pharmaceutical industry Archives

How Big Pharma deceives you about drug safety

April 23, 2018

The recent decision of a Saskatchewan judge to reject the proposed settlement between the provinces and Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, should raise serious questions.

Purdue introduced the prescription drug OxyContin in 1996 and marketed it as safer and less addictive than other opioids. This is now seen by many as the beginning of the opioid crisis in Canada. The settlement in question was meant to compensate patients who were victims of the opioid epidemic and the provinces for some of their additional health-care costs in dealing with the epidemic.

Ontario law to require drug firms to reveal funds paid to doctors’ groups, patient advocates

February 22, 2018

Pharmaceutical companies will have to reveal in detail the payments they make to patient-advocacy groups and professional medical societies in Ontario as part of the province’s efforts to pull back the curtain on money in medicine.

The lack of transparency has meant that health charities and non-profits have had no mandatory obligation to reveal which companies are funding them and in what amounts.

Following the money between patient groups and Big Pharma

February 18, 2018

Why would more than two dozen patient advocacy groups want to stop Health Canada from trying to lower prescription drug prices in Canada?

“It seems startling because you would think lower drug prices are in the interests of patients,” said Sharon Batt, a Dalhousie University researcher who studies the links between such groups and the pharmaceutical industry.

Drugmaker paid doctors with problem records to promote its pill

December 4, 2017

(CNN) One physician had his prescription pad taken away after he repeatedly failed tests assessing his competency.

Another was banned from treating mentally ill inmates and accused of endangering nursing home patients by prescribing excessive dosages of medications.
At least three others had criminal convictions for illegal prescribing.

Avanir Pharmaceuticals paid nearly 500 doctors to speak or consult on its drug, Nuedexta, between 2013 and 2016, according to government data. Through a review of the top prescribers and top paid physicians in this group, CNN identified a dozen who have been disciplined by state medical boards. These offenses included the harmful treatment of nursing home residents and “grossly negligent acts” involving the inappropriate prescribing of dangerous and addictive drugs — resulting in probation, suspension, fines and revoked licenses.

Central Texas County sues nation’s biggest drug makers, accuses them of fraud

October 31, 2017

CENTRAL TEXAS — McLennan County announced Tuesday it had filed a lawsuit against two dozen of the country’s largest opioid manufacturers and distributors, including Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson.

In the federal complaint obtained by Channel 6, McLennan County Commissioners allege the opioid industry used a marketing scheme to deceive doctors and used front groups to promote opioids as a means of treating chronic pain, while downplaying the risks.

Lawsuit: Big Pharma funded terrorism in Iraq with payments to corrupt health ministry

October 19, 2017

In the first years following the defeat of Saddam Hussein, there were few dark corners of battle-scarred Iraq less hospitable to Americans than the country’s ministry of health.

The walls of the ministry, headquartered in a dilapidated high-rise in eastern Baghdad, were covered with hundreds of photos of scowling Shiite clerics. Banners proclaimed “Death to America and Israel” and “we must destroy the occupiers.” Death squads commandeered the ministry’s ambulances for missions to hunt Sunnis. Assault rifles were stacked in offices. The morgues were used for torture. Everywhere flapped the flag of the Jaysh al-Mahdim, also known as the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia controlled by the radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

‘Drug Dealers in Lab Coats’

October 18, 2017

For decades, America has waged an ineffective war on drug pushers and drug lords, from Bronx street corners to Medellin, Colombia, regarding them as among the most contemptible specimens of humanity.

One reason our efforts have failed is we ignored the biggest drug pushers of all: American pharmaceutical companies.

Here’s how the VA helped Big Pharma get veterans hooked on opioids — then made the problem worse

October 12, 2017

he Veterans Administration overprescribed opiates and psychiatric medication for more than a decade, and then swung back dangerously in the other direction about five years ago.

Oxycontin manufacturer Purdue Pharma played a key role in spreading opiate use among veterans by giving $200,000 to essentially turn the VA into its propaganda arm, according to an investigative report by Newsweek.

Secret corporate documents obtained by the magazine show how the pharmaceutical company helped develop VA-Department of Defense guidelines that claimed opiates rarely cause addiction, and promoted the phony campaign, “Pain: The 5th Vital Sign.”

States Prep Lawsuit That Could Devastate Big Pharma

October 5, 2017

The same lawyer that took on big tobacco and landed the largest corporate settlement in the history of the U.S. is gearing up for his next victim: the opioid industry.

Mike Moore, the former attorney general of Mississippi, began asking states last summer to sue pharmaceutical companies for what he argued was a calculated misrepresentation of the benefits and addictions risks of using opioids. Moore wants to get roughly 25 states behind his cause, and build such a strong case against the pharmaceutical industry that it is forced to cower to the states’ demands.

Pfizer loses battle to keep Medicaid rebate data hidden from Texas lawmakers

October 5, 2017

Pfizer (PFE) lost a round in the larger fight over pharmaceutical pricing when a federal judge ruled that Texas lawmakers should be able to obtain state Medicaid rebate data about its medicines.

The drug maker last year filed a lawsuit against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for releasing the data to a pair of state lawmakers, who sought the information in order to assess drug costs for the state Medicaid program. But Pfizer argued that releasing the data would violate federal and state laws that protect its confidential information.