drug companies

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Obama Seeks Another $313B in Health Cuts

He wants to reduce Medicare payments to hospitals

(Newser) - In an effort to pay for his ambitious health care plans, Barack Obama today proposed another $313 billion in cuts to government health care spending over the next decade, the Wall Street Journal reports. That brings the total cuts proposed to nearly $950 billion, just shy of the $1 trillion...

Spending on Health Care Lobbying Up 41%

Drug, insurance companies oppose public insurance

(Newser) - As the health care debate heats up in Washington, insurance and drug companies are keeping their lobbyists busy. So far this year, those industries have increased their lobbyist spending by 41% as they fight a proposed public insurance plan, USA Today reports. That's $35 million in the first quarter for...

Drug Challenges Porn's Grip on Testosterone-Boosting

(Newser) - Porn might be the best way for older men to boost their testosterone levels, but don’t tell that to a drug company that peddles a cure for “low T,” Newsweek reports. Solvay Pharmaceuticals makes a “testosterone foam” that claims to combat such maladies as “lost...

Colon Cancer Drug Flunks Important Test

Avastin's effects on early-stage disease don't meet expectations

(Newser) - Clinical trials to determine the drug Avastin’s effects on early-stage colon cancer were a big disappointment for drug firm Genentech, the New York Times reports. The drug, which is typically used in late-stage cancer, didn’t significantly cut the recurrence rate among 2,700 subjects in the early stages,...

RealAge Quiz Offers Data to Big Pharma

Popular website uses health info to pitch drugs to users

(Newser) - More than 27 million people have gone online to take a quiz called RealAge, which promises to determine your "biological age" and then suggests recommendations on how to feel "younger." But most users are unaware that the site makes its money by selling test results to...

FDA OKs Drug for Kids Despite Justice Probe

Firm wooed docs to illegally prescribe antidepressant: feds

(Newser) - The FDA has approved an antidepressant called Lexapro for kids, just weeks after the Justice Department accused its maker of marketing it illegally—for kids. Prosecutors say Forest Laboratories for years sweet-talked pediatricians into prescribing Lexapro and the similar Celexa by offering spa visits, event tickets, and fishing trips, even...

Pharma Infiltrates Harvard's Ivory Tower

Med school is in ethics crisis, say some students and profs

(Newser) - The tentacles of big pharma have made their way into the upper echelons of academia, the New York Times reports: Harvard Medical School is packed with professors with industry ties, and that has students concerned. With 149 profs connected to Pfizer and 130 to Merck, fears that the influence of...

China Bans Actors From Medical Commercials

Health Ministry calls drug commercials misleading

(Newser) - Stung by the appearance of a single actor playing four different medical experts, the Chinese government has prohibited actors from portraying doctors or patients in commercials, Variety reports. The outrage stemmed from a Beijing Times article that also revealed one actress had posed as someone suffering from lung, liver, kidney,...

DNA Tests Can Improve Health&mdash;and Ruin Privacy
DNA Tests Can Improve Health—and Ruin Privacy
ANALYSIS
Feb 17, 2009 6:22 PM CST

DNA Tests Can Improve Health—and Ruin Privacy

Testing labs can sell genomes to Big Pharma

(Newser) - Genetic testing is quickly becoming cheaper and widely available, prompting questions of whether the privacy of this most personal data can be ensured, writes Peter Dizikes for Salon. Companies such as 23andMe and Navigenics can study your genes for $399 or so to determine if you're at risk for a...

Glaxo to Cut Drug Prices in Developing World

No. 2 pharma firm will open 'patent pool' to outside scientists

(Newser) - GlaxoSmithKline’s new boss has proposed a radical rethinking of big pharma in developing countries: He plans to cut prices, offer portions of profits to hospitals, and loosen his firm’s grip on patents that keep prices up, the Guardian reports. “I think it's absolutely the kind of thing...

FBI Searches Home of Tylenol Killings Suspect
FBI Searches
Home of Tylenol Killings Suspect
updated
Feb 4, 2009 3:37 PM CST

FBI Searches Home of Tylenol Killings Suspect

Case of seven deaths in 1982 poisoning remains unsolved

(Newser) - FBI agents are searching the former residence of a suspect in the deaths of seven people who took cyanide-laced Tylenol in 1982, the Boston Globe reports. The case has never been solved, and agents say they are reviewing all related evidence. James W. Lewis lived in the Boston-area apartment after...

Pfizer in Talks to Buy Wyeth
 Pfizer in Talks to Buy Wyeth  




Jan 23, 2009 5:49 AM CST

Pfizer in Talks to Buy Wyeth

Sources say drug maker plans $60B acquisition of rival Wyeth

(Newser) - Pfizer is seeking to create a Big Pharma behemoth with the acquisition of rival Wyeth, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. The deal, expected to be worth around $60 billion, would make Pfizer—already the world's biggest drug company—big enough to redraw the map of the industry, although sources...

Pfizer to Can 800 Researchers
 Pfizer to Can 800 Researchers 
Jan 13, 2009 12:19 PM CST

Pfizer to Can 800 Researchers

Company must cut R&D spending ahead of Lipitor patent expiration

(Newser) - Pfizer will eliminate the jobs of up to 800 researchers in 2009, starting today, the Wall Street Journal reports. The pharmaceutical giant is attempting to cut costs ahead of a $30 billion reduction in revenue expected in 2011 when its patent on the popular cholesterol drug Lipitor expires. But the...

Drug Companies Agree to Stop Docs' Free Goodies

Critics charged stacks of free trinkets were attempt to influence doctors' decisions

(Newser) - The piles of freebies drug companies lavish on doctors will go the way of the VHS tape as of tomorrow, the New York Times reports. The industry, facing criticism that it is trying to unduly influence doctors' decisions, has voluntarily decided to stop handing out pens, stethoscope holders, bandages, T-shirts,...

Money or Your Life? Brits Weigh Drug Cost Vs. Benefit

With its restrictions forcing companies to lower prices, some see 'workable paradigm' for US

(Newser) - A British government institute that approves drugs based on cost-benefit analysis is coming under fire at home even as other countries are seeing it as a model for bringing down costs, the New York Times reports. Though the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence often balks at expensive life-prolonging...

Cleveland Clinic First to Divulge Docs' Drug Ties

Research center strives for complete disclosure on potential conflicts of interest

(Newser) - One of America's leading medical research centers will reveal all links its doctors and scientists have to drug companies and makers of medical devices, the New York Times reports. The move by the Cleveland Clinic—stung by conflict-of-interest accusations when cozy relationships between staff and suppliers have been discovered—is...

Latest US Drug Overdose: Hormones for Short Kids

Prevalence of 'lifestyle drugs' when some have no healthcare indictment of system

(Newser) - Since 2003, when the FDA relaxed restrictions on the use of growth hormone (GH) for children, more parents have been looking to give their shortest offspring a leg up in the world. But while many health professionals agree that taller kids may have higher self-esteem, dosing the short ones may...

Non-Profit Pharma Puts Cures Over Cash

Institute for OneWorld Health finds cheap, new uses for partially developed meds

(Newser) - Combating diseases that afflict only the poor doesn't plump the profit margins of pharmaceutical companies; now comes one that sets out to do just that as a non-profit, Good Magazine reports. Using grants to look at long-forgotten compounds, fund clinical trials, and distribute affordable meds to the world’s poorest...

FDA May Strengthen Chantix Label
FDA May Strengthen Chantix Label
Oct 22, 2008 5:25 PM CDT

FDA May Strengthen Chantix Label

Anti-smoking drug linked to more seizures, accidents

(Newser) - The FDA may beef up its warning for the anti-smoking drug Chantix after an increase in the number of serious incidents linked to the drug, the Wall Street Journal reports. A drug-safety group tallied 1,001 reports of patients suffering seizures, blackouts, and loss of motor control—some while driving—...

Profanity, Tobacco Cases Top Court's New Term

Judges to decide on consumers' right to sue drug, tobacco companies

(Newser) - The Supreme Court and its Bush-era conservative additions launch a second term today, set to consider "pre-emption" cases that determine whether federal regulation makes drug and tobacco companies immune from state-level lawsuits. Other cases will determine penalties against profanity on radio or TV, a major sexual harassment question, and...

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