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NY Governor Patterson Pushes for Pharma Gift BansEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: ePharma Summit)
Source: ePharma Summit - January 26, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: gov david patterson epharma blog epharma updates pharma gifts big pharma news fierce pharma Source Type: blogs

Pfizer Offers Grant to Stanford Doc Continuing Ed ProgramEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: ePharma Summit)
Source: ePharma Summit - January 13, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: New York Times epharma 2010 Pfizer duff wilson big pharma news pfizer grant Source Type: blogs

Pfizer Offers "No Strings Attached" Grant to Stanford Doc Continuing Ed ProgramEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: ePharma Summit)
Source: ePharma Summit - January 13, 2010 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: New York Times epharma 2010 Pfizer duff wilson big pharma news pfizer grant Source Type: blogs

FDA Warns Lilly Over False, Misleading Cymbalta AdsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The FDA has issued a warning to Eli Lilly concerning print ads for its anti-depressant Cymbalta. I've not been able to find the letter but have seen multiple press accounts. Here's what the FDA apparently said. "'The print ad is false or misleading in that it presents efficacy claims for Cymbalta, but fails to adequately communicate the risks associated with its use,' the FDA said. 'The Blue Book Message is false or misleading because it overstates the efficacy of Cymbalta and minimizes the risks associated with the drug.'" Risks associated with an anti-depressant? A pharma company downplaying risks? I've never heard of ...
Source: Furious Seasons - January 12, 2010 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Effexor Has 87 Percent Profit MarginEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A very interesting bit from a very smart financial analyst who went and somehow figured out which drugs had the largest pre-tax profit margins. Topping the list was Effexor with an 87 percent pre-tax profit margin. Even more astonishing is that more than half of the drugs the analyst looked at had pre-tax margins of 70 percent or greater. Here's the list via Pharmalot: 1 - Effexor (Pfizer) 87 percent 2 - Arimidex (AstraZeneca) 85 percent 3 - Femara (Novartis) 84 percent 4 - Detrol (Pfizer) 84 percent 5 - Gemzar (Lilly) 84 percent 6 - Xeloda (Roche) 82 percent 7 - Lipitor (Pfizer) 82 percent 8 - Zometa (Novartis) 81 perce...
Source: Furious Seasons - January 5, 2010 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Senate rejects Dorgan's plan to import low-cost drugsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: ePharma Summit)
Source: ePharma Summit - December 16, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Obama administration epharma blog epharma news byron dorgan big pharma news senate Source Type: blogs

Glaxo Releases List Of Payments To DoctorsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
GlaxoSmithKline has become the latest pharma company to go transparent with its payments to doctors and others to shill for its products. The company has released a 121 page document detailing such payments to US health care professionals in the second quarter of 2009. I've skimmed the list for some of the usual suspects, but didn't see any. Someone will inevitably find something tasty in this list, however. (Via Pharmalot.) (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - December 15, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

WebMD Depression Screening Test, Brought To You By Eli LillyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Some of you have likely seen a depression screening ad that WebMD is running on TV. Designed to push you to the website, it features a woman complaining of being left by her husband one year before and how she can't cope and a voiceover declares that WebMD's depression screening test is just the place. When you head on over to said test, you find that it's "brought to you by Lilly" and there's the Lilly logo in the top right corner. Lilly of course makes Prozac and Cymbalta (and Zyprexa and Strattera). Well at least they are being honest, but at some point I think we all get more than a little tired of seeing these kinds ...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 15, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Take The NAMI Survey On Pharma InfluenceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A reader passed along to me a link to an online survey being conducted on behalf of NAMI National. It's testing public sentiment on the group's funding by pharma companies and gives respondents room to provide commentary as well. It took me about 10 minutes, so if you've got 10 minutes to spare, go give NAMI a piece of your mind. The survey is anonymous. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - December 14, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Report: Glaxo Paid Out $1 Billion To Settle Paxil LawsuitsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Doing some good old-fashioned reporting and document sleuthing, reporters at Bloomberg have totaled up all the payouts and settlements made by GlaxoSmithKline over the years involving Paxil and they find the total to be $1 billion. That's a stunning amount--Lilly's total legal payouts for Prozac are rumored to be about $50 million--and one GSK has kept quiet for a long time. It should be a huge red flag to doctors who continue to prescribe this drug as if there are no risks attached to its use and to patients who willingly take the drug. It would also make Paxil the anti-depressant whose maker has been forced to make the l...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 14, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

DSM-5 Release Delayed One YearEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The American Psychiatric Association yesterday announced that it has delayed the release of the forthcoming DSM-5 to May 2013, one year later than its previously scheduled release of 2012. In a press release the APA stated: "'Extending the timeline will allow more time for public review, field trials and revisions,' said APA President Alan Schatzberg, M.D. 'The APA is committed to developing a manual that is based on the best science available and useful to clinicians and researchers.'" The APA also said that the delay would allow the DSM-5 to dovetail better with ICD-10-CM codes, developed by the World Health Organizati...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 11, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Lilly Stock Going DownEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
For those of you interested in the stock markets, one of the big stories out there today was that Lilly's stock dropped about 3 percent today--a sizable move for a fairly stable stock. Reportedly, Lilly CEO John Lechleiter gave a speech before analysts in New York and offered little hope for how the company will fare financially in 2011 and beyond as Zyprexa and, then, Cymbalta come off-patent. What no one has picked up on in the financial press so far is that Lechleiter also isn't saying a thing about Lilly's experimental compound, LY2140023, which failed a major clinical trial earlier this year. The company does have an...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 10, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Sen. Grassley Goes After Dozens Of Medical Advocacy GroupsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Earlier this year, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) demanded that the National Alliance on Mental Illness reveal details of its funding by pharma companies. Now, the senator has gone many steps further and has demanded similar disclosures from 32 medical advocacy groups and, drum roll, TeenScreen. Among the groups are DBSA, Mental Health America, Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Screening for Mental Health Inc. I congratulate Sen. Grassley and his staffer Paul Thacker for continuing to go after this issue. If I can note this without sounding too self-congratulatory, it was yours truly wh...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 9, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Pristiq, Soon To Be For Menopausal Women?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I caught an item on a stock market website yesterday that seemed worth passing along. "Wyeth is also conducting a late-stage trial evaluating Pristiq for the non-hormonal treatment of vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause. The FDA, which issued an approvable letter for Pristiq in July 2007, has sought additional data regarding the potential for serious adverse cardiovascular and hepatic effects associated with the use of Pristiq for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. The requested clinical trial that is underway is expected to be completed in the first half of 2010." Indeed, there are several trials for such pu...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 8, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Drug industry spends at least $20.5 billion a year on…Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
…research and development? You must be joking, it’s on marketing – and this is just in the USA! Of course the way some drug trials are rigged and the data ‘interpreted’ then many would argue that these costs should be included in the marketing spend as well. This from the Wall Street Journal: Despite all the job cuts for drug reps, despite the endless stream of TV drug ads, the pharma industry still spends most of its U.S. marketing money the old-fashioned way: Paying salespeople to call on doctors and other health-care providers. Drug companies spent “at least $20.5 billion in marketing”...
Source: seroxat secrets... - December 4, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: admin Tags: Big Pharma Drug Marketing Source Type: blogs

FDA Issues Major Birth Defects Warning For DepakoteEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Depakote, Abbott's widely-used anti-convulsant for epilepsy and bipolar disorder, today was the object of a major FDA warning. "The FDA notified health care professionals and patients about the increased risk of neural tube defects and other major birth defects, such as craniofacial defects and cardiovascular malformations, in babies exposed to valproate sodium and related products (valproic acid and divalproex sodium) during pregnancy. Healthcare practitioners should inform women of childbearing potential about these risks, and consider alternative therapies, especially if using valproate to treat migraines or other cond...
Source: Furious Seasons - December 3, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Several Items Worth NotingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
AstraZeneca has inked a deal with Targacept for its anti-depressant compoud known as TC-5214. It's a neuronal nicotinic receptor modulator. The wonderful Dr. Bonkers has gone and translated a disgusting Swedish pharma brochure telling kids who to swallow their ADHD meds the "coool" way. Big Pharma spends $20.5 billion a year marketing its drugs. The Wall Street Journal breaks down the numbers. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - December 3, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Lilly Wins Partial Zyprexa Court VictoryEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a fairly surprising setback, US District Court Judge Jack Weinstein yesterday granted summary judgement--or dismissed--a major portion of the State of Mississippi's lawsuit against Eli Lilly. That would be the part of the suit contending that the company was negligent in marketing Zyprexa. The ruling lets stand the portion of the state's case claiming the company bilked the state's Medicaid system. I'd expect the state to appeal the judge's ruling, one of Lilly's first substantive victories in more than four years of settling various Zyprexa cases for about $2.8 billion. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - December 2, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

British National Health Service Goes After American WebsiteEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A few of you likely know of Dr. Bonkers, the Bonkers Institute and its website. Bonkers--aka Ben Hansen--has tirelessly catalogued pharma ads for psych meds for four years and recently posted some National Health Service brochures he obtained that are alarming. In them, children, teens and young adults are basically told to shut up and take their meds--Zyprexa, Risperdal and Strattera (links are to the brochures). In making them publicly available, Hansen has apparently angered the NHS which contact him and asked him to edit out much of the brochure from his website. Hansen refused (see the exchange below). Some of the la...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 20, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Academic Researchers Fail To Report ConflictsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An article today in the New York Times simply blows my mind. I'll just quote from it: "Few universities make required reports to the government about the financial conflicts of their researchers, and even when such conflicts are reported, university administrators rarely require those researchers to eliminate or reduce these conflicts, government investigators found. "In a report expected to be made public on Thursday, Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, said 90 percent of universities relied solely on the researchers themselves to decide whether the money they made i...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 19, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

barbara boxer, courage campaign: please sign petition opposing stupak anti-choice abortion amendment (2063)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
boxer We are honored to have Senator Barbara Boxer share with Courage Campaign members her commitment to strip the horrific Stupak Amendment from any healthcare reform bill and pass true health care reform. Her message is powerful. We need to show her — and the nation — that thousands and thousands of us stand with her by signing the petition. –Rick Jacobs, Chair, Courage Campaign Dear Friend, Ten days ago, the House passed the Stupak Amendment, which would be one of the biggest setbacks to women’s health in recent decades - unless we stand together and stop it. That’s why we are launc...
Source: aids-write.org - November 17, 2009 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office McCAB McNC aging and HIV/AIDS americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids awo call to action barak obama beingALIVE-la big pharma black msm gay hiv/ai Source Type: blogs

Big Pharma's Sneaky TrickEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An excellent piece in today's New York Times lays out how Big Pharma has been promising to cut costs of its drugs (to the tune of $8 billion a year) to help make health care reform happen while at the same time it's going around raising the prices of its drugs to the tune of $9 billion a year. That's such typical behavior by the drug companies that I'm hardly surprised. They are a truly brazen bunch. You just had to know that with Big Pharma openly supporting health care reform and alleged cost-cutting that something funny had to be going on. Now, we know what it was. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - November 16, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

kearns to la city council: carmen trutanich & LA’s “extraordinary response” to HIV/AIDS (2057)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
[tuesday, November 3, 2009] good morning president garcetti, distinguished council members. i have given the clerk copies of my prepared remarks. my name is richard kearns. i am a 58-year-old gay man with AIDS, a long-term survivor & activist, a medical cannabis advocate, a poet & journalist. i am here this morning to suggest a plan B for medical cannabis in LA please empower a special high-speed ad hoc medical cannabis team, who, starting with the text of the city’s legislative analyst submitted to the plum committee september 25th can finish translating the whereases to section numbers inside a month (sort of ...
Source: aids-write.org - November 13, 2009 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office McCAB McNC aging and HIV/AIDS americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids barak obama beingALIVE-la big pharma black msm gay hiv/aids black women with Source Type: blogs

kearns, AIDS-write.org: dr. jai mahara’s definition of namasté (2055)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
chers— this is my favorite essay on the term “namasté,” which belongs in the mix before we go too much further along. i make no claims about divinity here, because nothing can really be verifiably known about divinity. but we all share & perceive & express greatnesses whose roots reach into an inner invisible realm of spirit. namasté —rk . . . while we are singing the praises of namasté, it should be observed how efficient a gesture it is in an age of mass communication. A politician, or performer can greet fifty thousand people with a single namasté, and they can return the honor instan...
Source: aids-write.org - November 12, 2009 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office McCAB McNC aging and HIV/AIDS aids & bubonic plague & 1918 flu americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids beingALIVE-la big pharma black msm Source Type: blogs

I'll Just Do A Round UpEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I'm in no mood to write today. My headache is gone, but I got yet another reject email from yet another media organization I'd applied to and I am simply not in the mood to put too many sentences together. The NY Times has an op-ed today arguing against lumping together Asperger's syndrome and autism in the forthcoming DSM-5. It's interesting that the paper would choose to highlight that issue since it's been fairly quiet on developments around the new DSM. I wonder why. The Chicago Tribune and ProPublica have a piece out on a Chicago psychiatrist who was prescribing tons of Clozaril to his patients (almost unheard of t...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 10, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

andrew jack, ft.com: glaxo smithkline, pfizer form ViiV to fight HIV/AIDS (2051)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
ViiV vows joint venture will help fight HIV By Andrew Jack November 3 2009 The new head of the pioneering HIV joint venture between GlaxoSmithKline andPfizer predicts his company can operate for at least five years without fresh funding from its shareholders. Dominique Limet, chief executive of ViiV Healthcare, which was formally launched on Tuesday, says it will generate £1.6bn a year in sales to finance its own research and would begin paying a dividend to its two owners in 2011 as it sells new products. A woman infected with HIV prepares her medicines in Indonesia. She could be one of thousands who would benefit f...
Source: aids-write.org - November 9, 2009 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office McCAB McNC aging and HIV/AIDS ahf aids & bubonic plague & 1918 flu americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids beingALIVE-la big pharma blac Source Type: blogs

NATAP: pharmatimes reports merck/schering merger (2050)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Larger Merck says merger will actually increase R&D efficiency pharmatimes.com 05 November 2009 The new Merck & Co has opened its doors for business, and the company has been laying out its plans for future growth now that Schering-Plough has been added to the group. Chief executive Richard Clark says that “our integration teams prepared us well for a strong start…with thorough plans designed to ensure a seamless transition”. The new entity now has more than 15 late-stage candidates “spanning critical therapeutic categories” and has 106,000 employees in more than 140 countries. That figure...
Source: aids-write.org - November 9, 2009 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: Richard Kearns Tags: HIV prevention justice alliance LA city AIDS coordinator's office McCAB McNC aging and HIV/AIDS americans for safe access / la apla asian-pacific hiv/aids beingALIVE-la big pharma black msm gay hiv/aids black women with aids champ Source Type: blogs

Feds Investigating Abbott Over Depakote MarketingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
News is out that the federal Department of Justice is investigating Abbott Labs over questions about its marketing of Depakote, its anti-seizure drug that's also approved for bipolar disorder. It's not clear what the scope of the investigation is, so stay tuned. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - November 6, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Psychiatrist Explains His Lilly ConsultingEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Manoj Waikar, an adjunct psychiatry professor at Stanford who's also in private practice in Palo Alto, Calif., has made $74,850 for speaking on Lilly's behalf 51 times this year. So the New York Times smartly tried to find out what made him so sought after by Lilly and what services he provided. What fun that new Lilly database of its outside consultants has become. "In response to queries from a reporter, Dr. Waikar wrote in an e-mail message that he received fees for speaking to other health care professionals about disorders like schizophrenia and depression, which can be treated with the Lilly drugs Zyprexa and Cymbal...
Source: Furious Seasons - November 4, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Agencies partner to launch social media service for pharma companiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: ePharma Summit)
Source: ePharma Summit - October 30, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: dm news big pharma news pharma social media social media news Source Type: blogs

NAMI Lies In NYT Letter To The EditorEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Today, NAMI National's executive director Michael Fitzpatrick penned a letter to the editor of the New York Times and objected to how NAMI had been portrayed in a recent article which outlined how the group had gotten about $23 million in pharma funding in recent years. The paper had claimed that represented two-thirds of NAMI's budget and Fitzpatrick wrote to claim it only represented 50 percent. Then he dropped this claim into the letter: "NAMI maintains strict guidelines that govern all corporate relations and does not endorse or promote any specific medication, treatment, service or product." That's a bald-faced lie...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 30, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Congress To Go After Medicaid Fraud, Why Not Fraud Against Patients Too?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The Wall Street Journal noted yesterday that Congress is planning to take steps to wipe out the estimated $60 billion a year in Medicaid fraud. "'The scale of health care fraud in America today is staggering,' Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) said at a hearing. 'Now, as health care reform moves through the Senate, I want to make sure we do all we can to tackle the fraud that could undermine efforts to reduce the skyrocketing cost of health care.'" That's all well and good and I wish Congress luck. A good amount of the fraudulent behavior comes from our friends at America's Pharmaceutical Resear...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 29, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Talking to Pharma, Online and OfflineEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There are so many great events around empowered patients and consumer-driven healthcare in the Fall. It also being soccer season, the kickoff of the school year, and time for nearly every existing Jewish holiday, I can’t possibly attend as many as I’d like to. This makes me especially thankful to have some good D-blogger [...] (Source: Diabetes Mine)
Source: Diabetes Mine - October 27, 2009 Category: Diabetes Authors: AmyT Tags: Diabetes Blogs and Web Stuff Health 2.0 Big Pharma diabetes community diabetic ePatients ePharma Humalog Novo Nordisk patient communities patient networks pharma social media pharmaceutical marketing Source Type: blogs

NAMI Got $23 Million From Pharma CompaniesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The New York Times is out today with an article on just how much money NAMI has been getting from Big Pharma in recent years--a ton, three-fourths of its total fundraising. "The mental health alliance, which is hugely influential in many state capitols, has refused for years to disclose specifics of its fund-raising, saying the details were private. "But according to investigators in Mr. Grassley’s office and documents obtained by The New York Times, drug makers from 2006 to 2008 contributed nearly $23 million to the alliance, about three-quarters of its donations. "Even the group’s executive director, Michael Fitzp...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 21, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Lexapro Sales Stabilized By Lexapro Sales To TeensEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a conference call with analysts on Tuesday, Forest Labs' COO Larry Olanoff noted slightly decreased Lexapro sales and credited the drug's recent FDA approval for use in adolescents as helping to stabilize Lexapro's sales. "Lexapro sales in the quarter totaled $566 million, a decline of 3.1% year-over-year. In March, we announced the FDA approval of our supplemental NDA for Lexapro, for the indication of acute and maintenance treatment of major depressive disorder in adolescence, 12 to 17 years of age. This additional indication is helping to stabilize the position of Lexapro in the market, and we have observed an incre...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 21, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Cymbalta Sales Way UpEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Eli Lilly announced its third quarter results today. Cymbalta sales are way up: "Lilly's biggest drug, Zyprexa, posted sales of $1.2 billion, up 2.8%. Higher selling prices offset lower demand in the U.S. Demand increased outside the U.S. Sales of antidepressant Cymbalta rose 10% to $790 million." A 10 percent increase over the same quarter last year is pretty significant. While I'm not clear on whether Lilly upped Cymbalta prices in the last year (which would account for a portion of the revenue increase if they had), it looks as though more scrips for this tricky anti-depressant are being written. Whether they are for ...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 20, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

AstraZeneca Offers Buyouts To Entire Sales ForceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I don't often comment on the ebb and flow of pharma corporate news, but via Pharmalot comes news that AstraZeneca is asking its entire US sales force--some 5,000 to 6,000 people--to "self identify" whether or not they want to accept a buyout from the pharma giant. Don't think that AZ is getting out of the drug business, but like a lot of pharma companies it faces several products going off-patent over the next few years (Seroquel, Crestor, etc.), so it's cutting costs where it can. Quite a few pharma companies (lilly, BMS, AZ) are facing a serious "pipeline problem" of not having new drugs forthcoming to market to the publ...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 18, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Glaxo Negligent, Not OutrageousEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An article in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer is the first mainstream media piece to try and grapple with the implications of last week's court award of $2.5 million to the family of Lyam Kilker. His mother took Paxil while she was pregnant with him and he was born with several heart defects. The jury verdict was in some ways mixed. "Jurors linked Lyam's problems to Paxil and said Glaxo had been negligent in not properly warning David's doctor of the drug's risk, but they did not find the London company's behavior outrageous, which would have been necessary to award punitive damages.... "Kline said last week's jury ver...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 18, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Court Rules AstraZeneca Overcharged KY Medicaid ProgramEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
AstraZeneca yesterday was found liable by a Kentucky court of ripping off that state's Medicaid program. "AstraZeneca, maker of popular drugs such as Crestor, Nexium and Seroquel, must reimburse Kentucky $14.72 million after overcharging its Medicaid program between November 1999 and March 2005. "AstraZeneca lied when reporting its average wholesale price on a number of drugs, said George Galland, representing Kentucky in the civil fraud trial that ended Thursday. "AstraZeneca inflated its prices between 20 and 30 percent depending on the drug, Galland told the jury in his summation. "The average wholesale price is ca...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 15, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

More Paxil Birth Defects Case Documents AvailableEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Bob Fiddaman of Seroxat (Paxil) Sufferers had done a fine job of getting his hands on various transcripts and depositions from the recently-completed Paxil birth defects case in Pennsylvania. He's now got up the deposition of Jane Nieman, a former GlaxoSmithKline employee. Go to his site to download the document. Although there have been a few smallish articles in the US press, news of the $2.5 million jury award sure hasn't shown up in the New York Times, Washington Post or LA Times. That's kind of weird, especially in light of the fact that GSK faces about another 600 birth defects lawsuits and also because it's very un...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 15, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Glaxo Must Pay $2.5 Million In Paxil Birth Defects CaseEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A Pennsylvania jury earlier today found GlaxoSmithKline liable for heart defects caused to a young boy whose mother was taking the company's anti-depressant Paxil while pregnant. The jury awarded the boy's family $2.5 million. Plaintiff's attorneys had argued that Paxil had caused the defects and had failed to properly test the drug and, while knowing of its ability to cause defects, had failed to warn consumers properly. This is a significant ruling because it's the first time GSK has been found liable in a birth defects case and because there are abut 600 more similar cases awaiting trial. GSK's lawyers said they would...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 12, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Pharma Drops Search Advertising After FDA WarningEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
(Source: ePharma Summit)
Source: ePharma Summit - October 8, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: pharma search engines pharma blogs fda warnings big pharma news pharma social media Source Type: blogs

Seroquel Promoted As Weight Neutral When Company Knew It Produced Large Weight GainEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
According to court documents released to Bloomberg yesterday, AstraZeneca pushed its sales reps to claim that Seroquel, the company's atypical antipsychotic, was "weight neutral" four years after the company had determined that there were "clinically significant" weight gains among users of the drug (and increased risk of diabetes). "AstraZeneca’s 'global strategy is to demonstrate to consumers that Seroquel has a weight-neutral profile,' Debbie Holdsworth, a marketing official, wrote in a 'dear colleague' letter dated May 14, 2001." Here's the BS explanation of the weight neutral claim by John Patterson, a former AZ e...
Source: Furious Seasons - October 7, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

UK Girl Who Died After HPV Vaccine Injection Had Advanced CancerEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
For now, this settles questions raised earlier this week after a 14-year-old girl in England died soon after receiving an injection of Cervarix, an HPV vaccine. As it turns out, the poor girl had advanced cancer that had gotten into her heart and lungs and that's now being called her cause of death instead of the injection until full autopsy results are available. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - September 30, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Psychiatrist Turns Down $170,000 To Promote New AntipsychoticEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I think readers of this site are fairly well aware of the respect I have for Tufts University psychiatrist Danny Carlat, who's led the fight in psychiatry to clean up the APA and pharma-sponsored CMEs. My respect for him now goes up by $170,000, the amount Schering-Plough reportedly (scroll down to the bottom of the linked page) offered him to go shill for its recently-approved atypical antipsychotic Saphris and the amount which Carlat turned down. "In a letter to doctors, Schering-Plough says 'you must present the Schering-Plough approved materials provided to you.' The company offered one psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel Carlat...
Source: Furious Seasons - September 28, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

60 Massachusetts Docs Get Money From Eli Lilly To Promote Its DrugsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
News is out in the Boston Globe that Eli Lilly's recently-released list of payouts to docs includes 60 Massachusetts doctors, including some at Boston Medical Center--the main hospital for the Boston University School of Medicine. The university has ordered the docs in question to stop doing talks for industry. It's refreshing to see a university take these sorts of things so seriously and so promptly. How much money were doctors getting? What products were they promoting? "At Boston Medical Center, Dr. Brian McGeeney, a neurologist, received $30,000 during that period [first three months of 2009], and Dr. Elliot Sternth...
Source: Furious Seasons - September 28, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

UK Girl Dies After Getting HPV VaccineEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This is alarming: The UK press is reporting that a 14-year-old girl died soon after being given GlaxoSithKline's HPV vaccine Cervarix. A few other girls at her school took ill after getting the vaccine. Cervarix is not yet approved in the US, but GSK has submitted it to the FDA for approval, which is expected later this year. What a terrible tragedy, exactly the kind of thing opponents of mandatory vaccinations for HPV feared could happen with Merck's Gardasil. Via Sexorat Sufferers. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - September 27, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Desperate Pharmas - the fight for new moleculesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
“Some of our competitors are desperate because they pay just an incredible price for some medicines. And if it’s a matter of life or death for them, then maybe it makes sense for them, but not to us. So sometimes we may lose some partnerships for financial reasons, which is frustrating.”Story (Source: PharmaGossip)
Source: PharmaGossip - September 25, 2009 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: gsk big pharma Source Type: blogs

Fan Pages For Pharmaceuticals?Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The Federal Trade Commission is going to hold public hearings on creating regulations so that pharma companies can use social media (ie, Facebook, Twitter, networking sites) to promote their drugs. Like they don't have enough promotion opportunities already. I'd assume the FDA will also have to get involved in this somehow since drug promotion is also its regulatory bailiwick. The folks at digidaydaily.com think it's a lovely idea--I don't--and have a suggestion: "Create Fan Pages: It’s in the company’s best interest to supervise and add some credibility to a Seroquel community for bipolar adults, or a Paxil communit...
Source: Furious Seasons - September 24, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs

Paxil Birth Defects Testimony Now OnlineEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
By which I mean that Bob Fiddaman of Seroxat Sufferers fame has gotten pdfs of opening arguments and the testimony of psychiatrist David Healy and another plaintiff's expert witness and put them online right here. More will come later as the trial, which is taking place in Philadelphia, continues. This will include some never-seen-before documents regarding what GlaxoSmithKline knew and when it knew it about birth defects problems with Paxil. The opening arguments--both sides--are well worth a read. (Source: Furious Seasons)
Source: Furious Seasons - September 24, 2009 Category: Mental Illness Authors: Philip Dawdy Tags: Big Pharma Source Type: blogs