Pharma

A hyponatremia case

June 20, 2005

Now this meets my criteria for a great case! Making the diagnosis has a major positive impact for the patient. Vomiting, Hypertension, Lethargy The doctors in the emergency room had attributed the patient’s low sodium, or hyponatremia, to vomiting and dehydration. They had started her on a slow infusion of intravenous fluids. Certainly dehydration is [...]

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Another column on TV drug ads

June 20, 2005

From the LA Times – Wary, and weary, of drug ads But at a time when the safety and cost of such medications have become hot-button political issues, politicians, patients and those who tend to the nation’s health are viewing these ads with a new wariness. The result is a simmering national debate over how, [...]

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Drugs ads – Bristol-Myers Squibb shows caution

June 19, 2005

A Self-Imposed Ban on Drug Ads THE drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb said yesterday that it had imposed a ban on advertising its new drugs to consumers in their first year on the market, adopting voluntary restrictions that go further than what is anticipated in an industrywide advertising code to be announced next month. The company [...]

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An angry commentor

June 18, 2005

Dr. Centor: To assert that DTC ads caused the market for Vioxx (or any other pharmaceutical) to expand greatly is simply puerile nonsense. The last I heard, physicians, for the most part, are the only medical professionals who retain the right to prescribe. Any physician who prescribes a drug simply because a patient saw a [...]

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An email and a response

June 15, 2005

I received this email: You equate tobacco ads with DTC ads for medicines for HIV, cancer, ADD, heart disease? Have you read the case law on the tobacco ad ban and the subsequent Supreme Court rulings that take note of the differences? You would ban these ads — which in some instances are annoying and [...]

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db gets published!!

June 13, 2005

I suspect that most bloggers would like to have an editorial published. Two weeks ago I received a phone call from USA today inviting me to write an opposing viewpoint. Since the topic was DTC drug advertising, I jumped at the chance. Today my thoughts appear in print! Here is their argument in favor of [...]

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Another example of Big Pharma suppressing (or ignoring) the truth

June 10, 2005

Lucrative Drug, Danger Signals and the F.D.A. Dozens had died and more than 100 patients had suffered serious heart problems by March 1998 after taking Propulsid, a popular medicine for heartburn. Infants, given the drug to treat acid reflux, seemed particularly at risk. Federal officials told Propulsid’s manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, that the drug might [...]

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A request

June 2, 2005

I am writing an op-ed about DTC advertising. Please nominate an example of a DTC ad which really grates on you. My top two are Nexium and the old Vioxx ads (although Cialis, Levitra and Viagra also get on my nerves). Thanks in advance for your help. viagra free viagra buy viagra online generic viagra [...]

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Not really that simple

May 21, 2005

Bernie’s back with some good thoughts. However, I fear it really is not as simple (nor cheap) as it appears. We will probably get to online publishing in the future – but the cost savings are not that impressive. We need independent review of research to help sort out the relative importance of studies. Reviewers [...]

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One can only hope

May 19, 2005

Drug Industry Is Said to Work on an Ad Code The chief lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry said Monday that drug companies were trying to develop a voluntary code of conduct for the advertising of prescription medicines on television and in print. The lobbyist, Billy Tauzin, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, [...]

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