Pharmaceuticals

Once Again, Drug Companies Caught Data Doping

by Diane Farsetta — January 23, 2008 - 12:58pm

The pharmaceutical companies Merck and Schering-Plough, which co-market the cholesterol drug Vytorin, "have gone into damage-control mode, taking out newspaper ads." The PR campaign follows the companies' reluctant publication of a study showing that neither of the drugs present in Vytorin "reduced the buildup of fatty plaque in arteries." The study "was co

Main Source: 
Advertising Age, January 22, 2008

More Selective Science from Pharmaceutical Front Group

by Sheldon Rampton — January 18, 2008 - 3:13pm

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is criticizing the Providence Journal for publishing an op-ed article by Robert Goldberg while failing to disclose that Goldberg and his organization, the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest,

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Integrity in Science Watch, January 14, 2008

Drug Companies Dope Their Research -- It's All Good!

by Sheldon Rampton — January 17, 2008 - 4:58pm

The pharmaceutical industry is using a novel technique to cheer up people who suffer from clinical depression -- only publishing favorable studies about the effects of its antidepressant medications.

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Newswseek, January 17, 2008

Marketing Drugs for a Disputed Condition

by Diane Farsetta — January 14, 2008 - 12:59pm

"Fibromyalgia is a real, widespread pain condition," stresses a woman in a television ad for Lyrica, a Pfizer drug that recently became "the first medicine approved to treat the pain condition." But some doctors have their doubts. These skeptics "say vague complaints of chronic pain do not add up to a disease. ... The condition cannot be linked to any environmental or biological causes." Even Dr.

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New York Times, January 14, 2008

Drug Ads Raise Legislators' Blood Pressure

by Diane Farsetta — January 11, 2008 - 3:51pm

The U.S. Congress is investigating "the pharmaceutical industry's use of celebrity endorsements in direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements." First up are ads for Pfizer's cholesterol drug Lipitor, which feature the inventor of the artificial heart, Dr. Robert Jarvik.

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PM (Pharmaceutical Marketing) Live, January 9, 2008

Drug Companies' R&D Spending Lags Behind Promotion

by Judith Siers-Poisson — January 9, 2008 - 11:21am

The pharmaceutical industry often uses the need for research and development funds as an excuse for exorbitant drug prices. But a new study by Marc-Andre Gagnon and Dr.

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ScienceDaily, January 7, 2008

Giuliani's Drug Deal

by Sheldon Rampton — December 31, 2007 - 9:19am

As a paid corporate lobbyist, U.S. presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani helped Purdue Pharma defend its illegal activities to promote the drug Oxycontin, according to New York Times reporters Barry Meier and Eric Lipton. "As a celebrity, Mr.

Main Source: 
New York Times, December 28, 2007

Drug Ties Lead to "Wishful Conclusions"

by Diane Farsetta — December 17, 2007 - 4:46pm

"Meta-analyses," or reviews of several studies' worth of data on a single drug, influence patient care and healthcare policy. Increasingly, the people carrying out these meta-analyses have financial ties to drug companies. So researchers at Stanford and the University of California, San Francisco set out "to determine whether financial ties to one drug company are associated with favourable results or conclusions in meta-analyses on antihypertensive drugs," which are taken to lower blood pressure.

Main Source: 
British Medical Journal, December 8, 2007

The Fakest Time of the Year: The 2007 Falsies Awards

by Diane Farsetta — December 7, 2007 - 9:50am
  • Topics: Activism, Global Warming, Corporations, Health, Media, Pharmaceuticals, Propaganda, Public Relations, Science, Think Tanks, U.S. Government, War / Peace, Women

    • Ladies and gentlemen, this is the year that the Falsies Awards have truly arrived!

    Here at the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), we've dearly treasured our Falsies since we gave the first awards out in 2004. After 12 months of reporting on the cynical, manipulative and just plain anti-democratic pollution of our information environment, we love adding an extra dash of humor to our work. But this year's Falsies Awards are extra super special.

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