As lid flipped open on thalidomide cover-up, more questions about drug safety in U.S. “Money makes the world go ‘round,” goes the purposeful, old hyperbole. Throughout our history, humans have struggled to “keep the world going ‘round,” however, without hurting others in the process. You’d be hard pressed to find another industry that does more […]
Prescription Thugs isn’t a great film, but it does break some ice off America’s addiction epidemic “We have determined that the manner of death was: Accident – resulting from the abuse of prescription medications,” says the medical examiner who worked the case of actor Heath Ledger. It’s archival footage from an evening newscast, and the […]
Promising discovery in chemistry could have wide-ranging effects for drugmakers Great news last week about a new molecule-building method that will allow chemists to develop elements and compounds from the starting point of carboxylic acids, which are “relatively cheap and non-toxic.” The process comes with many implications for the pharmaceutical industry. Everything from lower […]
Study finds pharmaceutical residue in treated wastewater, in vegetables irrigated with it, and in humans who consume those vegetables See if you can find a pattern here. First, traces of prescription drugs were found in treated wastewater. Then, the same traces were found in soil on farmland. Now we know that the vegetables grown on […]
But American prisons aren’t overcrowded pharmaceutical executives When you think of “drug pushers” and “addicts overdosing,” do you think of Big Pharma marketers and prescription medication users? If not, why not? Prescription drug overdoses accounted for 1.4 million of the 2.5 million overdose emergency room visits in 2011. Well over half. And what could be […]
No longer a theory: doctors write brand name prescriptions for pay Popular perception has it that, sure, doctors get free pens, notepads, and other “goodies” from pharmaceutical companies; an occasional visit from a strikingly good-looking representative with a sandwich platter. Big deal, right? This is America, after all, and there’s nothing wrong with a little […]
Bumbling behemoth agency hoped it was too big to get caught, while cynically hiding data from public Presumably on breaks from twiddling its thumbs, the chronically listless U.S. Food and Drug Admiration managed, according to an expose on Slate.com, to bury evidence of pharmaceutical corporation “fraud, fabrication of data, and scientific misconduct.” So, now we […]
Billion-dollar pay-offs, bosses wielding life-and-death power, FBI stings and take-downs: Scarface? No, pharmaceuticals! Any good detective will tell you that you can sometimes find crime in the darndest places. In the pharmaceutical racket, the drugs are legal and they’re prescribed by your doctor, but that might be where the differences end. So says a former […]
The only silver lining is that no one can imagine Big Pharma sinking any lower Would you accept $1 million if offered on the condition that you mustn’t ask where it came from? I wouldn’t. I don’t understand how anyone could, except perhaps in a life-or-death situation (starving children, an emergency operation, etc.) The story […]
It’s being called a “scandal,” but it’s really a criminal conspiracy verging on murder In the time it takes a western pharmaceutical company to buy a clinical trial, manipulate its results, and bully the hapless FDA into approving a new drug, professional malefactors in China can use vials of expired vaccines to build a $90 […]