The American Psychiatric Association said
on Wednesday it will end medical education seminars and meals sponsored by drug companies
at its annual meetings to reduce chances for financial conflicts of interest.
Ik wil nog even kwijt dat dit soort
praktijken in ons land gewoon nog plaats vinden. Glaxosmithkline bijvoorbeeld op 2 oktober
in Bussum het Bussum Symposium Psychiatrie. Onder het mom van nieuwe behandelmodaliteiten
in de psychiatrie proberen natuurlijk gewoon hun handel te slijten.
Ron
Indonesia reconsiders vaccinations
for children, citing mistrust of drug companies
Indonesia's controversial health minister
says she wants to end vaccinating children against meningitis, mumps and some other
diseases because she fears foreign drug companies are using the country as a testing
ground.
AN international drug company made a hit
list of doctors who had to be "neutralised" or discredited because they
criticised the anti-arthritis drug the pharmaceutical giant produced. Staff at US company
Merck &Co emailed each other about the list of doctors - mainly researchers and
academics - who had been negative about the drug Vioxx or Merck and a recommended course
of action.
AstraZeneca tried to 'bury' bad
news on Seroquel drug
AstraZeneca tried to “bury”
adverse medical studies about Seroquel, its blockbuster drug, internal company memos
released in an American court case have revealed.
Seroquel, Sex And Major Conflicts
Of Interest Between AstraZeneca Exec And British Researcher, US Ghostwriter
There's been much news of conflict of
interest between pharmaceutical companies and outside researchers possibly biasing the
results of studies of psychiatric drugs over the last year. Notably, Sen. Charles Grassley
(R-Iowa) has exposed researchers at Harvard University, Emory University and George
Washington University, among others, as being locked in questionable alliances with
companies such as Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline.
Überteuerte Medikamente, Rabatte für
Krankhäuser oder finanzielle Unterstützung für behandelnde Mediziner - wie die
Pharma-Branche und Ärzte abkassieren.
Pittige kritiek op farmareuzen
Geneesmiddelfabrikanten deelden bij de
marketing van cholesterolpillen cadeaus uit aan artsen, om hun voorschrijfgedrag te
beïnvloeden. Pfizer en AstraZeneca, de producenten van de cholesterolpillen Lipitor en
Crestor, hebben met hun marketing de grenzen opgezocht. En soms ook overschreden. Dit
blijkt uit twee onderzoeksrapporten van de Inspectie voor de Gezondheidszorg (IGZ).
Bron: Trouw
Ongeoorloofde reclame
farmaceutische industrie hard aanpakken
SP-Kamerlid Henk van Gerven vindt dat er
een eind moet komen aan de ongeoorloofde reclamepraktijken van de farmaceutische
industrie. Hij wil dat minister Klink (Volksgezondheid) ingrijpt, nu uit onderzoek van de
Inspectie voor de Gezondheidszorg (IGZ) blijkt dat farmareuzen Pfizer en AstraZeneca de
reclameregels hebben overtreden. De Inspectie maakt melding van het weggeven van
espresso-apparaten en draadloze toetsenborden, twijfelachtige onderzoeken en overmatige
vergoedingen aan artsen. Van Gerven: "Er moet een eind worden gemaakt aan de
beïnvloeding van artsen om bepaalde medicijnen voor te schrijven. Dit kost de samenleving
miljoenen euro's per jaar."
Big pharma, wetenschappers en
belangenverstrengeling
Mooi voorbeeld van de rol van
wetenschappers zoals Ron Herings met verstrengelde belangen richting
big pharma en die dit verzwijgen in wetenschappelijke publicaties:
The research was funded by an unrestricted
grant from Nefarma -- the Dutch association of pharmaceutical industries. But, the study
was designed, conducted and analysed entirely independently of the funders.
Heel grappig is dat juist Herings
weer kritiek heeft op de banden tussen big pharma en universiteiten:
Ook dr. Ron Herings van de faculteit
Farmacie kan meepraten over de soms moeizame relatie met opdrachtgevers. Als epidemioloog
doet hij in opdracht van zowel bedrijven als overheidsinstellingen onderzoek naar de
werkzaamheid en de veiligheid van geneesmiddellen. Een aantal maanden geleden was Herings
in het nieuws omdat hij ontdekt had dat de derde generatie anti-conceptie pil van Organon
bij bepaalde groepen vrouwen een verhoogd risico op vaat-vernauwingen met zich meebracht.
Organon was not amused, vertelt Herings. "Na die publicatie in the Lancet merkte ik
pas hoe universiteitsbreed sommige belangen zijn. Een Utrechtse vakgroep bleek voor een
groot deel afhankelijk te zijn van financiering door Organon. Als dat bedrijf zich zou
terugtrekken uit alle onderzoek zou dat dus grote problemen opleveren voor die mensen. Het
is eigenlijk te gek voor woorden dat een individuele onderzoeker dingen kan opschrijven
met zoveel invloed. De universiteit zou in dit soort situaties, vind ik, meer steun moeten
verlenen aan onderzoekers. We zouden eens naar de Verenigde Staten moeten kijken. Daar
verloopt alle communicatie tussen de industrie en een universiteit via een speciaal
bureau."
Drugs industry protecting
‘morally unacceptable’ patent system
Major drugs companies are using fierce
lobbying tactics to protect a pharmaceutical patent system that is “simply morally
unacceptable”, a world-leading political philosopher will tell a major meeting of UK
and European pharmacologists today Addressing an audience that will include senior figures
from the pharmaceutical industry, Thomas Pogge, Professor of Philosophy and International
Affairs at Yale University in the United States, will argue that international rules on
intellectual property “violate the human rights of poor people by denying them access
to vital medicines”. He will go on to say that huge mortality and morbidity rates can
be dramatically lowered by reforming the way the development of new medical treatments is
funded.
In his AstraZeneca-sponsored lecture
entitled, 'Advanced Medicines: Must We Exclude the Global Poor?', Pogge will propose an
alternative licensing system called the Health Impact Fund (HIF) which he says is
“required as an add-on to the existing system to render it human-rights
compliant”. The HIF would be a global agency, says Pogge, underwritten by
governments. It would offer to reward the patentee of any new medicine, during its first
decade or so, with annual payments proportional to this medicine’s demonstrated
global health impact. Registering a medicine with the Fund would be voluntary and require
a concession affecting its price. Pogge says this would give innovators the opportunity to
forgo “monopoly rents in favour of an alternative path that would provide ample
rewards for the development of new high-impact medicines without excluding the poor from
their use”.
Pogge will deliver his
AstraZeneca-sponsored lecture on the final day of the Federation of European
Pharmacological Societies (EPHAR) 2008 Congress, hosted by the British Pharmacological
Society at The University of Manchester. Speaking ahead of his lecture, Pogge said:
“The main responsibility for change lies with politicians and citizens. But
pharmaceutical companies are also citizens, and they play a significant role in the
political process of most societies. They lobby a lot. And here I do see fault. They lobby
for holding the line on a status quo that is simply morally unacceptable. “They
do this because they know the existing rules can have a profitable business model under
them and are uncertain what alternative rules would be settled upon once the existing
rules were found unacceptable. “I want to change this conservative attitude. I
want to give them an institutional reform that they can endorse and unite behind. I am
convinced they would do better, on the whole, with the Health Impact Fund than without. I
want to convince them of this. And I want to show them that, on balance, they have more to
gain than to lose by supporting this reform. “It will be harder and harder to
hold the line on the existing system, and the HIF reform preserves pretty much everything
they like about this system. In other words, they have both moral and strategic reasons to
support the HIF.”
Pogge’s lecture is expected to provoke
fierce debate at the conference, with many delegates holding alternative views.
The Truth About Drug Companies
Marcia Angell exposes the research and
spending habits of the world's top pharmaceutical companies.
Ik kwam nog een verslag mbt big pharma in
de VS tegen waaruit oa blijkt dat er in 2002 voor elke senator 7 lobbyisten aktief waren:
The drug industry hired 675 different
individual lobbyists from 138 firms in 2002. That’s nearly seven lobbyists for each
U.S. Senator.
en dat er in 2001 2.7 miljard dollar in
advertenties is gestoken met voor iedere uitgegeven dollar aan consumenten advertenties er
weer 4.20 dollar verkoop tegenover stond:
A Harvard-MIT study released in 2003
determined that direct-to-consumer advertising by the drug industry increased from $800
million in 1996 to $2.7 billion in 2001.21 Measured purely by profits, it is easy to see
why pharmaceuticals are sold on advertising: The Harvard-MIT study found that for every
dollar spent on direct-to-consumer ads, the companies achieved $4.20 in sales.
Promoters of conventional medicine claim that all the drug marketing, FDA approvals,
surgical procedures, chemotherapy and all other treatments are based on "hard
science." The term "science" is invoked with hilarious frequency: Science
journals, science-based medicine, proven medical science and so on. As you might have
guessed, however, there's surprisingly little genuine science to be found in the common
practice of conventional medicine. Rather, what passes for "science" today is a
collection of health myths, half-truths, intellectual dishonesty, self delusion,
fraudulent reporting and wishful thinking.
Pharmaceutical compounds found in
nation's fresh water
According to a study in the May/June 2007 issue of the journal Ground Water,
pharmaceuticals are being found in septic tanks and, consequentially, ground water due to
incomplete human metabolism and excretion into the waste stream or by disposal of unused
medications in the toilet or down the sink. http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/press/pressitem.asp?ref=1211
Physician ties to drug industry stronger
than ever
Despite the potential for conflict of interest, virtually all practicing
physicians in the U.S. have some form of relationship with pharmaceutical manufacturers
but the nature and extent of those relationships vary, depending on the kind of practice,
medical specialty, patient mix, and professional activities, reports a study in the April
26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the first national survey to gauge the predictors and depth of relationships between
industry and practicing physicians, 94 percent of doctors report that they have at least
one type of relationship with the drug industry, mostly in the form of receiving food in
the workplace or prescription samples. However, more than one third are reimbursed for
costs associated with professional meetings or continuing medical education (CME), and
more than a quarter receive honoraria for consulting, lecturing or enrolling patients in
clinical trials, say researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital-Partners Health Care
System, Yale University, and the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital in
Australia.
"Relationships with industry are a fundamental part of the way medicine is practiced
today. The real questions relate to how much is too much and how far is too far. It
appears that these relationships benefit physicians and industry but the important policy
question is to what extent do these relationships benefit patients in the terms of the
care they receive," says lead researcher and co-author Eric Campbell, Ph.D., an
associate professor of medicine at the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts
General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The findings, from a survey of 1,662 practicing physicians conducted in late 2003 and
2004, also show that drug and device manufacturers pick and choose which doctors to form
the strongest ties with. For example, cardiologists are more than twice as likely as
family practitioners to receive direct payments from drug companies for consulting and
other services and are also significantly more likely to be paid honoraria than
pediatricians, anesthesiologists, or surgeons. "Cardiology is a highly influential
specialty within the medical profession. If the drug and device industry can influence
cardiologists, they can likely influence the prescribing practices of other doctors,"
says Campbell. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/bc-ptt042507.php
U.S. Senators financially enslave
Americans as Indentured Servants to Big Pharma
The facts found in the report are almost as astonishing as the source of
the report itself: USA Today, a mainstream media giant in the United States, has revealed
the apparent financial conflict of interest by U.S. Senators who voted against the
infamous S.1082 reimportation amendment. That amendment would have ended Big Pharma's
monopoly over U.S. consumers and ultimately saved American citizens, businesses and
governments tens of millions of dollars by allowing them to import medicines from other
nations with approved safety records (such as Canada or Japan). http://www.newstarget.com/021853.html
Big Pharma Targets Women For Drugs They
Don't Need
Selling anxiety sells medicine. Drug companies know this and profit by
it. But are women benefiting as much as the industry's bottom line? http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/52230/
Physician ties to drug industry stronger
than ever
Despite the potential for conflict of interest, virtually all
practicing physicians in the U.S. have some form of relationship with pharmaceutical
manufacturers but the nature and extent of those relationships vary, depending on the kind
of practice, medical specialty, patient mix, and professional activities, reports a study
in the April 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. In the first national survey
to gauge the predictors and depth of relationships between industry and practicing
physicians, 94 percent of doctors report that they have at least one type of relationship
with the drug industry, mostly in the form of receiving food in the workplace or
prescription samples. However, more than one third are reimbursed for costs associated
with professional meetings or continuing medical education (CME), and more than a quarter
receive honoraria for consulting, lecturing or enrolling patients in clinical trials, say
researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital-Partners Health Care System, Yale
University, and the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/bc-ptt042507.php
Drug company sales visits influenced
doctors, study finds
Almost half of sales visits by pharmaceutical company
representatives advocating the use of the drug gabapentin led to doctors stating that they
intended to increase their prescription of the drug or recommend it to colleagues,
according to an analysis of a survey completed by the doctors shortly after the visits. http://pub.ucsf.edu/newsservices/releases/200704194/
Drug reps use friendship to influence
doctors
In a unique collaborative paper in PLoS Medicine, a former
drug rep and a physician who researches drug marketing reveal the tactics used by drug
reps to manipulate physicians into selling drugs.
"Drug reps increase drug sales by influencing physicians, and they do so with finely
titrated doses of friendship," say the authors, Adriane Fugh-Berman (Georgetown
University Medical Center) and Shahram Ahari, a former drug rep for Eli Lilly who now
works for the School of Pharmacy at University of California San Francisco.
The specific strategy used by a drug rep to manipulate a physician, say the authors,
depends very much on the personality of the doctor. A friendly, outgoing physician is the
easiest to influence, because the rep can use the "friendship" to request
favors, in the form of prescriptions. If a physician refuses to meet with a rep,
"their staff is dined and flattered in hopes that they will act as emissaries for a
rep's message." Physicians who end up prescribing the rep's drugs are amply rewarded
with gifts, such as golf bags or silk ties. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/plos-dru041907.php
Pharmaceutical industry creates diseases
According to Lockett, the pharmaceutical industry
creates diseases. He said that conditions that were not considered diseases years ago, are
now treated with medication – like insomnia, attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder, cholesterol and anxiety. http://www.mineralwellsindex.com/local/local_story_194101609.html
Big Pharma takes over veterinary
medicine; dogs and cats drugged with chemicals for profit
Big Pharma has successfully completed its takeover
of veterinary medicine in the United States and other first-world nations. Knowing that
massive profits could be generated through the bodies of pets, drug companies have spent
two decades pursuing an aggressive campaign of rewriting vet school curricula, influencing
veterinarians and brainwashing pet owners into thinking their dogs, cats and horses need
drugs in order to be healthy. It was an easy sell: Most consumers already demonstrate a
cult-like belief in pharmaceutical medicine thanks to a barrage of direct-to-consumer
advertising funded by deep-pocketed drug companies, and it was only a minor shift to get
them to believe animals need synthetic chemicals in their bodies, too. http://www.newstarget.com/021935.html
Experts call for urgent research into
anti-epileptic drugs given to children
Researchers have discovered a five-fold
increase in newer anti-epileptic drugs given to children, despite the fact that their
long-term safety has not been established. They've now called for urgent research into the
top three. This comes hard on the heels of a report by the European Medicines Agency,
which highlighted the need for further research into 21 anti-epileptic drugs for children
but didn't state which ones should be prioritized. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/bpl-ecf060707.php
A frightening industry proposal
Anonymised data use for adverse events
surveillance is one thing; non-anonymised data to identify potential trial candidates,
presumably followed by a direct approach to invite them to join a drug trial, are another
matter entirely. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/334/7606/1236-c
When it comes to food and drugs,
following the money is good advice
The FDA is still struggling with
safety issues. Until it is adequately funded so that it can monitor ingredients from
places as far away as China, Americans will wonder about the safety of their food and drug
supply. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/4877878.html
