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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: pharma

pharma stories: 13 news summaries
sausage and politics

Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign

Meeting raises questions about ties to big business

Oct 16, 09 11:19 AM CDT
(Newser) - Aides to President Obama and Max Baucus met with a variety of lobbyists for corporate health care companies on April 15, to help form two industry coalitions and launch a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, Politico has learned. Though both sides insist no quid pro quo was laid out, some participants say... More »

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ethics • Barack Obama • advertising • pharma • health care industry • lobbying • lobbyists • health care reform • Max Baucus • special interests • US Senate • Obama administration • President Obama

Pharma Ghostwriters Penned Medical Papers on HRT

Drug firms may play bigger role than thought in medical lit

Aug 5, 09 7:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - Ghostwriters funded by a drug firm were deeply involved in writing papers supporting therapies that helped the firm’s sales boom, court papers show. The 26 scientific papers, published in medical journals from 1998 to 2005, highlighted the benefits of hormone replacement therapy over the risks, a boon to Wyeth,... More »

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cancer • pharmaceutical companies • drug companies • pharma • medical research • lawsuit • Wyeth • side effects • hormone therapy

(Newser) - Big Pharma has offered the feds a discount of up to $80 billion on drugs for programs like Medicare, the Washington Post reports. The pledge, which comes at a crucial moment in the health-reform debate, may be a pre-emptive strike before President Obama pushes for a proposed $100 billion... More »

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Congress • Medicare • drug companies • pharma • health care reform • discounts • Obama administration

OPINION

 Big Pharma
 Sickens Universities 

It's too easy for drug companies to skirt lax academic regulations

Jun 22, 08 6:07 PM CDT
(Newser) - Weak legislation allows professors to collect huge under-the-table payments from Big Pharma, and it’s time to fight back, Dan Greenberg writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Pharmaceutical companies pay professors to shill drugs and lend their names to industry research, and the only oversight is an honor-system mechanism... More »

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ethics • pharmaceutical companies • pharma • university • academia • pharmaceutical industry • academic research

Generics Curb Rise in Drug Costs

Cheap alternatives to brand-name meds appear as patents expire

Aug 8, 07 6:37 PM CDT
(Newser) - Scores of prescription drugs are getting cheaper, as name-brand patents expire and open the door to generic imitators. That's bad news for pharmaceutical companies, the Times reports, but it means that an aging population ever more reliant on drugs will be paying as much as 80 percent less for them. More »

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medicine • health care costs • health • drugs • brands • pharmaceutical companies • pharma • generic drugs

Grocery Chain Offers Free
Rx Meds

Publix pharmacies
will dispense 7 antibiotics at no cost

Aug 6, 07 3:17 PM CDT
(Newser) - Pharmacies in Publix supermarkets across five Southern states will distribute seven antibiotics free to patients with prescriptions, the chain said today. The CEO allows that one goal is to drive customer traffic, but it's also an example of the private sector assisting access to affordable health care, the AP reports.... More »

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medicine • health care • retail • pharma • antibiotics • free • Publix • Charlie Crist

Nigeria Sues Pfizer Over Deadly Tests

$7B suit claims drug giant carried
out disastrous trials on children

Jun 5, 07 12:35 PM CDT
(Newser) - Nigeria is suing pharma giant Pfizer for $7 billion, claiming the company carried out improper trials on children. 200 children in the state of Kano died, and others developed deformities, after Pfizer tested Trovan, an experimental antibiotic, during a 1996 meningitis outbreak. Nigeria claims the tests were unauthorized, but Pfizer... More »

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medicine • Nigeria • pharma • Pfizer • Trovan • meningitis • children • Kano

Glaxo Stems Stock Slide
Over Avandia

Medical chief rebuts findings on heart risks; claims comparable to other drugs

May 31, 07 6:44 AM CDT
(Newser) - Glaxo shares pulled out of a tailspin after the pharma giant defended its second biggest selling drug, Avandia, against claims that it triggers heart attacks.  A sharply worded letter from the company's chief medical officer on the website of medical journal The Lancet pointed out that the increased incidence... More »

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medicine • drugs • diabetes • GlaxoSmithKline • Avandia • pharma • heart attack

FDA Warned of Avandia Risks Years Ago

Doctor alerted agency to cardiovascular concerns in 2000

May 24, 07 1:56 PM CDT
(Newser) - A diabetes doctor warned the FDA of heart risks posed by the diabetes drug Avandia seven years ago, the New York Times reports. The same concerns raised by Dr. John Buse in a 2000 letter were reiterated in a study published by cardiologist Steven Nissen this week. More »

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health • diabetes • GlaxoSmithKline • Avandia • pharma • John Buse

Diabetes
Drug Ups
Heart Risk

New study documents dangers of Avandia, but company nixes recall

May 21, 07 3:15 PM CDT
(Newser) - A popular diabetes drug may increase heart attack risks, a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes. Patients who took Avandia, which treats Type 2 diabetes, were 43% more likely to have a heart attack than those who took a placebo, the Cleveland Clinic study found. More »

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medicine • FDA • health • diabetes • pharmaceutical companies • GlaxoSmithKline • Avandia • pharma • medical research • heart attack

Psych Drugs Drove Kid Crazy

Careless prescriptions turned shy chess nerd into into belligerent hulk

May 18, 07 9:44 PM CDT
(Newser) - The careless prescription of anti-psychotic drugs, often by psychiatrists who draw pay checks from the companies who make them, has drawn attention in the New York Times recently. Now Ann Bauer, writing in Salon, draws an intimate portrait of the effects of such carelessness on one autistic teenager, who turned... More »

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medicine • health • drugs • psychiatry • schizophrenia • pharmaceutical companies • drug companies • antipsychotic drugs • pharma • doctor

Big Pharma Loses Generic
Drug Fight

Deal for developing nations first blow by Dems in Congress

May 17, 07 10:23 AM CDT
(Newser) - Congress and the White House have agreed to give developing nations more access to affordable generic drugs by easing some patent enforcement rules. Tucked into a broader trade agreement passed last week, the provision is the first blow to American pharmaceutical companies since the Democrats won control of Congress, the ... More »

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medicine • health care • health • drugs • pharmaceutical companies • Medicare • pharma • prescription drugs

Vaccine May
Not Prevent
Cervical Cancer

Mandated for all girls
in some states, HPV vaccine fails to deliver 

Apr 16, 07 8:43 AM CDT
(Newser) - Pharma behemoth Merck is defending what it touted as a miracle cervical-cancer vaccine against charges of ineffectiveness. Merck lobbied states to mandate Gardasil for young girls—Texas and Virginia did—and got a glowing endorsement from the CDC. But new studies show that it works only to prevent sexually-transmitted HPV,... More »

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cancer • health • cancer vaccine • Merck • HPV • cervical cancer • Gardasil • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention • pharmaceutical companies • pharma • vaccine • STD

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