More Pfizer Pfun

The Alt_Mentalities website published a piece, “Lemons into Lemonade: How an off-label marketing fine can be good for business,” tracking Pfizer’s journey through fines for off-label marketing of Neurontin and, later, for Lyrica and other drugs. Punchline question in the piece:

“Was taking the hit for off-label marketing in 2004 all part of a plan to boost sales for forthcoming Lyrica, now the star performer in the Pfizer portfolio?”

And on his Skeptical Sleuth blog for Psychology Today, James C. Coyne, PhD, writes:  “Screening Cancer Patients for Distress: No evidence that screening improves patient outcomes,” – regarding another Pfizer initiative. He begins:

“Pfizer gave a psychologist at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida over $10 million to study whether oncology professionals’ attention to cancer patients’ psychological distress could effectively be monitored through chart review. Why this extraordinary amount of money? Is it a matter of generous, unrestricted philanthropy, or is there a clever marketing strategy behind it?”

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