MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'advocacy groups'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:50:50 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3699705&cid=t_149320_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FRuhuV7m-ktM%2F In a move to strengthen standards and burnish images, the trade group for Europe’s drugmakers has released a new ‘leadership statement on ethical practices‘ that calls for limiting samples, tougher guidelines for sales reps, new standards for industry sponsorship of medical meetings so that science is not “overshadowed,” greater disclosure of relationships with patient advocacy organizations and create ethics councils for oversight. High on the list is sampling. The members of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations agreed to limit the practice by creating a “four by two” plan - four packets per doctor and for no longer than two years after the launch of a new drug. Unlike in the US, where samples are often doled out t... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3699705 Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:33:03 +0100 3699705 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3067312&cid=t_149320_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FVaK7NxxlzzY%2F As part of an ongoing probe into conflicts of interest, the Senate Finance Committee’s Chuck Grassley has sent letters to the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society and 31 other medical advocacy groups for details about the money they and their board members received from drug and device makers, The New York Times reports. Such funding is often considered proprietary, but critics contend the influence leads them to lobby on behalf of industry, the Times writes. An AMA spokesman tells the paper industry funding comprised less than 2 percent of its budget (see AMA letter) and an American Cancer Society spokesman wrote the Times to say it “holds itself to the highest standards of transparency and public accountability, and we look forward to working with Senator Gra... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3067312 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:19:02 +0100 3067312 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2778370&cid=t_149320_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2Flexapro-marketing-plan-was-meant-to.html Last week, Gardiner Harris writing for the NY Times noted that the US Senate Special Committee on Aging had made public part of Forest Laboratories' Fiscal Year 2004 Marketing Plan for the drug Lexapro (escitalopram oxalate), an anti-depressant. The document is available here. Review of this plan revealed the marketing department's various activities, including activities that others might have believed were educational, scientific, or had some other high minded purpose.Continuing Medical EducationOverall, one "promotional objective" was to "Maintain SRI category leadership in total number of medical education events (including CME symposia, speaker promotion, teleconferences, and peer selling programs)"One "critical issue" was to "increase Med Ed efforts: more sponsorships of CME, increas... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2778370 Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:29:00 +0100 2778370 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=954499&cid=t_149320_136_f&fid=36027&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.healthtalk.com%2Fandrewschorr%2Fthe-inspirational-young-with-cancer%2F David Broder, the noted Washington Post columnist, wrote in the paper today about the need for healthcare reform which is at the forefront of people’s minds as the upcoming Presidential election draws near. But I am choosing to write about something much more grassroots, the story of 16-year-old Katie Hunter, who lives in Duvall, Washington. Katie is the president of her junior class and is running cross country as any healthy teen might do. But three years ago her world fell apart when what looked like a bug bite on her forearm turned out to be malignant melanoma, a serious cancer. She soon had multiple surgeries and immunotherapy with Interferon. During treatment she had to give up things that she loved like her soccer team. She had to try to explain to her teenage friends about cancer... Andrew at Large blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=954499 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:33:35 +0100 954499 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=922134&cid=t_149320_136_f&fid=36027&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.healthtalk.com%2Fandrewschorr%2Fblame-the-media-for-resistance-to-clinical-trials%2F I have a big pet peeve with the media. It’s tough sounding off on this because for me it’s like yelling at your own family in public. Let me explain further.  I have two journalism degrees and years of experience in the media. I am loathe to call others on the carpet. However, I am also a patient who has benefited from a clinical trial. So here’s what I hate about the media: Time and again they paint clinical research with the broad brush of questionable experiments with you and me as “guinea pigs.” Time magazine did it in a memorable cover story years ago with a naked woman pictured crouching in the shadows under an oversized lab bell jar. And the Seattle Times did it in a headline and a one sided article last June. Today I devoted one hour of radio and online airtime to try t... Andrew at Large blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=922134 Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:24:50 +0100 922134 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2512850&cid=t_149320_136_f&fid=36027&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.everydayhealth.com%2Fblog%2Fandrewschorr%2Fare-some-patient-advocacy-groups-going-corporate%2F Okay, I am sounding off again on this subject. I am an entrepreneurial kind of guy. I spent some time in “Hollywood” and thought it was cool that some big movie deals were actually worked out by producers and studios over lunch at a deli and with the terms scratched out on a napkin. It really does happen. So when it comes to partnering on programs for patients, like interviews and webcasts, I believe a producer/host like me should be able to just pick up the phone or send an e-mail to the right person at the national society for this or that and invite them to help publicize a worthy upcoming program. It has worked that way in the past. When the associations are small and run by a visionary who also happens to be a former patient or caregiver, they often say yes. But increasingly these... Andrew at Large blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2512850 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:27:52 +0100 2512850 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=483057&cid=t_149320_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F03%2Fpatient-or-pharmaceutical-company.html We have previously blogged (here and here) about ties among pharmaceutical companies and patient advocacy groups.The Boston Globe just reported how a patient advocacy group was entangled with the pharmaceutical industry. The story was about Elzora K Brown, founder of the Breast Cancer Resource Committee:Elzora K. Brown could stand before a microphone and calmly describe the swath of devastation that cancer has cut through five generations of her family."My own story is replicated in the lives of high-risk families across the globe," Brown told an audience of Food and Drug Administration advisers considering a controversial application to allow wider sales of silicon gel breast implants....Brown's message about the need to reduce disproportionately high mortality rates among African-America... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=483057 Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:25:00 +0100 483057