All Posts Tagged With: "Defective Drugs"
Kohl Hearing Seeks Alternative to Drug Industry’s Controversial Practice of Educating Doctors about New Drugs
Today U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) held a hearing to consider an alternative to the current prevailing practice of doctors receiving the latest information on new drugs from the drug manufacturers themselves. Pharmaceutical sales representatives are currently one of the only ways doctors can learn about new drugs on the [...]
Popularity: 39% [?]
13Mar2008 | PharmaWatchDog | 1 comment | Continued
Pharmaceuticals found in Drinking Water
A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the [...]
Popularity: 37% [?]
12Mar2008 | PharmaWatchDog | 0 comments | Continued
Duragesic 25 mcg/hr (fentanyl transdermal system) CII Pain Patches Recalled
PriCara and Sandoz Inc. announced a nationwide recall of all lots of 25 mcg/hr Duragesic Patches sold in the United States. The product is being recalled because the patches may have a cut along one side of the drug reservoir within the patch which may result in the possible release of fentanyl gel that may [...]
Popularity: 35% [?]
27Feb2008 | PharmaWatchDog | 0 comments | Continued
Chantix Label Revision
FDA informed healthcare professionals and consumers of important revisions to the WARNINGS and PRECAUTIONS sections of the prescribing information for Chantix regarding serious neuropsychiatric symptoms experienced in patients taking Chantix. These symptoms include changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal ideation, and attempted and completed suicide. While some patients may have experienced these types of [...]
Popularity: 48% [?]
27Feb2008 | PharmaWatchDog | 0 comments | Continued
Big Pharma Spends Big Money on Congress
The pharmaceutical industry’s main trade group spent more than $22 million lobbying the federal government in 2007, a 25 percent boost from the year before that paid off on some key issues.
Proposals aimed at lowering drug prices and restricting industry advertising fell by the wayside in Congress. But lobbying experts say the road ahead for [...]
Popularity: 36% [?]
25Feb2008 | PharmaWatchDog | 0 comments | Continued
FDA to Permit Promotion of Off-Label Use
FDA draft guidelines issued today would permit the marketing of FDA-approved drugs and devices by the use of scientific reprints that discuss unapproved indications — currently a forbidden practice.The draft guidelines, entitled “Good Reprint Practices,” are now subject to a 60-day public comment period.
But before they even hit the Federal Register, the draft guidelines drew [...]
Popularity: 43% [?]
17Feb2008 | PharmaWatchDog | 0 comments | Continued
Merck Agrees to Pay $671M to Settle Rebate Accusations
In one of the biggest U.S. health care fraud settlements ever, Merck & Co. will pay $671 million to settle claims it overcharged the government for four popular drugs and bribed doctors to prescribe its drugs, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The alleged overcharges, dating back to the mid-1990s, involved Medicaid programs in the District of Columbia [...]
Popularity: 37% [?]
11Feb2008 | PharmaWatchDog | 2 comments | Continued
More on Chantix
Many new drugs initially enjoy banner sales growth, only to get kneecapped by reports of previously unknown adverse side effects. On Friday, the FDA issued an alert “highlighting” a stricter warning label for one of Pfizer’s most important new drugs.
The compound in question, Chantix, is one of the most recent non-nicotine stop-smoking treatments on the [...]
Popularity: 44% [?]
5Feb2008 | PharmaWatchDog | 0 comments | Continued
Nurses Are “Soft Targets” For Drug Companies’ Promotional Tactics
Nursing education fails to prepare graduates to deal with the pharmaceutical industry’s promotional tactics, and many nurses appear to accept promotional materials uncritically, according to an analysis of the nursing literature published in PLoS Medicine.
“The pharmaceutical industry recognizes nursing influence on medical prescribing and identifies nurses as a marketing target,” say the authors, Annemarie Jutel [...]
Popularity: 41% [?]
5Feb2008 | PharmaWatchDog | 0 comments | Continued
FDA Says Stop-Smoking Drug May Pose Psychiatric Risks
The Food and Drug Administration issued a public health advisory about suicidal thinking and other psychiatric conditions in patients taking the smoking cessation drug Chantix, warning that it “may cause worsening of current psychiatric illness even if it is currently under control. It may also cause an old psychiatric illness to reoccur.”
Learn More: Washington [...]
Popularity: 38% [?]
2Feb2008 | PharmaWatchDog | 2 comments | Continued
