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Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse

Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse.

Revival of Gilead Whistleblower’s Lawsuit Should Stoke Fear In Big Pharma

The pharmaceutical industry often operates like the rules don’t apply to it. Over the years, prescription drug manufacturers have been slapped with billions in fines after they are caught overstepping regulatory limits meant to protect patients and taxpayers. The most significant cases were initiated by whistleblowers, and thanks to them, greater transparency has been forced on the industry.

In the most recent blow, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision has revived a whistleblower lawsuit against Gilead Sciences. The ruling has put Big Pharma on edge. A federal district court had dismissed the case in 2015, saying the complaint had failed to state a claim that violated the False Clams Act.

Read more at Forbes

Doctors who take pharmaceutical money often use Twitter to hype drugs

Some cancer doctors use Twitter to promote drugs manufactured by companies that pay them, but they almost never disclose their conflicts of interest on the social media platform, a new study shows.

“This is a big problem,” said senior author Dr. Vinay Prasad, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. “Doctors are directly telling patients about their views on drugs, and financial conflict plays a role. But they’re not telling patients they have a conflict.”

Prasad and his colleagues analyzed the tweets and income of blood cancer specialists who posted regularly on Twitter and received at least $1,000 US from drug manufacturers in 2014.

Read more at CBC News

Open Pharma wants public to know ties between MDs and pharmaceutical industry

If you live in the United States, you can easily find out if your doctor receives payments from drug companies. Ditto if you live in Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Denmark and many other European countries.

But not Canada.

This country is seen as an international “laggard” when it comes to transparency about financial ties between the pharmaceutical industry and physicians.

Read more at thestar.com