News and Articles
Drugmaker lobbying hits record; $168 million was spent in 2007 New Jersey Star Ledger (June 25, 2008)
The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington, D.C., watchdog group, reported yesterday pharmaceutical manufacturers and their trade groups doled out $168 million on lobbying in 2007, a 32 percent jump over 2006.
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FAA bans anti-smoking drug Chantix for pilots, air controllers LA Times (May 22, 2008)
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday banned pilots and air traffic controllers from using a popular anti-smoking drug after a study found that it had apparently contributed to auto accidents and other problems that posed risks to both users and others.
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A Healthier FDA LA Times (May 22, 2008)
A proposal to increase funding for the financially starved watchdog agency deserves approval
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Phone Number on TV Ads Would be Beneficial CNNMoney (May 17, 2008)
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel on Friday suggested that adding a toll-free number to direct-to-consumer drug television ads would encourage people to report side effects.
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FDA Panel Considers Toll-Free Number for TV Drug Ads Washington Post (May 17, 2008)
Direct-to-consumer drug ads on television should include a toll-free phone number that would allow consumers to report adverse side effects, U.S. health experts suggested Friday.
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Ban Urged on Medical Giveaways New York Times (April 28, 2008)
Drug and medical device companies should be banned from offering free food, gifts, travel and ghost-writing services to doctors, staff members and students in all 129 of the nation’s medical colleges, an influential college association has concluded.
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The FDA Needs Help Washington Post editorial (April 27, 2008)
The heparin scare revealed problems the agency says it can fix. But it won't tell Congress how much that will cost.
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TV ads oversell drugs, skimp on risks LA Times (February 11, 2008)
For now at least, Vytorin, the controversial cholesterol-lowering drug under investigation by Congress and state attorneys general, will remain on the market. But its TV ads will not. |
Did GSK trial data mask Paxil suicide risk? New Scientist (February 8, 2008)
An inappropriate analysis of clinical trial data by researchers at GlaxoSmithKline obscured suicide risks associated with paroxetine, a profitable antidepressant, for 15 years. |
Editorial: The FDA in Crisis: It Needs More Money and Talent NY Times (February 3, 2008)
The FDA is supposed to be Americans’ main line of defense against tainted food, drugs, medical devices and other products. So it was especially chilling last week to hear the agency’s former chief counsel, Peter Barton Hutt, tell a Congressional panel that the F.D.A. was “barely hanging on by its fingertips.” |
NY subpoenas Merck and Schering-Plough over Vytorin KTEN (January 27, 2008)
NY AG has subpoenaed Merck & Co (MRK.N) and Schering-Plough Corp (SGP.N) for documents and information to see whether the companies hid the results of a study on their cholesterol drug Vytorin. |
White House Vetting Product-Safety Candidates Washington Post (January 26, 2008)
The White House is considering a scientist who has frequently testified and written on behalf of the energy, pesticide and tobacco industries to chair the nation's chief product-safety regulator. |
FDA Confirms Infant-Meds Recall Business Week (January 17, 2008)
Months after drugmakers pulled infant cold remedies from most pharmacy shelves, the FDA warns consumers of their life-threatening side effects |
Antidepressant Studies Unpublished NY Times (Jan 17, 2008)
The makers of antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil never published the results of about a third of the drug trials that they conducted to win government approval, misleading doctors and consumers about the drugs’ true effectiveness, a new analysis has found. |
After a Trial, Silence NY Times (November 21, 2007)
Prescriptions for the cholesterol-lowering drugs Zetia and Vytorin are written for almost 800,000 Americans every week, at a cost this year of about $4 billion. Yet it still is not clear how well the drugs work. |
Editorial: There's a pill for that Sacramento Bee (August 26, 2007)
The big drug companies have been increasing their promotional spending: $11.4 billion in 1996 to $29.9 billion in 2005. Those ads we all recognize ("ask your doctor about...") are known as "direct-to-consumer" or DTC advertising. The pharmaceutical companies' spending on them rose 330 percent in that 1996-2005 period. (DTC drug ad spending was $5.61 billion in 2006.) |
Reports of drug side effects triple Alabama Birmingham News (July 13, 2007)
In the month after a surprising analysis revealed possible heart risks from the blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia, reports of side effects to federal regulators tripled. |
Unhealthy Drug System CNBC.com (June 12, 2007)
Speaking out on better prescription drug safety laws, with Jim Guest, Consumers Union president and CNBC's Becky Quick. |
Human face on weak prescription safety laws
Today, Patricia Slingo appears in a full page USA Today advertisement as part of our national push to finally pass strong drug safety reform. |
FDA scientist says she was reprimanded for warning USA Today (June 12, 2007)
Johann-Liang found herself in the media spotlight. The popular diabetes drug Avandia began making headlines because a prestigious medical journal aired concerns about its safety. She took her staff's advice and recommended in Feb. 2006 that Avandia get a "black box" warning about congestive heart failure. |
Senate Bars Medicare Talks for Lower Drug Prices NY Times (April 19, 2007)
A pillar of the Democrats’ program tumbled when the Senate blocked a proposal to let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices for millions of older Americans, a practice now forbidden by law.
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US House drug safety bill has additional review Reuters (March 19, 2007)
U.S. regulators would have to conduct an additional review of a prescription drug's risks seven years after approval under a bill introduced on Monday that expands on a Senate measure requiring evaluations for the first three years. |
Study finds dangers in heart-surgery drug Los Angeles Times (Feb. 7, 2007)
Raising fresh concerns about a widely used heart-surgery medicine, a study released Tuesday reported that the drug Trasylol increased patients' long-term risk of dying by nearly 50%.
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Report Faults FDA on Drug Safety Washington Post (Oct. 10, 2006)
Five experts who have advised the FDA on drug safety threw their weight behind mounting criticism that the agency does not adequately protect the public from unsafe drugs. |
FDA Is Criticized Over Drugs' Safety Problems Washington Post (April 24, 2006)
The Food and Drug Administration is sometimes too slow in picking up safety problems once drugs are on the market and in responding to emerging danger signals, a federal study concluded in a report to be released today. |
Ethics for Sale Salon.com (Dec. 13, 2005)
For-profit ethical review, coming to a clinical trial near you. |
Where drug advertisements often cross the lines USA Today (May 30, 2005)
The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act requires that drug promotions present accurate information and fairly represent a drug's benefits and risks. Here are the most frequent ways the Food and Drug Administration says drug marketers overstep. |
How marketing drives the pharmaceutical industry San Francisco Chronicle (May 1, 2005)
Federal prosecutors charged last year that Neurontin's multibillion-dollar market arose from illegal strategies such as paying doctors to promote it off label for dozens of conditions, from back pain to psychiatric illnesses. The case was settled with a $430 million fine and guilty pleas by a Pfizer unit. |
FDA Is Flexing Less Muscle Washington Post (Nov. 18, 2004)
In the past four years, the Food and Drug Administration has taken a noticeably less aggressive approach toward policing drugs that cause harmful side effects. It has some leading some lawmakers, academics and consumer advocates complaining that the agency is focused more on bolstering the pharmaceutical industry than protecting public health. |
Veil of secrecy to lift on drug tests Christian Science Monitor (September 13, 2004)
Gregory M. Lamb, Staff writer of the Christian Science Monitor
Firms are under pressure to release results of all their clinical trials, including the negative ones. The result could be a new level of industry openness.
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Prescription for reform? USA TODAY (September 13, 2004)
Against a backdrop of spiraling prescription drug costs, questions are mounting about whether drugmakers — and the doctors who test and prescribe their products — always have patients' best interests in mind. Increasingly, critics say, money, not medicine, drives drug development and use.
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Buried Mistakes St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) - (June 21, 2004)
Copyright (2004) St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Republished with the permission of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
WHAT YOUR DOCTOR DOESN'T KNOW about drugs can hurt you. Unfortunately, there's a great deal they don't -- and can't -- know about commonly prescribed drugs. Most drug studies are paid for by drug companies, which gives them the ability to suppress research they don't like. Consequently, research articles in medical journals may not give a true picture of a drug's risks and benefits |
Getting the bad news with the good news about a drug Philadelphia Inquirer (June 9, 2004)
A doctor is thinking of trying a new drug on a 67-year-old patient because a study shows it works well in men only slightly younger. But the doctor doesn't know about a clinical trial that found serious side effects in older patients. Those results were never published.
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Taking drugs on faith (Chicago Sun-Times May 27, 2001)
Receiving any treatment is an act of faith: faith in the integrity of the researchers who say it works. |
Blood-Pressure Pill Okd Before Study Ended Newsday (January 9, 2001)
by David Willman, published January 9, 2001 in Newsday and the Los Angeles Times Copyright, 2001, the Los Angeles Times. Reprinted with permission.
SENIOR FOOD AND DRUG Administration officials with the power to approve new drugs were warned in advance about the dangers of Posicor, a pill for high blood pressure and symptomatic chest pain. The clinical studies of Posicor "cast a shadow of potential risk for serious arrhythmias," FDA medical team leader Dr. Shaw T. Chen wrote on Dec. 18, 1996. The data in hand also showed Posicor would interact with certain other drugs, posing potentially severe risk.
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Rezulin To Be Withdrawn From The Market HHS NEWS (March 21, 2000)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
FDA asked the manufacturer of Rezulin (troglitazone) -- a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus-- to remove the product from the market. The drug's manufacturer, Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert, has agreed to FDA's request.
FDA took this action after its review of recent safety data on Rezulin and two similar drugs, rosiglitazone (Avandia) and pioglitazone (Actos), showed that Rezulin is more toxic to the liver than the other two drugs. Data to date show that Avandia and Actos, both approved in the past year, offer the same benefits as Rezulin without the same risk.
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Consumers Union Press Releases
Drug ads should include 1-800 number
FDA should provide a toll-free number and website to report serious side effects of prescription medications
Strengthen FDA’s authority over medical devices
CU also supports for the FDA to require recalls of unsafe food and drugs
Congress should impose 3-year wait on drug ads
New ads should include 1-800 number and website to report adverse effects
TV drug ads should tell how to report side effects
New Consumer Reports poll finds most Americans don't know they should tell the FDA
Sign petition to FDA: Give us a voice on drug ads
Petition asks FDA to put toll-free number, Web address on TV ads so consumers can report side effects
High cholesterol? New study looks at Vytorin
Heavily advertised drug found to be no more effective than low-cost, older generic
Over-the-counter cholesterol drug opposed
CU against Merck's proposal because high choleserol can't be self-diagnosed; drugs can have serious side effects
Avandia warning - consider other diabetes drugs
New FDA heart attack warning reinforces CR recommendation to consider other, safer diabetes drugs
Drug safety law major victory for consumers
Ensures patients, doctors know more quickly about dangerous meds; holds industry's feet to the fire
CU praises Senate for passage of FDA reform bill
Passage clears the way for the President to sign the most significant prescription drug safety reforms in 45 years
Victory! Pro-consumer reforms in drug safety bill
Public clinical trial results, $400 million for improved safety monitoring and tougher fines on drug companies in final bill
Report: White House opposes drug safety section
Administration reportedly opposes House language on requiring public drug trial results database
Finish drug safety bill to get FDA moving on reforms
Patients, doctors would know sooner about risky drugs like Avandia if legislation gets finalized, sent to president
Kids health bill contains pro-consumer measures
Hospital errors, funds to compare the most effective medical treatments, Medicare out-of-pocket costs addressed
Victory: House passes drug safety bill!
CU urges conference committee to keep strong House safety provisions before sending final bill to President
Near finish line: Drug safety vote set Wednesday
Consumers Union urges House passage of first major safety reforms in nearly half a century
House panel approves major drug safety bills
Measures include public clinical drug trials and $400 million for drug safety over five years
House panel: approve strong drug safety bill
Drug industry pushing to weaken bill, patient safety must come first, Consumers Union says
CU: Public must get full story about drug risks
Consumers Union President Jim Guest testifies Tuesday before House panel on drug safety reform bill
Human face on weak prescription safety laws
Patricia Slingo appears in a full page USA Today advertisement as part of our national push to finally pass strong drug safety reform.
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