BioSpace.com News

Author Insights: Some Clinical Trials Intended for Drug Marketing, Not Advancing Science

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:00:00 AM GMT

A report appearing today in the Archives of Internal Medicine uses court documents related to a product liability lawsuit to detail the running of a seeding trial. Such trials, which occur after a drug is approved, are primarily conducted to promote drugs and increase prescribing among physicians who partake in these studies rather than to advance scientific knowledge.

Operator-Dependent Results Cloud Picture in FDA 2002 Approval of Medtronic, Inc.'s BMP-2

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

MedPage Today -- One of the more controversial aspects of the FDA's 2002 approval of bone morphogenetic protein-2 or BMP-2, is the relationship between financial ties to Medtronic, the maker of BMP-2, and the procedural success rate of surgeons. That fact was noted in FDA documents labeled "confidential" that were obtained by MedPage Today and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel under a Freedom of Information...

Dollars for Docs: Who's On Pharma's Top-Paid List?

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

They are among pharma's most successful speakers, featured at dinner after dinner promoting companies' favored pills to their peers. Each has earned at least $200,000 since 2009 from this moonlighting. A review of the highest-earning physicians in ProPublica's Dollars for Docs database [1] offers insight into why some medical professionals are drawn to this lucrative sidelineand into the diverse...

Johnson & Johnson Admits Misleading U.S. Motrin Recall

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Already battered by a wave of product recalls, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) acknowledged on Thursday it had misled consumers and U.S. regulators as it quietly removed its Motrin painkiller from the market.

Baxter International, Inc. Says FDA Lung Drug Promotion Misleading

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - U.S. health officials have issued a warning to Baxter International Inc (BAX.N) for misleading patients and doctors about the benefits of its Aralast lung drug.

Harvard University Tightens Rules on Faculty-Drug And Medical Device Maker Ties

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

Boston Globe -- Harvard Medical School will prohibit its 11,000 faculty from giving promotional talks for drug and medical device makers and accepting personal gifts, travel, or meals, under a new policy intended partly to guard against companies use of Harvards prestige to market their products.

Watchdog Group is Urging a Federal Investigation of Vaccine Pricing Policies of Drugmakers Merck & Co., Inc. and Sanofi Pasteur

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

MedPage Today -- A watchdog group is urging a federal investigation of vaccine pricing polices of two large drugmakers.

Many Clinicians Maintain Positive Attitudes Toward Industry Marketing Activities

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

Medical News Today -- Despite current policy trends, many clinicians continue to hold positive attitudes toward gifts from and marketing interactions with pharmaceutical and device companies, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Swine Flu Drug Advisors to World Health Organization Were Linked to Drug Makers Who Profited from Vaccines

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

MedPage Today -- "Given the scale of public cost and private profit, it would seem important to know that WHO's key decisions were free from commercial influence," Godlee said. The investigation "finds that this was far from the case."

Fighting Bull Cloned For First Time In Spain

Wed, 19 May 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

The Canadian Press -- MELGAR DE YUSO, Spain Scientists in Spain say they have cloned a fighting bull for the first time.

13 Additional Stem Cell Lines Eligible For Federal Funding, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Says

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

BETHESDA, Md., April 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. National Institutes of Health said Tuesday 13 more lines of human embryonic stem cells have been made eligible for federal research funding.

Useful Stroke Trials Left Unpublished, University of Edinburgh Study

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

EurekAlert! -- An investigation into unpublished stroke research data has revealed that 19.6% of completed clinical trials, which could potentially influence patient care, are not published in full. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Trials describe how these unpublished studies included more than 16,000 participants and tested 89 different interventions.

Pfizer Inc. Gave Docs $35 Million In Last Half Of 2009

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc on Wednesday said it paid $35 million to some 4,500 doctors and researchers from July through December 2009 for a variety of services, including speaking fees, expert advice and work on clinical trials of its medicines.

Scandalous Science: Scientists Cheating On Data

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

Are Big Pharmaceutical Companies Exploiting The Recession?

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

Are Stem Cell Scientists Sabotaging Rivals' Work, in London Study

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

NY Governor To Limit Pharma Influence Over Docs

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

World Health Organization Denies Drugs Firms Swayed Its Flu Decisions

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

Researchers Find Study of Medical Marijuana Discouraged

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

NYT -- Despite the Obama administrations tacit support of more liberal state medical marijuana laws, the federal government still discourages research into the medicinal uses of smoked marijuana. That may be one reason that even though some patients swear by it there is no good scientific evidence that legalizing marijuanas use provides any benefits over current therapies.

Feds Eye 'Pay-for-Delay' Deals That Keep Generic Drugs Off the Market

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:00:00 AM GMT

Senate Rejects Importation Of Prescription Drugs; Drug Industry Swayed Importation Vote

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Senator Questions Industry Money From Drug and Device Manufacturers to Medical Groups

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Anthrax Study Controversially Cancelled By Oklahoma State University President

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Genentech (South SF) Puts Words In The Mouths Of Politicians

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Reports On Pfizer Inc. Drug Studies Misleading, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) And Bloomberg School of Public Health Researchers Report

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

How Drug Advertising Restrictions Could Benefit the Industry

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

BNET -- The drug business spends $5 billion a year on advertising and yet studies continue to emerge suggesting that hundreds of millions of those dollars are wasted. Perhaps its time to consider whether more restrictions on drug ads might, counterintutively, benefit the industry.

Outrage as Doctors' Group Allows Coca-Cola to Sponsor Health Advice

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Advice about soft drinks and health from one of the nation's largest doctors groups will soon be brought to you by Coke.The American Academy of Family Physicians has prompted outcry and lost members over its new six-figure alliance with the Coca-Cola Co. The deal will fund educational materials about soft drinks for the academy's consumer health and wellness Web site, www.FamilyDoctor.org.

Drug Company-sponsored Events For Health Professionals Fail To Disclose Financial Ties, Analysis Finds

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

ScienceDaily -- ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2009) Australian reporting standards for disclosing the ties between pharmaceutical companies and health professionals are not comprehensive enough, according to an analysis in this week's PLoS Medicine.

Getting The FDA To Share What It Knows About Drugs, FDA Researchers Report Information Lost Between Review and Drug Label

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Surgeons Fail To Disclose Financial Conflicts, Children's Hospital Boston Study

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

A Potential But Controversial Fix For Genetic Disease; Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Lab Produces Monkeys With 2 Mothers

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

NIH -- Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed an experimental technique with the potential to prevent a class of hereditary disorders passed on from mother to child. The technique, as yet conducted only in nonhuman primates, involves transferring the hereditary material from one female's egg into another female's egg from which the hereditary material has been removed...

Arms Expert Warns New Mind Drugs Eyed By Military

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

GENEVA (Reuters) - A leading expert on chemical and biological arms control called Wednesday for urgent efforts to stop new mind-altering drugs developed for medical purposes from being adopted by the military for use in warfare.

No, Medical Advertising Isn't Just A Big Waste

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Detecting Bias In The Reporting Of Clinical Trials, University of Leicester Study

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

EurekAlert! -- A study by researchers at the University of Leicester has revealed new ways to spot whether medical research has hidden biases. Writing in the prestigious British Medical Journal, Santiago Moreno and his colleagues demonstrate how to spot 'publication bias' in the reporting of clinical trials which potentially form the basis of Government and NHS health policies. They also show what...

Should Fat People Pay More for Health Care?

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

NYT -- Two years ago, the Cleveland Clinic stopped hiring smokers. It was one part of a wellness initiative that has won the renowned hospital which President Obama recently visited some very nice publicity. The clinic has a farmers market on its main campus and has offered smoking-cessation classes for the surrounding community. Refusing to hire smokers may be more hard-nosed than the other...

FDA Steps Up Efforts To Prevent Non-compliant Investigators And Others From Participating In New Product Development

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Doubts Over Stem Cell Images Prompt New Inquiry At University of Minnesota's

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Novartis AG Says CEO's Holiday Home Set On Fire And Mom's Ashes Stolen By Activists

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Medical Papers by Ghostwriters Pushed Wyeth Therapy

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Pharma And Medical Device Funding For Medical Classes Draws Scrutiny From Congress

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

FDA Warns Abbott Laboratories On DVD For HIV Drug

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Bio And Medical Device Companies Come To Grips With Gift Ban

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Pharma Lobbying Money: Who's Spending What Fighting Healthcare Reform

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Pfizer Inc. Violated Own Rules to Hide Depression Drug Studies

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Medical Industry Showers Department Of Defense With Free Travel; Prompting Conflict of Interest Concerns, and Northwestern University Report

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

A Reminder That Pharma Doesn't Want to See You Cured

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Suit: Pfizer Inc. Docs Ran the National Institutes of Health (NIH)'s Cholesterol Education Program

Fri, 29 May 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Small Drug Promo Items May Influence Young Doctors, University of Pennsylvania Study

Tue, 12 May 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

EurekAlert! -- Exposure to small promotional items from pharmaceutical companies, such as clipboards and notepads, appears to influence medical students' unconscious attitudes toward the marketed product, according to a report in the May 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Students whose medical school restricts marketing practices had less favorable attitudes...

Harvard Medical School Professors are Paid Big Bucks by Big Pharma to Push Meds

Thu, 07 May 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Seoul National University Experts Claim to Have Cloned Glowing Dogs

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Institute of Medicine Calls for Doctors to Stop Taking Gifts From Drug Makers

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Merck & Co., Inc. Accused of 'Ghost Writing' Medical Article

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

FDA to OK Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s Morning-after Pill Plan B for 17-Year-Olds

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

AP -- The Food and Drug Administration, reversing field, will allow 17-year-olds get the 'morning-after' birth control pill without a doctor's prescription, a government health official said Wednesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency will comply with a federal judge's order overturning a Bush administration policy that restricted access.

Vermont Doctors Get $2.9M Cash, Gifts From Drugmakers

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Yahoo Finance -- The nation's pharmaceutical makers spent more than $2.9 million on Vermont's doctors, hospitals and universities to market their products in the last fiscal year, according to a report issued Wednesday by the state attorney general's office.

Pfizer Inc. Probes Release of Viagra Boxer Shorts to Irish Doctors

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

BNET -- Pfizer has launched an internal investigation into how a bunch of promotional Viagra boxer shorts ended up being sent to doctors in Ireland.

Ethical Questions Over Harvesting Dead Son's Sperm

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

AP -- A judge has granted a mother's request to have someone harvest sperm from her dead son's body, so she can have the option of carrying out his wish to have children. Nikolas Colton Evans, 21, died Sunday at a Brackenridge hospital after being punched and falling outside an Austin bar March 27.

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Will Ban Gifts From Drug Companies

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Washington Business Journal -- In a move designed to limit the influence of pharmaceutical companies on patient treatment choices, Johns Hopkins Universitys medical school will ban gifts and meals from drug makers and limit speaking and other consulting opportunities for doctors.

Stanford University School of Medicine Faculty Must Reveal Industry Income

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Stanford University School of Medicine will post on its Web site the payments its faculty members receive for consulting or royalties from businesses, the school announced today. The plan is part of a growing movement, from academia to healthcare to government, to reveal potential conflicts of interest between medicine and industry.

Mylan Inc. Execs Get 41% Raise; CEO Takes Company Jet on Vacation for "Security" Reasons

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

BNET -- Mylan may have made a loss of $181 million last year following a goodwill writedown of $385 million, but its top execs made out like bandits. They shared $22 million in total compensation in 2008, compared to $15.2 million in 2007, according to a proxy filing with the SEC. That was a combined 41 percent pay raise (not including EMEA president Didier Barret, who wasnt on the 2007 named executives...

Medical Leaders To Propose Curbs On Conflict Of Interest

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

EurekAlert! -- (New York, NY) Calling professional medical associations' (PMAs) dependence on funding from pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers a threat to quality patient care and professional integrity, a group of influential medical leaders today urged these organizations to reduce and eventually eliminate industry contributions. In an article appearing in the April 1 Journal of the...

Are Doctors' Loyalties Divided? Company-Funded UW Courses Often Favor Medicine, Leave Out Side Effects

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

BNET -- Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer have funded an online CME course at the University of Wisconsin that favors the prescription of their drugs and either plays down their efficacy or their side effects, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Sting Operation Exposes Gaps in Oversight of Human Experiments

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) Government investigators looking into lax screening of medical research said Thursday they easily won approval from a private review board of a fake product to be used in medical testing on human subjects.

GlaxoSmithKline Increases Disclosure Of MD Payments

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

FiercePharma -- GlaxoSmithKline has issued a new corporate responsibility statement that's sure to please fans of disclosure. Following up on last year's promise to increase physician payment transparency, the company said it will now disclose the money it pays "U.S. healthcare professionals and/or their institutions to conduct [clinical] trials." GSK will begin reporting those payments starting in...

JAMA Demands Silence From Those Who Find Conflicts Among Its Authors

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

BNET -- The Journal of the American Medical Association has instituted a bizarre new policy requiring silence from anyone who notices a conflict of interest among its authors. JAMA will require silence about such conflicts until it has investigated them, according to the WSJ.

National Division of Advertising: Novartis Corporation's Excedrin Ads Are Misleading; It Mostly Doesn't Work in "15 Minutes or Less"

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

BNET -- Wyeth has forced Novartis into a corner regarding advertising for Novartiss Extra-Strength Excedrin. Novartis had been advertising Excedrin with the line, Start relieving your headache in just 15 minutes.

FDA Commish to Employees: Keep Quiet or Else!

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

InVivo Blog -- Frank Torti, the acting FDA commissioner, has an important message for all agency employees--you won't make a peep if you know what's good for you.

A Few States Buck Stem Cell Trend With Bans

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) - Oklahoma politician Mike Reynolds believes the federal government has gone too far this time.

Medical Industry Faces Tough New Regs in Massachusetts

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Emax Health -- The Massachusetts Public Health Council (PHC) passed broad new rules governing sales and marketing practices of pharmaceutical and medical device companies doing business in Massachusetts.

Congressional ???Sting??? Operation Uncovered by Coast IRB, LLC

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a press release issued on March 10, 2009, Coast Independent Review Board informed the public that it had discovered what appeared to be a fraudulent clinical trial submitted to that Independent review board for evaluation. Coast IRB has since learned that the fraudulent trial was apparently commenced as part of a congressional sting operation. Apparently at the behest...

Mass. Doctor From Accused Of Fabricating Pain Studies

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

FiercePharma -- In the annals of fakery, it's quite an accomplishment: Massachusetts anesthesiologist Scott S. Reuben allegedly pulled data for 21 drug studies out of thin air. Published between 1996 and 2008, the studies backed the now-withdrawn painkillers Bextra (Pfizer) and Vioxx (Merck), as well as antidepressants such as Pfizer's Celebrex and Wyeth's Effexor XR. And no one questioned them--until...

Clinical Trial Fraud Detected by Coast IRB, LLC, Reported to Federal and State Authorities

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Washington, D.C.: On Friday, March 6, 2009, Coast Independent Review Board, an independent review board that has protected human subjects in thousands of clinical trials, discovered that a protocol submitted to it for review of a medical device called Adhesiabloc by a Device Med Systems of Clifton, Virginia, was in fact fraudulent in violation of federal and state law. Upon receipt of proof of the...

Obama to End Stem Cell Ban Monday But to Leave Some Issues to Congress

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

New York Times -- WASHINGTON While lifting the Bush administrations restrictions on federally financed human embryonic stem cell research, President Obama intends to avoid the thorniest question in the debate: whether taxpayer dollars should be used to experiment on embryos themselves, two senior administration officials said Sunday.

Is Drug Company Money Tainting Medical Education?

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

Time -- It's not often that a place like Harvard Medical School gets an F particularly when rivals Stanford, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania are pulling A's and B's. That's what happened recently, however, when the members of the increasingly influential and increasingly noisy American Medical Student Association (AMSA) decided to grade 150 med schools on just how much money and gifts...

Drugs for Normal Cognitive Decline Possible, Columbia University Researchers Announce

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

NEW YORK, March 4 -- There aren't likely to be many ethical or legal hurdles in the development of drugs that slow or reverse the cognitive decline of normal aging, experts say.

Negative Data on Seroquel Allegedly Suppressed by Drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca PLC (AZN.L) failed to warn physicians and patients about risks associated with its widely used schizophrenia drug Seroquel, plaintiffs' attorneys said on Friday.

Feds Searching for AM2PAT CEO in Case of Tainted Syringes

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

ABC News -- For months, prosecutors say, technicians in the gloom of a run-down North Carolina plant prepared life-sustaining syringes and shipped them before ensuring they were sterile.

Novo Nordisk A/S Executive Compensation: A Picture of Modesty (Except for the Car Expenses)

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

BNET -- Novo Nordisks annual report is out and it contains some interesting stuff on senior management compensation. CEO Lars Rebien Srensen received total compensation of DKK10.8 million (about $1.8 million).

Seroquel Trial: Allegations of Sex-for-Secrets; AstraZeneca PLC Wants Papers Sealed

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

BNET -- AstraZeneca is to argue in a Florida court next month that documents turned up in a lawsuit over weight-gain side effects of Seroquel should remain secret and sealed. The company is arguing it would be better for public health for Seroquel patients not to read the papers, according to The St. Pete Times. Heres AZs reasoning:

Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Encourages Its Members to Adopt Code of Conduct to Govern Interactions With Healthcare Professionals

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) announced today a new policy statement regarding interactions between BIOs healthcare-related member companies and healthcare professionals. The policy, approved last week by BIOs Health Section Governing Board, encourages each of BIOs members involved in the marketing of biologics or other pharmaceuticals to United States...

FDA Seeks Plans To Reduce Misuse Of Painkillers

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:00:00 AM GMT

AP -- WASHINGTON Federal health regulators are requiring more than a dozen drugmakers to develop plans to reduce the misuse of their painkillers, which cause hundreds of deaths each year.