abusers who have bad side effects is probably much higher, because many cases don’t result in calls to poison control centers, said study author Dr. Randall Bond, medical director of the hospital’s Drug and Poison Information Center....
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Related: Prescribing Our Kids to Death
Well, now that we now what your health is really about, readers:
"Drug firms’ manufactured buzz
NO ONE minds much when a champion athlete or Hollywood star uses a ghostwriter. But what if the ghostwriter is writing under the name of a renowned medical researcher and getting paid by the pharmaceutical firm whose new drug the researcher is extolling?
I do. I despise dishonesty.
This form of ghostwriting is all too common in the promotion of drugs in the dog-eat-dog world of pharmaceutical blockbusters....
Makes you wonder why the Globe's business pages promote them so much.... oh, right.
The most recent revelation of a drug company using this technique to promote a product involves GlaxoSmithKline’s antidepressant Paxil. According to the Associated Press, lawyers in a personal-injury and wrongful death suit against the company have an internal Glaxo memo with instructions for its salespeople to approach physicians and offer to help them write and publish articles describing the positive experiences their patients have had in taking Paxil.
Similarly, a court case over Wyeth’s hormone-replacement therapy drugs was the source of revelations about ghostwritten articles praising the benefits of the drugs and downplaying their risks. Medical journals continued to publish the Wyeth-funded articles even after federally funded researchers determined that post-menopausal women taking certain hormones faced an increased risk of breast cancer and heart disease.
The positive buzz that ghostwritten articles can create around a new medication is as manufactured as the gauzy TV ads showing the benefits of painkillers or acid-reflux drugs.
That's another turnoff to their poisons.
When doctors - or members of the public at large - see an article bearing a researcher’s or clinician’s name, they should have confidence that the author wrote the article or contributed substantially to the study.
The National Institutes of Health, medical schools, journals, and professional organizations all have a role to play in making ghostwriting a clear violation of their ethical codes. Hired-gun wordsmiths have no place in the important process of physicians and patients informing themselves about new treatments.
Or in newspapers, either!
Yeah, I am tired of the Globe insults.
"Weight-loss pill’s effects on liver investigated" by Associated Press | August 25, 2009
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports of liver damage in patients taking alli, the only nonprescription weight-loss drug approved by the agency.
Regulators said yesterday they have received more than 30 reports of liver damage in patients taking alli and Xenical, the prescription version of the drug....
Hey, FDA said it's safe so how harmful could it be?
Alli and Xenical are both marketed by British drugmaker
The FDA says it has not established a direct relationship between the weight-loss treatments and liver injury, and advised patients to continue using the drugs as directed....
That's why I always doubt the FDA now!
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What it is ALL ABOUT, folks!
NEW YORK - Warner Chilcott Ltd., an Irish maker of birth-control pills and acne medicine, said it will use bank debt to help finance its $3.1 billion acquisition of Procter & Gamble Co.’s prescription-drug unit.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Credit Suisse Group AG, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital, and Citigroup Inc. will provide Warner Chilcott with a senior secured bank facility and a senior unsecured bridge loan, company executives said on a conference call today.
Meanwhile, CREDIT has SEIZED UP on YOU, 'murkn!
“The important factoid here, I believe, is we were able to finance this 100 percent on a debt basis,’’ chief financial officer Paul Herendeen said....
“The fact that the company was able to go out and secure financing commitments from a group of six high-quality financial institutions on what we believe are good terms to enable us to do this deal is quite an accomplishment,’’ Herendeen said....
Is THAT what the BAILOUT went for?
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