Free Republic

The pharmaceutical industry's powerful Washington lobbying group backs the healthcare reform legislation that is President Barack Obama's top legislative priority, but its important support for that effort could evaporate if drug imports are included. White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration will pursue the issue, but not in the healthcare reform bill. "Let me be clear. The president supports ... safe re-importation of drugs into this country," Axelrod told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "There's no reason why Americans should pay a premium for the pharmaceuticals that people in other countries pay less for." The importation of drugs...

Guess who just discovered the Jim Geraghty Axiom? Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reports that Barack Obama reversed his get-tough-with-Big-Pharma routine when it came to actually, er, getting tough with Big Pharma. How did Obama’s allies on Capitol Hill feel about it? “Awkward”: On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to take on the drug industry by allowing Americans to import cheaper prescription medicine. “We’ll tell the pharmaceutical companies ‘thanks, but no, thanks’ for the overpriced drugs — drugs that cost twice as much here as they do in Europe and Canada,” he said back then. On Tuesday, the...

One more item added to what candidate Obama said on the campaign trail about prescription drugs (see bolded paragraph) and what President Obama who cut a deal with drug companies has to say. No wonder Obama's poll numbers are falling so rapidly as he continues to do a 180 from what he said on the campaign trail. When we first heard about Obama's ties to radicals like Communist Frank Davis who was his mentor, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Louis Farrakhan, and others we suspected he would lurch to the left if he was elected. That said, his lurch to the...

President Obama has called for a serious and reasoned debate about his plans to overhaul the health-care system. Any such debate must include the question of whether it is constitutional for the federal government to adopt and implement the president's proposals. Consider one element known as the "individual mandate," which would require every American to have health insurance, if not through an employer then by individual purchase. This requirement would particularly affect young adults, who often choose to save the expense and go without coverage. Without the young to subsidize the old, a comprehensive national health system will not work....

You really have to give the Air America hostess credit for the phrase “charming liar”. This recording is just unbelievable, considering the source..

A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week. The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return. It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada -- and also agreed...

WASHINGTON — The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday. The unusually large scale of the industry’s commitment to the cause helps explain some of a contentious back-and-forth playing out in recent days between the odd-couple allies over a deal that the White House struck with the industry in June to secure its support. The terms of the deal were not fully disclosed. Both sides had announced that the drug industry would...

The nation's drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail his chief domestic priority.

I'm a strong supporter of universal health insurance, and a fan of the Obama administration. But I'm appalled by the deal the White House has made with the pharmaceutical industry's lobbying arm to buy their support.

Big Pharma and probably Big Insurance have probably kicked in with the Democrats in DCWhile this initially may appear to be a good business move on their part, the boards of these companies may not CLEARLY realize that their owners are the productive class.It's time to sell every stock and mutual fund that hold these stocks. The board must hear from the "owners".They think $80bil was affordable...an $80bil that would come out of the consumers pocket. However, I wonder how affordable their decision will seem in the light of their stock price dropping 50%...or 60...or 75%?

• Text Democrats are trying to explain opposition to ObamaCare as a sinister conspiracy controlled by the hidden hand of the health-care industry. Psychologists call this projection. Why bother with a new conspiracy when you’ve already clinched a secret deal with the President? Part of the Obama health strategy has been to assiduously co-opt the key health “stakeholders,” primarily with the leverage that legislation was inevitable so they might as well negotiate. Doctors, hospitals, insurers and the drug makers bought it—or perhaps it is more accurate to say were bought. This week it emerged that the pharmaceutical industry’s supposedly voluntary...

The jobs are risky, but very lucrative for those willing to take the risks, and require no previous experience or special training. Almost anyone with a driver's license (or at least the ability to drive) can do this job. How did Obama do it? What People Who Don't Smoke Look Like A recent Senate vote brought tobacco under the regulation of the FDA. The effort, spearheaded by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., in the Senate and Calif. Democrat Henry Waxman in the House (no doubt because of their medical expertise—Kennedy, for example, is considered the government's chief expert on alcohol consumption)....

The FDA says consumers should stop using Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel and related products immediately. All the over-the-counter products contain zinc. Scientists say that ingredient may damage nerves in the nose needed for smell.

There is none more deserving of stress testing than the proposed MOTHERS Act. On the surface, the MOTHERS Act reflects its sponsors overwhelming compassion and empathy for women suffering from alleged mental health disorders resulting from childbirth – often referred to as Postpartum Depression. But when one conducts a brief stress test on important sections of the legislation, taxpayers may find that this costly and sweeping mental health legislation actually fails women of America, but goes a long way in inflating the balance sheets of one of the most lucrative industries in the nation – big Pharma. For instance, the...

PIERRE — State Attorney General Larry Long announced Thursday that South Dakota has joined with other states and the federal government and reached a $1.4 billion settlement with Eli Lilly and Co., to settle allegations it engaged in an off-label marketing campaign that improperly promoted the anti-psychotic drug, Zyprexa. Eli Lilly will pay the states and the federal government a total of $800 million in damages and penalties to compensate Medicaid and various federal health care programs for harm suffered as a result of this conduct. South Dakota’s total settlement recovery is $1.4 million. Of that amount, South Dakota will...

A jury sentenced a Lakeview man to 10 years in prison for growing nearly 7,500 marijuana plants. Andrew Stever, 40, was sentenced on Monday after a three-day trial in the Federal District Court in Medford.Ten years is the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of growing 1,000 or more pot plants. In July 2007, officers from several local, state and federal agencies found 7,459 plants growing on Stever's Lakeview property, which bordered Forest Service land. Two men fled the scene, leaving behind personal property and three firearms, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. Physical evidence and testimony linked...

Teen Screen Lawsuit Advances: Federal Court Affirms Family’s Right to Sue School for Subjecting Teen to Mental Health Test Without Parental Consent SOUTH BEND, Ind.—A federal court has given the green light to a civil rights lawsuit filed by Rutherford Institute attorneys in defense of a 15-year-old Indiana student who was subjected by school officials to a controversial mental health examination without the knowledge or consent of her parents. In ruling that the lawsuit filed on behalf of Chelsea Rhoades and her parents, Teresa and Michael, may proceed to trial, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana...

WASHINGTON — The pens, pads, mugs and other gifts that drug makers have long showered on doctors will be banned from pharmaceutical marketing campaigns under a voluntary guideline that the industry is expected to announce Thursday. The industry’s Code on Interactions with Health Care Professionals will ask the chief executives of large drug makers to certify in writing that “they have policies and procedures in place to foster compliance with the code.” The code was written by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry’s trade association. But the code provides no definite limits on the millions of dollars...

Three Harvard psychiatrists facing a US Senate inquiry got a vote of confidence from their hospital as "beloved and trusted by thousands of grateful children and families." Senator Charles Grassley is looking into the doctors' failure to report payments of more than a million dollars in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007. A memo from top officials at Massachusetts General Hospital obtained by the Globe praised Drs. Joseph Biederman, Timothy Wilens, and Thomas Spencer as "pioneers in the field of child mental health" while also endorsing "closely managed" collaboration with industry and promising a review of conflict-of-interest...

The Washington Post finds McCain adviser Charlie Black’s work lobbying for various third world governments and an anti-Communist rebel group from 1985 to 1994 worth a front page story. Also, starting today, MoveOn.org "will air a national advertisement on CNN urging McCain to fire Charlie Black, a top adviser who has been a longtime lobbyist; McCain and Black have said that Black retired from lobbying in March." Okay. Fine. I think it's stupid to try to purge every campaign of anyone who has ever lobbied, since most campaign and political professionals need work in non-campaign years, and one of the...

New evidence shows that the drug makers Merck and Schering-Plough have conducted several studies of their popular cholesterol medicine Zetia that raise questions about its risks to the liver, but the companies have never published those results. Partial results of the studies, alluded to in documents on the Food and Drug Administration’s Web site, raise questions about whether Zetia can cause liver damage when used long term with other cholesterol drugs called statins. Most of the millions of people who use Zetia take it along with a statin like Lipitor, Crestor or Zocor. Or they take it in a single...

The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder by Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield Oxford University Press, 287 pp., $29.95 Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness by Christopher Lane Yale University Press, 263 pp., $27.50 Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression by David Healy New York University Press, 351 pp., $18.95 (paper) 1. During the summer of 2002, The Oprah Winfrey Show was graced by a visit from Ricky Williams, the Heisman Trophy holder and running back extraordinaire of the Miami Dolphins. Williams was there to...

RENO, Nev. - A jury levied a $134.5 million judgment against pharmaceutical giant Wyeth in a lawsuit filed by three Nevada women who claimed the company's hormone replacement drugs caused their breast cancer. It was the largest award to date against the Madison, New Jersey-based company, which faces about 5,300 similar lawsuits across the country in state and federal courts. "These are very large numbers for compensatory damages," said Howard Erichson, a law professor at Seton Hall University. "It has to be troubling for Wyeth because dollar figures like these suggest the jury entirely accepted the plaintiff's version of the...

On June 19, 1987, Ben & Jerry’s introduced Cherry Garcia, in honor of the man who played lead guitar for the Grateful Dead. The Food and Drug Administration struck back three months later, when it approved the first of a new family of statin drugs that curb cholesterol production in the human liver. A synthetic statin licensed a decade later would become the most lucrative drug in history. At its peak, Lipitor was streaming $14 billion a year into Pfizer’s coffers. Let’s not blame the victim: we don’t choose Cherry Garcia; it chooses us. Lipitor is a lifesaver for 600,000...

A pill that can correct a wide range of faulty genes which cause crippling illnesses should be available within three years, promising a revolution in the treatment of thousands of conditions. The drug, known as PTC124, has already had encouraging results in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. The final phase of clinical trials is to begin this year, and it could be licensed as early as 2009. As well as offering hope of a first effective treatment for two conditions that are at present incurable, the drug has excited scientists because research suggests it should also work...

With the recent ascent of the Democrats to the majority party in both Houses of Congress, we are seeing a number of changes in the direction and focus of proposed legislation. Among these are the minimum wage increase, “paygo” (a good idea if not used solely as a trojan horse for tax increases), rollbacks of subsidies for Big Oil. And with it, a change in the attitude towards Big Pharmaceutical Industry. The last time we had Democrats in power, it was under Bill Clinton, when Hillary attempted to take over the US medical care system. And we all know how...

As you may recall, in my last vanity, ”Confessions of a Crunchy Con, or, You Can't Judge a Conservative by his Birkenstocks”, I discussed how I became a “crunchy con”—someone who endorses certain cultural and lifestyle values which have traditionally been associated with the left. In this piece, I follow up with some thoughts about health and lifestyle issues, with application to American society at large. Taking fish oil supplements, despite my misgivings, and finding how successful it was at rejuvenating me, was a real eye-opener. In fact, it got me thinking not just of my own health, but the...

CBNNews.com – LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - As lawyers argued over which evidence should be allowed, a judge Monday delayed jury selection in the first trial of 4,500 lawsuits filed nationwide that challenge Prempro, a hormone-replacement therapy that some women say causes breast cancer. Linda Reeves of Benton sued drug maker Wyeth, claiming she developed breast cancer after taking Prempro for eight years. Helene Rush of Little Rock has argued similar claims in a federal suit against the drug maker. Rush has an Oct. 10 court date. Prempro is a widely prescribed estrogen-progestin combination used to treat premenopausal symptoms, such...

In the race to replace Henry A. McKinnell Jr., the embattled CEO of drug giant Pfizer, Jeffrey B. Kindler was the dark horse. Named as McKinnell's successor on July 28, he had no pharmaceutical experience prior to joining Pfizer (PFE) four years ago as general counsel. But for months, the drug industry has been racked with legal, regulatory, and public-relations challenges, with Pfizer right in the thick of it. Against that backdrop, the 51-year-old Kindler—an accomplished lawyer and veteran of McDonalds Corp. (MCD) and General Electric (GE)—brings much to the table.

See for example this thread first. The Feds are now set to announce on Cross-border drugs they will pounce not drugs from señors but those for seniors will Viagra get street-sold by the ounce?

"In the United States, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants are advertised directly to consumers [1]. These highly successful direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) campaigns have largely revolved around the claim that SSRIs correct a chemical imbalance caused by a lack of serotonin."

...Which brings us to the politically motivated attack on FDA Deputy Commissioner Scott Gottlieb -- one of the fellow forward thinkers Dr. Eschenbach will find at the agency. In its zeal to find more "cronyism" in the Bush Administration, Time fingered Dr. Gottlieb this week without offering any evidence of any special connections to the White House -- family or otherwise. Time seems bothered that Dr. Gottlieb is young and recently worked in the private sector part-time as editor of a medical technology newsletter. Largely ignored by Time is Dr. Gottlieb's previous experience in a substantial policy-making FDA role under...

APA's annual meeting is one of the largest medical meetings in the United States and the largest psychiatric meeting in the world. There is something for everyone at our wonderful meeting, but many have commented to me on the extraordinary presence of the pharmaceutical industry throughout the scientific programs and on the exhibit floor. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry is one of the most profitable industries in the history of the world, averaging a return of 17 percent on revenue over the last quarter century. Drug costs have been the most rapidly rising element in health care spending in recent years....

"Note: In the few short days since its release (June 27, 2005), 'WE BECOME SILENT' has become incredibly popular with huge numbers of hits from all over the world." "International award-winning filmmaker Kevin P. Miller of Well TV announced the release of a new documentary about the threat to medical freedom of choice. 'We Become Silent: The Last Days of Health Freedom' details the ongoing attempts by multinational pharmaceutical interests and giant food companies — in concert with the WTO, the WHO and others — to limit the public’s access to herbs, vitamins and other therapies. 'We Become Silent’ is...

They started off so well. Their missions, at least in theory, were right. Charter schools gave willing parents the option to become heavily involved with their children’s education. They gave willing parents the educational tools, via online curriculums and/or text-based curriculums, to teach their children in the home and away from the corruptions of campus cultures and inordinately large numbers of poor teachers with radical agendas. But, just as public schools fell to U.N mandates, including anti-Christian, anti-intellect, anti-ethics and morality, and Socialism-based social engineering education, charter schools have also fallen. Under the same public funding umbrella as public schools,...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version December 23, 2004, 8:32 a.m. Secret SantaDrug industry gives to third-world's poor. In this season of giving, it is a sleigh-sized irony that the global pharmaceutical industry behaves like Santa, yet often is denounced as a multinational Scrooge. The drug industry "needs to moderate its prices and make them more Transparent and equitable," Harvard Medical School lecturer Marcia Angell, M.D. wrote in the Financial Times last July. "In short, it needs to curb its greed." Liberal columnist Molly Ivins has decried Big Pharma's "greedy, bloodsucking,...

Thomas Butler was a sought-after plague expert, with a clinical trial in Tanzania that promised important results for biodefense. Then he was charged with mishandling plague samples and lying to the FBI. This month, a jury convicted him of financial wrongdoing. Who is Thomas Butler, and what lessons do his trials hold? Sitting on an airplane preparing to take off from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, American microbiologist Thomas Butler had some time to reflect on his rising fortunes. Stowed in the plane's belly was a footlocker containing carefully packed specimens from more than 60 Tanzanian bubonic plague victims. His journal...

Drug companies, derisively referred to as “big pharma,” are one of the favorite political targets of the day. They are called greedy and are demonized for charging a lot of money for their products. All of this is grandstanding, and it hampers the public’s ability to understand how beneficial large pharmaceutical firms are. A new study released last week shows the good that “big pharma” can do. Postmenopausal women who get breast cancer take a drug called tamoxofin to prevent the cancer from recurring. The drug is very effective, but only for five years. Researchers have discovered that if the...

WASHINGTON - U.S.-based drug companies may halt their sales to Canada to prevent Canadian companies from selling U.S.-manufactured pharmaceuticals back into the United States at steep discounts, according to U.S. industry representatives and health care experts. After the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow the practice known as "re-importation," pharmaceutical executives and drug lobbyists are "crunching numbers" to assess the feasibility of halting shipments to Canada rather than see their products dumped back onto the U.S. market should the bill be enacted into law. Canadian firms are able to sell some U.S.-made prescription drugs to consumers...

By Bob Cusack and Jonathan E. Kaplan A growing faction of the Republican Party, which has long been viewed as a friend of pharmaceutical companies, is attempting to distance itself from the heavily criticized industry sector. This was clearly reflected in the surprising vote on the House floor late last week on reimportation legislation. The vote, which was portrayed by some as the drug industry versus the nation’s seniors, was expected to be close. But it was a rout with the drug industry, and the House Republican leaders, on the losing end. Even though the reimportation bill crafted by Rep....

Values for SaleThe Rev. Lou Sheldon trashes pro-lifers odd Akin, Jo Ann Davis, Randy Forbes, Virgil Goode, Jim Demint, John Shadegg, Pat Toomey, Tom Tancredo: All of these congressmen had 100-percent ratings from the National Right to Life Committee for the last Congress. They have something else in common, too: They're the targets of a direct-mail campaign by the Traditional Values Coalition that questions their commitment to the unborn. That campaign has other social conservatives questioning the TVC's motives. At issue is a bill, sponsored by pro-lifers Gil Gutknecht of Minnesota and Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, that would allow...

Huh? What? Oh, excuse me. What were we discussing? Crickets? Top Ramen? It's all a blur. Gimme the drugs. Now. See how easy that was? I have now been marked as a man afflicted by the newest -- and for my money the very best -- disorder ever. Well, at least ever since the pharmaceutical profession realized that you can peddle a whole slew of drugs if you just come up with a popular enough -- if questionable -- syndrome and advertise it on television. I speak, of course, of the scourge of Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, which the drug...

<p>In a twist on the "Little Shop of Horrors," with its blood-eating plant, a Creve Coeur startup is developing a way for tobacco plants to produce human plasma.</p> <p>Chlorogen Inc., which recently set up shop in the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise incubator, is commercializing technology that uses the cells in tobacco leaves as a factory for pharmaceutical proteins.</p>

Patients launch 'bad blood' suit Thousands of haemophiliacs have filed a lawsuit in the US against four companies for allegedly exposing them to the HIV virus by selling products made with contaminated blood. The lawsuit alleges the companies continued distributing the blood-clotting products in Asia and Latin America in the 1980s, despite having stopped selling them in the US because of the known risk of passing on HIV and hepatitis C. The four companies named are: Bayer Corporation, Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Armour Pharmaceutical Company and Alpha Therapeutic Corporation. The lawsuit alleges that they purchased plasma from "the highest-risk populations, including...

GW and Bayer Announce Marketing Agreement on Pioneering New Cannabis-based Treatment GW Pharmaceuticals plc (“GW”) and Bayer AG (“Bayer”) have entered into an exclusive marketing agreement for GW’s cannabis-based medicinal extract product, to be marketed under the Sativex® brand name. Bayer has obtained exclusive rights to market Sativex in the UK. In addition, Bayer has the option for a limited period of time to negotiate the marketing rights in other countries in European Union and selected other countries around the world. The financial terms of this partnership have been established to yield equal long term value to each partner. GW...

nriched and emboldened after successful fights against asbestos and tobacco companies, some of the nation's top plaintiffs' lawyers have trained their sights on drug makers, claiming that many giant pharmaceutical companies have hidden the dangers of medicines the lawyers say have harmed thousands of people.In some cases the drugs at issue have already been pulled off the market, like Rezulin, a diabetes treatment from Pfizer that the Food and Drug Administration has linked to liver damage and is the target of almost 9,000 suits. Other suits name some of the industry's current best sellers, including Paxil, an antidepressant that plaintiffs...

Merck sued by Fox journalist over faulty vaccine5/14/2003 6:37:20 PM NEW YORK, May 14 (Reuters) - A Fox News journalist who contracted hepatitis A despite being inoculated before an assignment in Afghanistan sued Merck & Co. (MRK) , the maker of the vaccine, on Wednesday.Merck recalled batches of ineffective hepatitis A pre-filled syringes in December 2001. The journalist, Claude Novak, could be one of thousands of people who develop hepatitis A, which causes liver damage, after taking the faulty Merck vaccine. Unlike hepatitis B and C, the disease is rarely deadly. The suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court,...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.Human Resources Staff Training For ‘Separation Process'; Precise Dates, Numbers Not Disclosed The new Pfizer Inc., which inherited about 60,000 employees this week with its takeover of the Pharmacia Corp., is making preparations to conduct “mass layoffs” in the coming months, according to internal documents. The documents, which were shown to human resources employees at a “Separation Process Training” on April 7, indicate that laid-off employees will be given a 13-week severance pay, bolstered by three weeks of severance pay for every year of employment. However, some employees, for security reasons, might...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 25, 2003 Contact: Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director Children of God for Life (727) 538-5558 Email: debi@cogforlife.org http://www.cogforlife.org MERCK REQUESTS SHAREHOLDERS VOTE AGAINST RESOLUTION TO STOP THE USE OF ABORTED FETAL TISSUE IN VACCINES (Clearwater, FL; Front Royal, VA) Pro-life organizations, Children of God for Life and Human Life International charged today that pharmaceutical giant, Merck & Co. has betrayed their stockholders by refusing to include language in Shareholder Proposal No. 7. that would have revealed: - An organized boycott of all Merck products - A resolution by the Catholic Medical Association to use alternatives to their...

Issue 11.04 - April 2003 Pg 1 of 3>> Print, email, orfax this article for free. The Bacteria WhispererBonnie Bassler discovered a secret about microbes that the science world has missed for centuries. The bugs are talking to each other. And plotting against us.By Steve SilbermanTrim and hyperkinetic at 40, Bonnie Bassler is often mistaken for a graduate student at conferences. Five mornings a week at dawn, she walks a mile to the local YMCA to lead a popular aerobics class. When a representative from the MacArthur Foundation phoned last fall, the caller played coy at first, asking Bassler if...