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WASHINGTON (AP) - Some seniors could end up paying 20 percent more for their Medicare prescription drug plans under health care legislation in the House. But overall prescription drug spending would decrease for seniors on average under the bill, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday in a new report. Seniors spending more on prescription drugs would be the ones to benefit under the legislation, while those who spend a relatively small amount on drugs would stand to take a hit, CBO said. The agency did not estimate how many seniors would fall into each category.

Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl split as the U.S. Senate approved a measure Friday that would allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from foreign markets. McCain voted for the measure, which passed 55 to 36. Kyl voted against it, saying he is concerned about safety and oversight issues. The Senate plan needs to be reconciled with a similar drug importation plan from the U.S. House of Representatives. . . . . . The Bush administration had opposed drug imports, but the new Obama administration has been more open to the idea.

Nearly 1,000 deaths were caused in 2008 by the potent painkiller oxycodone -- a 33 percent increase from 2007, the report says. Four years ago, only 340 deaths statewide were attributed to oxycodone, the most popular drug in the black-market pill trade supplied by pain clinics. Conversely, deaths from cocaine overdoses declined by 23 percent, to 648 in 2008. Overall, prescription drugs accounted for 75 percent of the drugs found in overdose victims last year, the report says.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday welcomed the pharmaceutical industry's agreement to help close a gap in Medicare's drug coverage, calling the pact a step forward in the push for overhaul of the nation's health care system. Obama said that drug companies have pledged to spend $80 billion over the next decade to help reduce the cost of drugs for seniors and pay for a portion of Obama's health care legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) expressed his frustration with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Thursday evening for holding up a wide-ranging tobacco regulation bill. McCain has delayed action by insisting on a vote on an amendment to ease the re-importation of prescription drugs from foreign countries such as Canada. Reid claims the amendment is not germane and has resisted giving in to McCain, creating a logjam on the Senate floor. “One senator has held this up and that's the way things can happen around here,” said Reid. “It's unfortunate, but it does happen. “We've worked for a couple of days...

Calif. bill would require Rx for cold pills Tuesday, June 2, 2009 A crime-fighting bill moving through the California Legislature would force patients to get a doctor's prescription to buy a common remedy for stuffy noses. The measure by Sen. Rod Wright, an Inglewood Democrat, would make it an infraction or misdemeanor to obtain ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or related drugs without a prescription. Those are common ingredients in cold medicines, but they're also used to make illegal methamphetamine. Wright says he wants to get them out of drug dealers' hands. But Sen. Sam Aanestad, an oral surgeon and Republican from Grass...

Hackers last week broke into a Virginia state Web site used by pharmacists to track prescription drug abuse. They deleted records on more than 8 million patients and replaced the site's homepage with a ransom note demanding $10 million for the return of the records, according to a posting on Wikileaks.org, an online clearinghouse for leaked documents. Wikileaks reports that the Web site for the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program was defaced last week with a message claiming that the database of prescriptions had been bundled into an encrypted, password-protected file.

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced critical drug importation legislation today that will reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the United States. The Senators said their legislation, the “Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act,” will bring consumers immediate relief and will ultimately force the pharmaceutical industry to lower drug prices in the United States. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would save American consumers $50 billion over the next decade, including more than $10 billion in federal government savings. The bill allows U.S.-licensed pharmacies...

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ASK the average American about President Bush's health-care legacy and the most likely response is a snort. After all, didn't he refuse to fund medical aid for kids? Hasn't he spent billions on the Iraq war while shorting human needs at home? It's time to look at facts: Mr. Bush's record on health will stand as a great contribution to the well-being of mankind. Take, for example, the doubling of federal funding for community health centers since Mr. Bush took office. These not-for-profit agencies operate in underserved areas and treat people regardless of their ability to pay. According to The...

Barack Obama appears to have personally benefited from funds originating in Saddam Hussein's regime. It's a complicated connection, but one that deserves the consideration of Americans voters. Two similar figures, Nadhmi Auchi and Antoin S. "Tony" Rezko, served as the intermediaries. Both are Middle Eastern males of Catholic Christian heritage who left Baathist dictatorships for Western cities (Auchi from Iraq to London, Rezko from Syria to Chicago). Both became successful businessmen who hobnobbed with politicians and promoted Arab interests. Both have been convicted of taking kickbacks and both stand accused of other shady dealings. Auchi, born in 1937, is the...

Last update: 3:30 p.m. EDT BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it has determined that two Indian manufacturing plants operated by Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. are not in compliance due to "serious manufacturing deficiencies." As a result, U.S. border officials may detain any products made at the facilities ... The plants make active ingredients for more than 30 generic drugs. ...

A new government study published Monday has found that the medicines most often prescribed for schizophrenia in children and adolescents are no more effective than older, less expensive drugs and are more likely to cause some harmful side effects. The standards for treating the disorder should be changed to include some older medications that have fallen out of use, the study’s authors said. The results, being published online by The American Journal of Psychiatry, are likely to alter treatment for an estimated one million children and teenagers with schizophrenia and to intensify a broader controversy in child psychiatry over the...

PLEASE READ THIS SUMMARY CAREFULLY, THEN ASK YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT PANEXA AND HOW TO PROVIDE YOU WITH LARGE QUANTITIES. THIS ADVERTISEMENT DOES NOT TAKE THE PLACE OF ADVICE FROM YOUR DOCTOR; RATHER, IT PROVIDES YOU WITH NEW INFORMATION ABOUT NEW DRUGS YOU COULD BE USING.

Tort Reform: A man who blamed his compulsive gambling and the losses he incurred on a prescription drug was awarded nearly $8.2 million by a jury. It's a good bet that his jackpot comes at the expense of others.Gary Charbonneau, a retired Milwaukee police officer, gambled before he took Mirapex and gambled after he got off the medication. According to reports, Charbonneau admitted that he took Mirapex for more than four years, 1997 to 2002, before he became a compulsive gambler. Yet a Minnesota jury generously awarded him $204,000 on July 30 to cover his gambling losses, $175,000 for his...

A new study suggests that giving Merck & Co.'s cervical-cancer vaccine Gardasil to women through their mid-20s may not be worth the price, despite U.S. recommendations that this age group receive the costly shot. The study, published online Wednesday by The New England Journal of Medicine, comes as Merck already is having difficulty persuading college-age and older women to get the vaccine, which was introduced in 2006 and costs about $360 for a three-dose regimen. [...] Ms. Kim and Harvard colleague Sue Goldie concluded that it cost about $43,600 per "quality-adjusted life year" gained, when HPV vaccine is administered to...

A 16-year-old patient, terminally ill with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, should be allowed to use an experimental drug treatment despite objections from the drug’s developer, a federal judge in Newark ruled on Wednesday. The case, which touches on major ethical issues, is being closely watched by the pharmaceutical industry. Under the ruling, Jacob Gunvalson, of Gonvick, Minn., would be able to start taking a drug intended to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare and fatal disease that strikes boys and young men. The developer, PTC Therapeutics of South Plainfield, N.J., contends that Jacob does not meet the criteria...

August 19, 2008, 6:00 a.m. The Real Truth about Drug CompaniesDevelopmental issues. By Henry I. Miller I never knew my maternal grandparents. During the 19-teens, my maternal grandmother died of a wound infection following a routine gall-bladder operation. A few years later, her husband, my grandfather, suffered a fatal stroke brought on by untreated high blood pressure. Both were in their thirties. Neither occurrence was uncommon back then, but a half century of new drugs has changed that. Thanks to a research-intensive (and, therefore, capital-intensive) pharmaceutical industry, pharmacy shelves now contain dozens of antibiotics and blood pressure medications. Similar...

With 3,480 pages of fine print, the Physicians' Desk Reference (a.k.a. PDR) is not a quick read. That's because it contains every iota of information on more than 4,000 prescription medications. Heck, the PDR is medication — a humongous sleeping pill. Doctors count on this compendium to help them make smart prescribing decisions — in other words, to choose drugs that will solve their patients' medical problems without creating new ones. Unfortunately, it seems some doctors rarely pull the PDR off the shelf. Or if they do crack it open, they don't stay versed on emerging research that may suddenly...

You probably never stopped to think if where you live has anything to do with the number of prescription medications you're taking. But if you live in the American South, chances are you take more medications than you would if you lived on the other side of the Mason-Dixon Line. In fact, when it comes to residents popping the largest numbers of pills, Southern states beat the average by a long shot. States filled an average 11.1 retail prescriptions per capita in 2006, according to the latest figures compiled by the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation's statehealthfacts.org and Vector One: National,...

Politics: With gasoline and oil prices going down, what's a crusading lawmaker to do? Change gears and go after the next capitalist monster.The latest dragon to be slain is the one that makes life-enhancing and lifesaving drugs. Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Charles Schumer of New York, Democrats both, asked the Government Accountability Office last week to investigate price hikes in the pharmaceutical industry. This follows Klobuchar's request in April that the Federal Trade Commission open a probe of Ovation Pharmaceuticals, a company that raised prices on four medications in 2006 by up to 3,436%, USA Today reports. Express...

Rangel, Levin, Emanuel, Van Hollen’s stance against Intellectual Property Rights will increase the risk of creating drug-resistant strains of the world’s most dangerous viruses. In addition it allows countries like Thailand to shift important healthcare spending to bolstering their politically present military.

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2008) — Americans are likely to be exposed to unacceptable side effects of FDA-approved drugs such as Vioxx in the future because of fatal flaws in the way new drugs are tested and marketed, according to research to be presented today at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA). "Drug disasters are literally built into the current system of drug testing and approvals in the United States," said Donald Light, the sociologist who authored the study and a professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. "Recent changes...

Drugs designed to fight cholesterol might also prevent Alzheimer’s and other dementia Older people taking statin drugs are less likely to develop dementia than their counterparts who don’t take the pills, a study in the July 29 Neurology suggests. While the provocative finding offers hope that the cholesterol-reducing drugs might help against Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, scientists say this study is unlikely to be the last word on the topic. Indeed, it may just fuel an already lively debate over statins’ potential effect on dementia. Some research has hinted at benefits, while other studies, particularly in people...

American consumers have come to expect warning labels on products that might pose a risk. But Congress is considering allowing the mass (re)importation of drugs that originated outside the safety and security of the U.S. chain of custody, without so much as requiring a warning label. This is a very risky business. If Congress is going to adopt such legislation, Americans deserve to be put on notice. That's why all (re)imported drugs should be required to carry a warning label: "WARNING: THIS DRUG LEFT THE U.S. CHAIN OF CUSTODY AND THEREFORE ITS SAFETY CANNOT BE GUARANTEED

Gadfly or Watchdog? by: Bethany Stotts, July 15, 2008 Some controversies never die. As Accuracy in Academia recently reported, Dr. Alan Schatzberg and around thirty medical researchers are now under investigation by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) for financial conflicts of interest. In Dr. Schatzberg’s case, the conflicts reach as far back as 1998, when he co-founded the company that purchased a patent for mifepristone from Stanford University, his then (and current) employer. To this day Dr. Schatzberg continues as the principal investigator on Stanford’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to study the anti-depressant effects of mifepristone, an abortion drug....

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...

It seemed an ideal marriage, a scientific partnership that would attack mental illness from all sides. Psychiatrists would bring to the union their expertise and clinical experience, drug makers would provide their products and the money to run rigorous studies, and patients would get better medications, faster... --snip-- An analysis of Minnesota data by The New York Times last year found that on average, psychiatrists who received at least $5,000 from makers of newer-generation antipsychotic drugs appear to have written three times as many prescriptions to children for the drugs as psychiatrists who received less money or none. The drugs...

Federal prosecutors are investigating Indian generic drugmaker Ranbaxy for allegedly falsifying records that resulted in the production and sale of generic medicines that did not meet federal standards. The government alleges officials at Ranbaxy's northern India plant used raw pharmaceutical chemicals from unapproved sources, fabricated in-house test data to meet FDA standards and attempted to conceal the ruse. The "pattern of systemic fradulent conduct," left an untold portion of the tablets and capsules too weak, too potent or lacking the advertised shelf life, said government papers filed in US District Court, Maryland.

The nation’s pediatricians are recommending wider cholesterol screening for children and more aggressive use of cholesterol-lowering drugs starting as early as the age of 8 in hopes of preventing adult heart problems. The new guidelines were to be issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday. The push to aggressively screen and medicate for high cholesterol in children is certain to create controversy amid a continuing debate about the use of prescription drugs in children as well as the best approaches to ward off heart disease in adults. But proponents say there is growing evidence that the first signs...

...the pharmaceutical industry has become a lightning rod for critics. For example, Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, blasted the drug industry in a much-publicized 2004 book, accusing it of profiteering and having become "a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit." She maintained the pharmaceutical industry's reputation for innovation is a myth, that it "feeds off the NIH" and that new drugs "nearly always stem from publicly supported research." ...Mr. Zycher and his colleagues concluded that scientific contributions of the private sector were essential for the discovery and/or development of virtually all the...

Academic Morning After Profits by: Bethany Stotts, July 02, 2008 This June the New York Times broke the story that two Harvard Professors, Dr. Joseph Biederman and Dr. Timothy Wilens, had only belatedly reported their considerable external financing from drug makers to their University. The evidence, revealed during a congressional investigation, may also cast suspicion on the dramatic increase in prescribed antipsychotics. As AIA has documented, some groups remain skeptical of the expansive definitions surrounding Attention Deficit Disorder diagnoses. Others are concerned by the rapid expansion of the use of psychotropic drugs among children. The investigation of the Harvard doctors,...

I flushed my pills down the toilet. The prescription had expired. I had a queasy impulse to jettison the medicine this way because of some vague understanding that expired medicine could be dangerous. It may, but not in the way I imagined. Scientists are now finding a vast array of pharmaceuticals, from sex hormones, to anti-convulsants, to mood stabilizers, in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, the Associated Press found recently. The drugs get there via people like me, blithely tossing drugs into the water system — and through the natural metabolic practices of a country...

Reuters Health Wednesday, June 25, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Use of cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins rose by 156 percent between 2000 and 2005, with spending jumping from $7.7 billion to $19.7 billion, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reported on Wednesday. "The number of people purchasing statins nearly doubled when comparing 2000 and 2005, rising from 15.8 million people to 29.7 million people," the AHRQ report reads. The total number of outpatient prescriptions for statins rose from about 90 million in 2000 to nearly 174 million in 2005. Each individual spent $484 a year on average on statins...

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...

June 10, 2008, 6:00 a.m. Drug Resistance Is DeadlyPharmaceutical knock-offs may threaten our ability to treat malaria. By Roger Bate Thai government officials, led by commerce permanent secretary Siriphol Yodmuangcharoen, will meet with their Washington counterparts on June 10, hoping to persuade the U.S. Trade Representative to remove Thailand from its “Priority Watch List.� Thailand is one of nine countries listed, earning its place because of intellectual property-rights violations by the previous Bangkok government — which broke patents on AIDS and heart drugs, undermining its trade relationship with the U.S., and harming foreign investment. While the U.S. will continue...

The Walgreen Co, which operates Walgreens drug stores, has agreed to stop altering prescriptions without physician approval as part of a multi-state agreement to settle allegations of improper billing, according to Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper. Walgreens was accused of switching the dosage forms on three medications commonly prescribed for Medicaid patients without doctor approvals in order to boost profits. This resulted in Medicaid programs nationwide paying much more for the medications than they normally would have, according to a press release by the attorney general’s office. Walgreen Co. agreed to comply with state and federal laws on the matter,...

President Bush is asking Congress to work with his administration to end illegal sales of highly addictive prescription drugs on the Internet to stem a rising number of people dying of overdoses. Bush used his weekly radio address to highlight his administration's 2008 national drug control strategy, which the White House is releasing Saturday. The president said that while an estimated 860,000 fewer young people are using drugs today than in 2001, the abuse of prescription drugs is a growing problem. "Unfortunately, many young Americans do not understand how dangerous abusing medication can be, and in recent years, the number...

West Virginia replaces Tennessee as No. 1 in prescription drug useby The Associated Press Wednesday February 6, 2008 CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- A report shows Tennessee has lost the top national ranking of per capita prescription drug use to West Virginia. The report by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee shows West Virginia took the lead, with 17.4 prescriptions per capita in 2006, compared with 16.9 prescriptions per person in Tennessee. The report uses data from drug company Novartis' most recent Pharmacy Benefit Report. Tennessee's rates dropped 6.6 percent from 18.1 prescriptions in 2004. The drug use rates remain well above...

Heath Ledger's death on Jan. 22 was due to an accidental mixture of prescription drugs, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York has concluded. "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine," said an announcement released Wednesday morning by office spokesperson Ellen Borakove. Oxycodone is a pain medication, hydrocodone is a cough suppressant, diazepam is commonly called Valium, temazepam treats anxiety or sleeplessness, alprazolam is known as Xanax, and doxylamine is a sedating antihistamine.

favorite target of some politicians has always been the Pharmaceutical Industry. Every year there are stories and speeches by candidates for President or Congress about how drugs cost too much (gives you insight into their desire for price controls, which would destroy research and development of new drugs, by the way) and promises by candidates that they will “Stand up to the drug industry,” to paraphrase Hillary Clinton from the debate last Saturday night. Well, those evil bastards are at it again, this time finding a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. A pilot study carried out by U.S. researchers found...

John McCain on Saturday said he wants to again allow the importation of prescription drugs from Canada as a way to bring health care costs under control. By Associated Press CANAAN, Vt. - Republican presidential contender John McCain on Saturday said he wants to again allow the importation of prescription drugs from Canada as a way to bring health care costs under control.

Counterfeit prescription drugs are a $35 billion-a-year business, and it's growing; by some estimates, 50 percent of prescription drugs in Africa, including those used to treat AIDS and malaria, are fake. Americans have long considered themselves immune, but a huge proportion of the prescription medications and devices used in the United States are now manufactured overseas, and the risks are escalating for Americans, too. It's no surprise; last year alone Americans spent $275 billion on their prescriptions. Consider: • Last fall, counterfeit diabetes test strips from China flooded the U.S. market. The fake blood glucose monitoring strips first came to...

CAPE CORAL - Publix supermarket chain said today it will make seven common prescription antibiotics available for free, joining other major retailers in trying to lure customers to their stores with cheap medications. The oral antibiotics, representing the most commonly filled at the chain's pharmacies, will be available at no cost to anyone with a prescription as often as they need them, Publix CEO Charlie Jenkins Jr. said. Fourteen-day supplies of the seven drugs will be available at all 684 of the chain's pharmacies in five Southern states. The prescription antibiotics available under the program are amoxicillin, cephalexin, penicillin VK,...

For Immediate Release Media review copies and interviews available on request Contact: Fred Baughman, MD fredbaughmanmd@cox.net Author: The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes "Patients" of Normal Children http://www.trafford.com/4dcgi/view-item?item=9628 Is your child taking Ritalin? Is there a plague of psychiatric diseases in children? This is a true story. On March 21, 2000, fourteen-year old Matthew Smith was having a good time skateboarding with two of his cousins. Suddenly, he collapsed to the floor and started turning blue. His cousins called 911 but the paramedics couldn’t revive him. At the hospital he was pronounced dead from a heart attack – a heart...

Is it safe? Nobody knows.More and more, parents at wit's end are begging doctors to help them calm their aggressive children or control their kids with ADHD. More and more, doctors are prescribing powerful antipsychotic drugs. In the past seven years, the number of Florida children prescribed such drugs has increased some 250 percent. Last year, more than 18,000 state kids on Medicaid were given prescriptions for antipsychotic drugs. Even children as young as 3 years old. Last year, 1,100 Medicaid children under 6 were prescribed antipsychotics, a practice so risky that state regulators say it should be used only...

Source: Temple University Date: July 17, 2007 Combating Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals From China Science Daily — Agencies worldwide are cracking down on counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and much of the focus has been on China, where an official was recently executed for approving fake medicines. While most of these drugs reach consumers through online or illegal suppliers, there's a growing threat to outlets considered more safe, like the neighborhood pharmacy, said Temple University pharmacoeconomist, Albert Wertheimer, Ph.D., who will talk about combating counterfeit pharmaceuticals coming out of China at a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seminar on July 23 and 24 in...

The European Commission has released figures showing that there has been a dramatic and concerning increase in pharmaceutical counterfeiting, with seizures in Europe hitting an all time high of over 2.5m items. 2005 only saw seizures totalling around half a million items, but the figures for 2006 have revealed a hefty increase, causing concern at the European Commission due the potential health and safety risks associated with fake pharmaceuticals. The most popular targets for counterfeiters over 2006 were Pfizer's blockbuster drug Viagra (sildenafil citrate), Eli Lilly's Cialis (tadalafil) and Bayer's Levitra (vardenafil) - all products for the treatment of erectile...

I've always been interested in the topic of prescription drug laws because -- even more than laws which prohibit adults from using recreational drugs -- it seems absolutely unjustifiable for the government to prevent adult citizens from deciding for themselves which pharmaceutical products they want to use. Put another way, it seems unfathomable that competent adults are first required to obtain the "permission" of a doctor before being "allowed" to obtain and consume the medications they think they need -- and that they are committing crimes if they do not first obtain that permission (or, worse, if they try to...

WASHINGTON - The use of drugs to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, has more than tripled worldwide since 1993, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. And spending on such drugs rose ninefold between 1993 and 2003, the team at the University of California, Berkeley reported. "ADHD could become the leading childhood disorder treated with medications across the globe," Richard Scheffler, an expert in health economics and public policy who led the study, said in a statement. Story continues below ↓advertisement "We can expect that the already burgeoning global costs for medication treatment for ADHD will rise even more sharply over the...