Salon.com > drug companies

Doctors paid millions to shill for Big Pharma

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:28:00 +0000

Update Mar. 11, 2013, 4:55 pm: This post has been updated to reflect a response by Dr. Vladimir Maletic to questions from ProPublica.

Dr. Jon W. Draud, the medical director of psychiatric and addiction medicine at two Tennessee hospitals, pursues some eclectic passions. He’s bred sleek Basenji hunting dogs for show. And last summer, the Tennessee State Museum featured “African Art: The Collection of Jon Draud.”

Emergency contraception use grows, access does not

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:17:00 +0000

A federal study released recently shows that use of emergency contraception (EC) in the United States, known colloquially as the “morning after” pill, has more than doubled in the past decade. This is good news. It demonstrates the critical and expanding role the method may now be playing in enabling women, particularly young women, to prevent unplanned pregnancies. But there are still serious hurdles women face in accessing this method of birth control. While access has expanded, there is still work to be done.

The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and the National Center for Health Statistics, strengthens the case for promoting EC widely and making it more readily available. Based on interviews with more than 12,000 women from 2006-2010, the research finds that EC use among all sexually experienced women between the ages of 15-44 has increased to 11 percent (up from a baseline of 4.2 percent). That number is even higher among women 20-24, one of the highest risk groups for unplanned pregnancy. Nearly a quarter of this cohort now reports having used EC.

Bad pharma: Drug research riddled with half truths, omissions, lies

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Sponsors get the answer they want.

Before we get going, we need to establish one thing beyond any doubt: Industry-funded trials are more likely than independently funded trials to produce a positive, flattering result. This is our core premise, and one of the most well-documented phenomena in the growing field of "research about research." It has also become much easier to study in recent years because the rules on declaring industry funding have become a little clearer.

We can begin with some recent work. In 2010, three researchers from Harvard and Toronto found all the trials looking at five major classes of drug -- antidepressants, ulcer drugs and so on -- and then measured two key features: were they positive, and were they funded by industry? They found over 500 trials in total: 85 percent of the industry-funded studies were positive, but only 50 percent of the government-funded trials were. That’s a very significant difference.

Testimony set to begin in pregnancy drug case

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:54:00 +0000

BOSTON (AP) — Testimony is set to begin in a federal lawsuit brought by four sisters who believe their breast cancer was caused by a drug their mother took during pregnancy in the 1950s.

The case involves a synthetic estrogen known as DES, diethylstilbestrol, which was prescribed to millions of pregnant women between the late 1930s and early 1970s to prevent miscarriages, premature births and other problems. Studies later showed the drug did not prevent miscarriages.

The Melnick sisters, who grew up in Tresckow, Penn., say they all developed breast cancer in their 40s after their mother took DES while pregnant. They say their mother did not take DES while pregnant with a fifth sister, and that sister has not developed breast cancer. They are suing Eli Lilly and Co., seeking unspecified damages.

Opening statements and testimony are expected Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

The sisters' case is the first to go to trial out of scores of similar claims filed in Boston and around the country. A total of 51 women have DES lawsuits pending in Boston against more than a dozen drug companies that made or marketed DES.