Believe it or not, another drug researcher has pleaded guilty to accepting consulting fees as well as travel expenses from a drug manufacturer without proper approval. As this UPI article reports:
As part the agreement reached Friday, Pearson Sunderland III, chief of geriatric psychiatry of the National Institute of Mental Health, will be sentenced […]

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From Pharma Times:
Head of research at Merck, Peter Kim, made special mention of the Phase II drug MK-859, which raised levels of ‘good’ HDL cholesterol by more than 50% in clinical trials, without raising blood pressure or causing serious cardiovascular side effects.
PharmaGossip notes:
MK-859 is a member of the same class of […]

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Check out this well-written, first-person account in Slate, detailing the relationship between Big Pharma and physicians. Excerpt:
It’s a sleazy proposition all the way around. But as Calvin Coolidge once said, the business of America is business. Successful businesses want to sell as much as they can, as fast as they can. So doctors end […]

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Since I began posting here at eDrugSearch, I’ve developed a greater appreciation for the blogs in the healthcare space. Sure, there aren’t nearly as many blogs covering healthcare as technology, politics and celebrity gossip — but I’ve discovered that beyond my daily reading list (topped by Healthbolt and PharmaGossip), there are literally hundreds of […]

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From the Dallas Business Journal:
Texas will receive more than $15.7 million under a national settlement with pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough Corp., Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Thursday. Texas and all other states accused Kenilworth, N.J.-based Schering-Plough (NYSE:SGP) of failing to provide the Medicaid program with the lowest drug prices…
Brent Saunders, senior vice president […]

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From the Pakistan Daily Times:
US firms likely to outsource pharma products’ production
ISLAMABAD: A number of US pharmaceutical companies are planning to outsource research and development projects and production of pharmaceuticals to countries which offer suitable conditions for these activities, Alan P. Larson, Senior International Investment Adviser to a US-based law firm and former under […]

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Want the real truth about Big Pharma’s R&D, which is the industry’s excuse for high drug prices?
From Pharmaceutical Business Review:
With drug pipelines yielding fewer blockbusters and profits from branded drugs being increasingly eroded by generic incursion, pharmaceutical companies are looking to maximize the return on investment of their drugs that do make it to market. […]

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The Boston Herald misses the point. The paper says the pharmaceutical industry has been unfairly “demonized,” and blames the public for doing it.
The public doesn’t create demons. It merely identifies them.
Now it’s up to Congress to rein in the demon that our government — through its failed policies — […]

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Thanks to Peter Rost for pointing this one out.

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DrugWonks reports that an FDA advisory panel has ruled controversial drug-coated heart stents to be safe. The ruling comes despite research that shows blood clotting is four to five times more likely to occur in patients who have the stents.
We’re sure the decision is entirely unrelated to the fact that six of the panel members […]

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