"The findings and the drug studies, along
with a sharply worded editorial where Dr. Marcia Angell raises
the question "Is Academic Medicine For Sale?"
appears one week after the Journal's publisher, the
Massachusetts Medical Society, announced it would replace her
as editor with a prominent asthma researcher who has strong
ties to the drug industry.
This report comes at a time when "academic medical
centers are no longer the sole citadels of clinical research
and the industry is wielding more power in conducting
large-scale drug tests. Six of the 12 investigators
interviewed cited cases of articles whose publication was
stopped or whose content was altered by the funding company.
The companies are not identified.
In one instance, a drug maker delayed publication of a
study's results by requesting changes to the manuscript to
make the product look better. During the delay, the company
secretly wrote a competing article on the same topic, which
was favorable to the company's viewpoint.
Another investigator found that a drug he was studying
caused adverse reactions. He sent his manuscript to the
sponsoring company for review. The company vowed never to fund
his work again and published a competing article with scant
mention of the adverse effects." from Research
and Drugs How Investigators are Influenced
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Arabian
nights: 1001 tales of how pharmaceutical companies cater
to the material needs of doctors
|
Short term outcomes were heterogeneous, underlying the
diversity of the means employed by the pharmaceutical
industry to subvert, divert, and influence
medical practice
|
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Are Pharmaceutical co.-addressing stigma
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If the public perceived psychiatrists and psychiatric
health care providers as caring healers, the stigma
around mental illness could be reduced.
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Pdf 270 kb
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Assessing
the Value of America's Investment in Medical Research
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How does a venture capitalist decide where to invest his money? He
compares the potential for return against the risk, and
when the return appears to be significant and the risk
isn't too great, he invests. As our country makes
decisions about its future investment in medical
research, it might apply a similar standard.
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Cheap drugs 'not enough to fight AIDS in Africa'
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A hard-won battle for access to cheap generic drugs leaves
poor African countries ill-prepared to implement
nationwide programmes to treat Aids sufferers, experts
working on health projects on the continent warn.
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Drug
Middlemen Are Facing Pressure Over Rising Prices
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As
employers, consumers and government officials grow
increasingly frustrated by upwardly spiraling drug
costs, pressure is building against a handful of
powerful companies that have prospered for years as
middlemen between drug manufacturers and those who pay
for medicines.
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Evidence-Based Management of Hepatitis C: A Clinician’s
Guide to Pegylated Interferons |
The
hepatitis C story is an ongoing tale of discovery, with
the chapters on viral pathogenesis, patient risk
stratification, and treatment constantly in need of
revision. This brief symposium review highlights
several key areas of current interest in the diagnosis
and management of chronic hepatitis C infection |
482
kb pdf |
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Foster
City company discounts AIDS drug for poor nations
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The
pledge by the Foster City biotech firm left unanswered a
key detail -- how steeply the company will discount its
one-a-day AIDS drug called Viread that wholesales for
about $10 a day in the United States.
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General practitioners and representatives of
pharmaceutical companies
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Encounters between general practitioners and pharmaceutical
representatives follow a consistent format that is
implicitly understood by each player. It is naive to
suppose that pharmaceutical representatives
are passive resources for drug information.
General practitioners might benefit from someone who
can provide unbiased information about prescribing in a
manner that is supportive and sympathetic to
the demands of practice
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How
to Enroll in a Drug Study
|
There
are several ways in which patients and their physicians
can learn of
clinical trials in which they may want to take part.
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Hungary curbs drug company advertising
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Hungary's pharmaceutical manufacturers are facing a
clampdown on the methods they use to advertise and
market their products to doctors. A health
ministry decree, due to become effective within
the next few weeks, will drastically limit what has been
termed "rampant marketing" by
manufacturers
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Madison
Ave. Has Growing Role In the Business of Drug Research
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Article
on how Madison Avenue, whose television ads have helped
turn some prescription drugs into billion-dollar
products, is expanding role in drug development;
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Patients,
not Employers or Insurers, Paying Larger Percentage of
Prescription Medication Costs
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Faced
with "rapidly rising" prescription drug
spending, which is climbing at about 15% per year,
employers and insurers have increasingly shifted the
costs to patients, who "may soon pay even
more,"
|
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Prescription
Drug Sales Increased By Nearly 20% Last Year in US
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Retail
prescription drug spending in the US increased for the
fifth straight year in 2000, primarily reflecting higher
sales of a relatively small number of drugs.
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Research
and Drugs How Investigators are Influenced
|
Drug
companies that pay for research and clinical tests of
new medicines have been suppressing or manipulating the
results. The prestigious, peer-reviewed Journal also
warned the likelihood
that drug test results will be manipulated or suppressed
is even greater when for-profit companies set up
specifically to test drugs conduct the trials.
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Tampering
With Prescription Drugs?
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Some
prescription drugs are tampered with as they pass
through several middlemen on their way to the local
pharmacy, reports 60 Minutes correspondent Bob
Simon. What’s more, if the drugs’ manufacturers find
out, they are not required to tell patients or the FDA
that the drugs could be dangerous.
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Targets for Anti-Retroviral Treatment
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The Mozambican Health Ministry plans to assist over 100,000
HIV-positive people with anti-retroviral drug treatment
over the next five years, according to a report in
Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".
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The
Other Drug War Part 1
(LARGE REPORT-INCREASED
DOWN-LOAD TIME)
|
For
several decades, the pharmaceutical industry has
benefited from a combination of government intervention
and laissez faire: the federal government provides
stringent intellectual property right protections and
generous public subsidies for research-- but does not
regulate drug prices. As a result, the United States has
been a leader in the development of new drugs, but it
also faces the highest drug prices in the world.
|
|
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The
Other Drug War Part 2
(LARGE REPORT-INCREASED
DOWN-LOAD TIME) |
For
several decades, the pharmaceutical industry has
benefited from a combination of government intervention
and laissez faire: the federal government provides
stringent intellectual property right protections and
generous public subsidies for research-- but does not
regulate drug prices. As a result, the United States has
been a leader in the development of new drugs, but it
also faces the highest drug prices in the world.
|
|
|
The
Other Drug War:
Big Pharma’s 625 Washington Lobbyists
|
This
new Public Citizen report shows how the pharmaceutical
industry fought last year, like never before, against
the looming threat that Congress and President Clinton
would provide senior citizens with drug coverage under
Medicare.
|
PDF 318 kb
|
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Theft, resale of drugs to be curbed
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Under the proposal approved by the commission developing
countries should be guaranteed access to cut-price
HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria medicines by special
registration and labeling.
|
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US Seeks further Restrictions on Generic Medicines for
Developing Countries
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have acquired new information indicating that the US seeks
further restrictions on exports of generic medicines to
developing countries. They fear that the recent talks at
the WTO TRIPS Council may result in further threats to
access to medicines in poor countries.
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What
Other Programs Can Teach Us: Increasing Participation in
Health Insurance Programs
|
Many
uninsured Americans are already eligible for free or
low-cost public coverage through Medicaid or
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
but do not "take up" that coverage.
|
|
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