Free Republic

Big pharma is spending millions to fight limits on opioids like OxyContin, Vicodin and fentanyl The pharmaceutical industry has spent more than $880 million over the past decade to fight laws that would limit the availability of powerful opiods such as OxyContin, Vicodin and fentanyl in the United States, according to an investigation by the Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity published Sunday. Often, these lobbying expenditures are funneled through groups like the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and other advocacy groups that represent the interests of patients with terminal cancer or chronic pain, whose conditions can...

Chemotherapy warning as hundreds die from cancer-fighting drugs (cancer drugs may kill up to 50 % patients) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/08/30/chemotherapy-warning-as-hundreds-die-from-cancer-fighting-drugs/ Sarah Knapton, Science Editor 30 August 2016 Patients should be warned about the dangers of chemotherapy after research showed that cancer drugs are killing up to 50 per cent of patients in some hospitals. For the first time researchers looked at the numbers of cancer patients who died within 30 days of starting chemotherapy, which indicates that the medication is the cause of death, rather than the cancer. In Milton Keynes the death rate for lung cancer treatment was 50.9 per cent,...

CEO who gouged price of EpiPen is daughter of Democrat senator CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As a pharmaceutical company run by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s daughter faces scrutiny for hiking prices on life-saving allergy injection pens, Manchin is remaining mum. The Democratic West Virginia senator’s daughter, Heather Bresch, is CEO of Mylan, which manufactures EpiPens. A two-dose package cost around $94 nine years ago. The cost averaged more than six times that in May. Manchin spokesman Jonathan Kott said Wednesday the senator had no comment.

One striking chart shows why pharma companies are fighting legal marijuana There's a body of research showing that painkiller abuse and overdose are lower in states with medical marijuana laws. These studies have generally assumed that when medical marijuana is available, pain patients are increasingly choosing pot over powerful and deadly prescription narcotics. But that's always been just an assumption. Now a new study, released in the journal Health Affairs, validates these findings by providing clear evidence of a missing link in the causal chain running from medical marijuana to falling overdoses. Ashley and W. David Bradford, a daughter-father pair...

Human rights campaigners warn action is needed to stop use of unlicensed drugs or other legally unsatisfactory methodsHuman rights groups have welcomed news that pharmaceutical firm Pfizer is to block the sale of its drugs in the US to perform executions, but warned that legally dubious alternatives could take their place. All companies licensed by the US government to manufacture drugs for state executions have now blocked their use in lethal injections. Pfizer’s withdrawal follows a campaign targeting pharmaceutical companies and their shareholders. The company said: “Pfizer makes its products to enhance and save the lives of the patients we...

Total US spending on prescription drugs in 2015, at the manufacturers’ level and as measured by “invoice pricing,” jumped by 12.2% to $424.8 billion, after having already soared 14.2% in 2014! A two-year increase of 28%! So you’d think we’d get some results for all this moolah. But no. This $424.8 billion in prescription drug spending at “invoice pricing” isn’t based on what Americans or their health insurers pay. According to IMS Health, which released the report, it reflects invoice pricing by drug companies to distributors. It includes neither price concessions by drug companies nor the “mark-ups and additional costs”...

It starts like a joke — Gov. Rick Scott walks into a Gainesville Starbucks — but one patron wasn’t laughing. Scott stopped in at the coffee chain for a cup Tuesday after touring the recently opened factory and headquarters for biopharmaceutical company Nanotherapeutics. Cara Jennings, a former Lake Worth city commissioner, saw Scott in the downtown store and ripped into him, from her seat, over health insurance and cuts to women’s health services, and calling him an expletive

New Jersey hospital emergency room becomes first in U.S. to end use of opioid painkillers PATERSON, N.J. -- St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center announced it has become the first hospital in the country to implement a program that will manage patients' pain in the emergency room without the use of opioid painkillers. Painkillers most frequently used in the emergency room in the past were oxycodone, vicodin and percocet, according to Dr. Mark Rosenberg, the Emergency Department chair. “Our job here together is to look at the whole equation and understand how we can stop people from going from a prescription,...

I know, the headline sounds dramatic. It's true. Trump has just released his health care reform proposal. He is the only candidate that has put forward a plan that will force down the cost of medical care by as much as 80%, rendering Obamacare unnecessary along with Medicare. Require price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors and healthcare organizations like clinics and hospitals. Individuals should be able to shop to find the best prices for procedures, exams or any other medical-related procedure. .... Remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper...

Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, a Louisville Democrat, has introduced a bill that would force men who want to use erectile dysfunction drugs to jump through a series of humiliating hoops beforehand, such as visiting a doctor twice and getting notes from their wives. "I want to protect these men from themselves," Marzian, who is a nurse, told the Courier-Journal. [Snip] The lawmaker told the paper that she intends to introduce a bill that would require gun buyers to get counseling from victims of gun violence 24 hours ahead of a firearms purchase. "I'm just making sure the government is taking...

Last evening, Ted Cruz was at a town hall meeting in Salem, NH, when he was hit with a question about drug abuse. If you’ve followed Cruz’s campaign, you know that his own family has experience loss due to drug abuse. His older sister, Miriam became addicted to pain pills following and accident and slid into a life of drug abuse. Because it is a campaign season, the left used the town hall as an excuse for some low-level street theater. Not a day goes by on the New Hampshire campaign trail without residents grilling the men and women running...

Martin Shkreli, who drew national scorn for hiking the cost of a life-saving drug 4,000 percent overnight, has been arrested, according to multiple reports early Thursday.The 32-year-old founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceutical made headlines in September for raising the price of Daraprim, often used to treat HIV and AIDS patients, from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill after buying the rights to the drug.His arrest is reportedly not related to that price increase.Shkreli is accused of illegally taking stock from a biotechnology firm he launched in 2011 called Retrophin Inc., Bloomberg reported, and using it to pay off...

The CDC, by definition, is a private corporation working on behalf of its stakeholders, which include key players in the pharmaceutical and vaccine industries that profit from the spread of disease, not from real prevention and cures.

ISIS Pharmaceuticals could have a new name soon. According to a report on Monday by CNNMoney's Matt Egan, the company is considering the switch following the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday. The attacks left 129 people dead and 352 wounded. ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attacks. ISIS Pharmaceuticals, which has the ticker ISIS, is a $7.2 billion biotech company that develops drugs that treat several conditions including cancer and heart conditions. ISIS Pharma's vice president for corporate communications and investor relations D. Wade Walke told CNNMoney that Friday's attacks weighed on...

Sorry, Valeant. The ladies just aren’t feeling it. Addyi, the so-called “female Viagra” pill made by Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ Sprout unit, is off to a slow start, with doctors writing just 227 prescriptions in its first few weeks on the market, according to a new report. That compares to the more than half a million men who got prescriptions for Viagra in its first month on the market in 1998, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

Sanofi US Issues Voluntary Nationwide Recall of Auvi‑Q® Due to Potential Inaccurate Dosage Delivery Sanofi US is voluntarily recalling all Auvi‑Q® (epinephrine injection, USP). The recall involves all Auvi‑Q currently on the market and includes both the 0.15 mg and 0.3 mg strengths for hospitals, retailers and consumers. This includes lot number 2299596 through 3037230, which expire March 2016 through December 2016. The products have been found to potentially have inaccurate dosage delivery. If a patient experiencing a serious allergic reaction (i.e., anaphylaxis) did not receive the intended dose, there could be significant health consequences, including death because anaphylaxis...

"News that Turing, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and other drugmakers have bought rights to old, cheap medicines that are the only treatment for serious diseases and then hiked prices severalfold has angered patients. It's triggered government investigations, politicians' proposals to fight "price gouging," heavy media scrutiny and a big slump in biotech stock prices." "Turing's Shkreli, under fire from all sides, said late last month that he would lower the price of Daraprim, but hasn't so far. A Turing spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment Thursday but recently noted the company is capping patient copayments at $10."

I don't see any other logical reason for him speaking the way he did.

Gripe as we might, consumers understand that price increases do happen. What’s not as easily understood is how the price for something can go from $13.50 one day to $750 the next — especially when it’s a generic drug used to save lives. For decades, Daraprim (pyrimethamine), an anti-parasitic used to treat malaria and toxoplasmosis, had been made by GlaxoSmithKline and sold for as little as $1/tablet until not that long ago. Then in 2010 GSK sold the drug to CorePharma, which began to raise the price. Within a year, revenue from Daraprim jumped nearly ten times even though the...

PharmedOut is a Georgetown University Medical Center project that advances evidence-based prescribing, and educates healthcare professionals about pharmaceutical marketing practices. Founded in January, 2007, it is an Internet-based alternative for doctors seeking Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses, not sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. Inasmuch as the industry derives its greatest profits from new proprietary drugs, it has a built-in tendency to tout them, even though newer is not always better. One example, cited at the time of PharmedOut’s founding, came from Georgetown Ob-Gyn doctor Anthony Scialli: “Take oral contraceptives. Over the years they have increased in number, but there haven’t...