pharma news stories on Newser

Disgraced Doctors Land at Big Pharma

Kevin Spak — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 07:59:20 CDT

Pharmaceutical companies say they hire highly respected doctors as their white-coat sales force, peddling their drugs to other physicians. But a Pro Publica investigation has discovered that hundreds of these pitchmen have been accused of professional misconduct, been disciplined by state boards, or lacked credentials. Medical board records in the...

McCain Slams Obama for Backroom Deals

Kevin Spak — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:52:07 CST

When John McCain finally got a chance to speak at the health care summit today, he let Barack Obama have it, slamming him for crafting the legislation with backroom deals. In particular, he hit on the deal the White House struck with Big Pharma, in which Obama promised to block...

Dems Helped Shape Health Industry Ad Campaign

Kevin Spak — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:19:01 CDT

Aides to President Obama and Max Baucus met with a variety of lobbyists for corporate health care companies on April 15, to help form two industry coalitions and launch a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, Politico has learned. Though both sides insist no quid pro quo was laid out, some participants say...

Pharma Ghostwriters Penned Medical Papers on HRT

Matt Cantor — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:20:00 CDT

Ghostwriters funded by a drug firm were deeply involved in writing papers supporting therapies that helped the firm’s sales boom, court papers show. The 26 scientific papers, published in medical journals from 1998 to 2005, highlighted the benefits of hormone replacement therapy over the risks, a boon to Wyeth, which...

Obama? Big Pharma. Here's an $80B Drug Discount

Harry Kimball — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:41:06 CDT

Big Pharma has offered the feds a discount of up to $80 billion on drugs for programs like Medicare, the Washington Post reports. The pledge, which comes at a crucial moment in the health-reform debate, may be a pre-emptive strike before President Obama pushes for a proposed $100 billion price...

Big Pharma Sickens Universities

Drew Nelles — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:07:27 CDT

Weak legislation allows professors to collect huge under-the-table payments from Big Pharma, and it’s time to fight back, Dan Greenberg writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education . Pharmaceutical companies pay professors to shill drugs and lend their names to industry research, and the only oversight is an honor-system mechanism requiring...

Generics Curb Rise in Drug Costs

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:37:49 CDT

Scores of prescription drugs are getting cheaper, as name-brand patents expire and open the door to generic imitators. That's bad news for pharmaceutical companies, the Times reports, but it means that an aging population ever more reliant on drugs will be paying as much as 80 percent less for them.

Grocery Chain Offers Free Rx Meds

Caroline Zimmerman — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:17:09 CDT

Pharmacies in Publix supermarkets across five Southern states will distribute seven antibiotics free to patients with prescriptions, the chain said today. The CEO allows that one goal is to drive customer traffic, but it's also an example of the private sector assisting access to affordable health care, the AP reports....

Nigeria Sues Pfizer Over Deadly Tests

Sam Gale Rosen — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:35:06 CDT

Nigeria is suing pharma giant Pfizer for $7 billion, claiming the company carried out improper trials on children. 200 children in the state of Kano died, and others developed deformities, after Pfizer tested Trovan, an experimental antibiotic, during a 1996 meningitis outbreak. Nigeria claims the tests were unauthorized, but Pfizer...