Adam Feuerstein of TheStreet.com publishes a lesson for journalists and the public about evaluating claims in pharma/biotech news releases. In “How To Tell When a Drug Company Fibs About Clinical Trial Results,” he writes: Osiris Therapeutics “disappeared” important data when the company announced results Monday from a mid-stage study of its stem cell therapy Prochymal [...]
Amidst the broader issues coming out about drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline “as the U.S. Justice Department announced a $3 billion criminal and civil settlement with Glaxo over illegal drug marketing and other matters,” the Wall Street Journal reports: In June 1999, popular radio personality Dr. Drew Pinsky used the airwaves to extol the virtues of GlaxoSmithKline’s antidepressant Wellbutrin, telling [...]
Sounds like a children’s bedtime story, doesn’t it? WBZ-TV in Boston reports, “Time To Reverse Pharmaceutical Gift Ban?” Excerpt: Supporters say a gift ban was needed to change a too-cozy relationship between drug companies and doctors. But critics say it’s costing the Massachusetts economy millions. … “It is costing our state tens of millions of [...]
“Missing The Target: When Practitioners Harm More Than Heal” is the title of a two-day conference in Washington this week (June 14-15) hosted by PharmedOut.org at Georgetown. This is their third annual conference – this one focusing on how patient harms may result from industry promotions. The full agenda and abstracts are now available online. [...]
One of the saddest stories about drug company influence on clinical trials and on the integrity of research is the story of Dr. Nancy Olivieri. In 2009, the American Association for the Advancement of Science gave her its award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. AAAS wrote, at the time: In 1997, while conducting a clinical [...]
In an opinion piece on TheScientist.com, Daniel W. Coyne writes, “Amgen’s incomplete report on an early major trial of epoetin misled the medical community about the anemia drug’s risks and benefits—and helped make Amgen rich.” In the book, “How We Do Harm,” Otis Brawley, MD, chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, [...]
Last week, Steven Brill asked on the Columbia Journalism Review website, “Are Diane Sawyer, Scott Pelley and Brian Williams hooked on Cymbalta?” Excerpt: Every time I suffer through the (simultaneously timed) commercial breaks on one of the network evening news shows I wish I could read a story about prescription drug advertising on television. I’ll [...]
The following is an unsolicited guest post submitted by Donald W. Light, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, and Rebecca Warburton, University of Victoria, Canada. It is followed by some comments in response from Matthew Herper, the writer of the Forbes article in question. We are pleased to provide this forum for this [...]
I finally read Snigdha Prakash’s book, “All the Justice Money Can Buy: Corporate Greed on Trial,” about some of the lawsuits brought by people who alleged they were injured by Merck’s painkiller Vioxx, which, according to some estimates, caused up to 140,000 cases of heart disease and up to 56,000 deaths over five years. I’m [...]
…And all through the town not a creature was stirring except for some struggling to stay awake throughout the night shift…. So reads a newspaper ad for a federally-controlled substance in prescription drug form that is marketed for ES caused by SWD or OSA. Don’t know what that means? Come on. Where have you been? [...]
This story focuses on a family that may have a rare genetic mutation that increases their risk of heart disease. Unfortunately, the “rare” part wasn’t mentioned until 1,600 words into this 2,100 word story.
While this story adequately addressed 7 of our 10 criteria, the 3 on which it missed were significant omissions, yet could have been easily addressed.
Solid medical conference reporting, with many expert interviews and good context provided. Goes far beyond the conference presentation itself.
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