Free Republic

With Contraceptive Mandate, who's really in bed with "Big Pharma" now?

Yesterday, my entire afternoon got eaten by my panic over shortages of Adderall, the drug that changed my writing life from daily torture that I slogged through because I'm a hard worker to sometimes-hard work I love. Instead of writing, I wasted my time on the phone to a bunch of local pharmacies, and emailing my very good-natured doctor multiple times ("Can you prescribe in Mexico?"), and searching for Canadian pharmacies -- maybe one in Windsor where maybe I could get Gregg to pick me up 10 or 20 or maybe even 30 pills...in all the spare time he has....

What do you get when you mix Democratic fat-cat donations, Big Labor favors, pharmaceutical lobbying and Beltway business as usual? Answer: another toxic half-billion-dollar Barack Obama-approved crony deal. Move over, Solyndra. Here comes Siga-Gate. This latest Chicago-style payoff on your dime involves a dubious smallpox drug backed by a liberal billionaire investor, along with a former union boss who was one of the White House's most frequent visitors. They're the "1 percent" with 100 percent immunity from the selectively outraged Occupier mobs that purport to oppose partisan government bailouts and handouts to privileged corporations. Ronald Perelman is the New York...

There are many who argue that President Obama has (repeatedly) broken his promise to bring transparency and openness to the White House. In literal terms, however, Obama may not have actually broken that specific promise ,.. it’s just that people may not have understood what Obama meant by transparency and openness. ..Here’s a case in point: First Dot: Several months ago, the union world was shocked when Andy Stern, the ignominious president of the Service Employees International Union abruptly “quit” as leader of the Purple Hand. Surprise and speculation swelled. Was it the Blago Trial? Is he sick?Second Dot: Then,...

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, has asked The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review the Obama administration’s award of a $443 million sole-source contract to a company owned by a major Democratic donor. The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that the Obama administration has taken unusual steps to procure an experimental smallpox vaccine from a company owned by a major Democratic donor despite concerns from some experts that such a drug was unnecessary and would not be effective. Citing “serious questions” about the contract, the Los Angeles Times reported that McCaskill has asked the...

Once upon a time, physicians and their families used to be able to enjoy exotic cruises sponsored by pharmaceutical companies where their only obligation, it seems, was to sign in briefly at sparsely attended meetings before embarking on offshore adventures. It’s been awhile since the sun slowly set on the wake of the last ship’s 
sybaritic junket. Today, the Federal Physician Payment Sunshine Act — part of national healthcare reform — signals a new dawn of transparency, compliance obligations, and regulatory scrutiny. Beginning January 1, 2012, manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals or medical supplies, covered by Medicare, Medicaid or other...

(CNN) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will not release more Freddie Mac-related documents, according to campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond. Though the contender for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination said Wednesday that his campaign would "do what they can" to release more information about payments he received as a consultant from the government-backed mortgage group, Hammond backtracked later in the evening. When asked via email whether the campaign would release more Freddie Mac-related documents or if a fact sheet it released in the afternoon was the last word on the issue, Hammond responded to CNN, "last word."

In the ongoing saga of Penn State University failures and misguided moral compass, there is unfortunately one more insult to injury to the Sandusky child rape victims and their families. Penn State’s board of trustees last Friday appointed Kenneth Frazier, the chief executive of Merck & Co. as well as Penn State alumni, to lead a special committee to investigate the Sandusky sordid matter. As a Penn State alum myself, it turns my stomach knowing that Mr. Frazier volunteered himself and has serious conflicts of interest in the scandal. Anyone is able to review the Annual reports of Sandusky’s “Second...

When Rick Perry joked last night that the $5,000 he had received from Merck wasn’t enough to buy him off, the line failed to charm the audience as he’d expected. Turns out, the line also significantly low-balled how much he’d received from Merck. “Merck PAC—the company’s D.C.-based political action committee—has given Perry $28,500 since 2001, according to Texas Ethics Commission filings. The bulk of that money came prior to 2007,” the Los Angeles Times reports today. Even so, that doesn’t make Merck one of Perry’s top donors: the LA Times notes that he’s received over the years donations totaling more...

President Obama’s campaign committee is moving a fund-raiser featuring Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel from the Pfizer world headquarters to another location in New York City after The Boston Globe inquired about the propriety of a major pharmaceutical company hosting an event that could benefit the administration regulating it. “This is a general fund-raising event for the campaign that has nothing to do with a specific company and the attendees will not be from any one company or sector,” Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said this afternoon in a statement. A Pfizer spokesman did not address the change in locale but defended...

Perry's first stop should he announce is almost sure to be Iowa, where voters in its Republican caucuses are nearly all white and roughly 60 percent describe themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians, according to entrance polls from the 2008 GOP caucuses. In Texas, Perry has enjoyed "astronomical support" from protestant Christian conservatives and evangelical white Christians, Henson said. [Jim Henson, a pollster and director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin] "You have to count religious conservatives in Texas as among the components of Perry's base," he said. "People that go to church a...

First, you must understand that Boehner is a GobGop: a Good Old Boy of the Grand Old Party. The GobGops' goal is to keep the present system funded by the Bigs: Big Business, Big Pharma, Big Oil, and Big Banking. If you do not understand this, then you are as naive as a Democrat who thinks Obama speaks for The Common Man.Boehner shilled for Hank Paulson and Goldman Sachs by begging the Republicans to vote for the $750+ billion Big Bank Bailout in 2008. Watch his emotional performance here. "We just have to do it!" No, they didn't. Ron Paul...

The Obama administration has approved the bid by cloning company Geron to undertake the first trial involving the use of embryonic stem cells in humans. They have never been used before in people because the cells cause tumors and have been plagued by immune system rejection issues when tried in animals. Scientists and pro-life advocates say human embryonic stem cells are not ready for trial because problems associated with the cells in animals haven't been solved. The Food and Drug Administration had initially placed the trial on hold but Geron indicated today that the agency is now allowing it to...

Kiddie Viagra may get Pfizer a patent extensionBy PAUL THARP Last Updated: 9:14 AM, July 28, 2010 Pfizer plans to sell a children's form of Viagra to treat a rare lung disorder as a humanitarian gesture -- in exchange for getting a six-month extension of its patent on the adult version. The Food and Drug Administration approached Pfizer about using its drug to treat a lung ailment that affects about 600 kids a year. Viagra, which modifies blood flows, could reduce unusually high blood pressure in a child's lungs, or pulmonary arterial hypertension. Symptoms include dizziness, chest pain and fatigue....

The European Union has approved a new chewable form of cholesterol blockbuster Lipitor for children 10 and up with high levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides, a type of blood fat, Pfizer said Tuesday. The approval includes children whose high blood fats are due to an inherited disease that causes extremely high cholesterol levels, familial hypercholesterolemia. New York-based Pfizer Inc. won U.S. approval for Lipitor use in children 10 to 17 with that condition in 2002. Lipitor is the world's top-selling drug, with 2009 sales of about $13 billion, but its U.S. patent expires at the end of November 2011....

A psychotic friend of my sister's stated recently that Pharmaceutical Comapnies are "creating and spreading new artificial viruses and diseases... in an effort to increase their profits!" I asked her what kind of evidence she had to support this, and I've been so far met with silence (she's busy Googling & researching this). As she re-adjusts her "tin-foil hat", I wanted to ask my FR friends what they think about this issue and how you would respond to such a blatantly false statement?

“The policy was made by the president. No one knows how this decision was made.” This was the comically honest response of Ken Warner, dean of the School of Public Health, to the question of who proposed the campus-wide smoking ban, according to The Michigan Daily. It’s clear, then, that University President Mary Sue Coleman is the architect of the Smoke-Free Initiative, which will take effect in July of 2011. The initiative will prohibit smoking on all outdoor University property. Coleman and University administrators have been embarrassingly vague about why such a ban is necessary. Instead, they keep insisting that...

President Obama has signed the biggest US healthcare reform since the 1960s, and although it is largely seen as a victory for the pharmaceutical industry, some analysts are characterising it as a 'double-edged sword'.The legislation, signed into law amid much fanfare on 23 March, is 'not perfect' but represents a step in the right direction by helping to ensure that all Americans have access to high-quality and affordable healthcare, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) - a lobby group representing the country's leading pharmaceutical companies. President Obama looks to protect US health © Patrimonio/Dreamstime.com The reform bill...

The dietary-supplement industry is fighting a bid by U.S. Sen. John McCain to force it to disclose ingredients and register with the Food and Drug Administration. The Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 would also strengthen recall authority of any dietary supplement the FDA finds to be hazardous. Opponents say subjecting manufacturers to increased reporting requirements could drive up prices and restrict the availability of vitamins and supplements. They contend the FDA is hostile to supplements because they don't go through the drug approval process - but that's an expensive process for natural substances that can't be patented. Tucson's Food...

Michael not only works for Marth Coakley!!! Michael Meehan, Weekly Standard Assailant, Works For PHRMA as Lobbyist for PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. PhRMA represents America’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. PhRMA member companies spent $44.5 billon in 2007 to discover and develop new medications. And apparently a bit of money for democrate Martha Coakley.

How irksome, at a time when our national debt is rising by £5,000 a second, to learn that the Government has squandered a billion pounds on swine ‘flu vaccines. Having stockpiled 132 million doses, it is now giving the stuff away. Good news for Big Pharma, bad news for everyone else. It’s all very well being wise after the event, you might say. Actually, though, quite a few of us were wise before the event (see here). You didn’t need any special expertise in epidemiology to spot an obvious boondoggle. All the interested parties collaborated to talk up the danger....

The pharmaceutical industry's powerful Washington lobbying group backs the healthcare reform legislation that is President Barack Obama's top legislative priority, but its important support for that effort could evaporate if drug imports are included. White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration will pursue the issue, but not in the healthcare reform bill. "Let me be clear. The president supports ... safe re-importation of drugs into this country," Axelrod told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "There's no reason why Americans should pay a premium for the pharmaceuticals that people in other countries pay less for." The importation of drugs...

Guess who just discovered the Jim Geraghty Axiom? Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reports that Barack Obama reversed his get-tough-with-Big-Pharma routine when it came to actually, er, getting tough with Big Pharma. How did Obama’s allies on Capitol Hill feel about it? “Awkward”: On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to take on the drug industry by allowing Americans to import cheaper prescription medicine. “We’ll tell the pharmaceutical companies ‘thanks, but no, thanks’ for the overpriced drugs — drugs that cost twice as much here as they do in Europe and Canada,” he said back then. On Tuesday, the...

One more item added to what candidate Obama said on the campaign trail about prescription drugs (see bolded paragraph) and what President Obama who cut a deal with drug companies has to say. No wonder Obama's poll numbers are falling so rapidly as he continues to do a 180 from what he said on the campaign trail. When we first heard about Obama's ties to radicals like Communist Frank Davis who was his mentor, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Louis Farrakhan, and others we suspected he would lurch to the left if he was elected. That said, his lurch to the...

President Obama has called for a serious and reasoned debate about his plans to overhaul the health-care system. Any such debate must include the question of whether it is constitutional for the federal government to adopt and implement the president's proposals. Consider one element known as the "individual mandate," which would require every American to have health insurance, if not through an employer then by individual purchase. This requirement would particularly affect young adults, who often choose to save the expense and go without coverage. Without the young to subsidize the old, a comprehensive national health system will not work....

You really have to give the Air America hostess credit for the phrase “charming liar”. This recording is just unbelievable, considering the source..

A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week. The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return. It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada -- and also agreed...

WASHINGTON — The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday. The unusually large scale of the industry’s commitment to the cause helps explain some of a contentious back-and-forth playing out in recent days between the odd-couple allies over a deal that the White House struck with the industry in June to secure its support. The terms of the deal were not fully disclosed. Both sides had announced that the drug industry would...

The nation's drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail his chief domestic priority.

I'm a strong supporter of universal health insurance, and a fan of the Obama administration. But I'm appalled by the deal the White House has made with the pharmaceutical industry's lobbying arm to buy their support.

Big Pharma and probably Big Insurance have probably kicked in with the Democrats in DCWhile this initially may appear to be a good business move on their part, the boards of these companies may not CLEARLY realize that their owners are the productive class.It's time to sell every stock and mutual fund that hold these stocks. The board must hear from the "owners".They think $80bil was affordable...an $80bil that would come out of the consumers pocket. However, I wonder how affordable their decision will seem in the light of their stock price dropping 50%...or 60...or 75%?

• Text Democrats are trying to explain opposition to ObamaCare as a sinister conspiracy controlled by the hidden hand of the health-care industry. Psychologists call this projection. Why bother with a new conspiracy when you’ve already clinched a secret deal with the President? Part of the Obama health strategy has been to assiduously co-opt the key health “stakeholders,” primarily with the leverage that legislation was inevitable so they might as well negotiate. Doctors, hospitals, insurers and the drug makers bought it—or perhaps it is more accurate to say were bought. This week it emerged that the pharmaceutical industry’s supposedly voluntary...

The jobs are risky, but very lucrative for those willing to take the risks, and require no previous experience or special training. Almost anyone with a driver's license (or at least the ability to drive) can do this job. How did Obama do it? What People Who Don't Smoke Look Like A recent Senate vote brought tobacco under the regulation of the FDA. The effort, spearheaded by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., in the Senate and Calif. Democrat Henry Waxman in the House (no doubt because of their medical expertise—Kennedy, for example, is considered the government's chief expert on alcohol consumption)....

The FDA says consumers should stop using Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gel and related products immediately. All the over-the-counter products contain zinc. Scientists say that ingredient may damage nerves in the nose needed for smell.

There is none more deserving of stress testing than the proposed MOTHERS Act. On the surface, the MOTHERS Act reflects its sponsors overwhelming compassion and empathy for women suffering from alleged mental health disorders resulting from childbirth – often referred to as Postpartum Depression. But when one conducts a brief stress test on important sections of the legislation, taxpayers may find that this costly and sweeping mental health legislation actually fails women of America, but goes a long way in inflating the balance sheets of one of the most lucrative industries in the nation – big Pharma. For instance, the...

PIERRE — State Attorney General Larry Long announced Thursday that South Dakota has joined with other states and the federal government and reached a $1.4 billion settlement with Eli Lilly and Co., to settle allegations it engaged in an off-label marketing campaign that improperly promoted the anti-psychotic drug, Zyprexa. Eli Lilly will pay the states and the federal government a total of $800 million in damages and penalties to compensate Medicaid and various federal health care programs for harm suffered as a result of this conduct. South Dakota’s total settlement recovery is $1.4 million. Of that amount, South Dakota will...

A jury sentenced a Lakeview man to 10 years in prison for growing nearly 7,500 marijuana plants. Andrew Stever, 40, was sentenced on Monday after a three-day trial in the Federal District Court in Medford.Ten years is the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of growing 1,000 or more pot plants. In July 2007, officers from several local, state and federal agencies found 7,459 plants growing on Stever's Lakeview property, which bordered Forest Service land. Two men fled the scene, leaving behind personal property and three firearms, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. Physical evidence and testimony linked...

Teen Screen Lawsuit Advances: Federal Court Affirms Family’s Right to Sue School for Subjecting Teen to Mental Health Test Without Parental Consent SOUTH BEND, Ind.—A federal court has given the green light to a civil rights lawsuit filed by Rutherford Institute attorneys in defense of a 15-year-old Indiana student who was subjected by school officials to a controversial mental health examination without the knowledge or consent of her parents. In ruling that the lawsuit filed on behalf of Chelsea Rhoades and her parents, Teresa and Michael, may proceed to trial, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana...

WASHINGTON — The pens, pads, mugs and other gifts that drug makers have long showered on doctors will be banned from pharmaceutical marketing campaigns under a voluntary guideline that the industry is expected to announce Thursday. The industry’s Code on Interactions with Health Care Professionals will ask the chief executives of large drug makers to certify in writing that “they have policies and procedures in place to foster compliance with the code.” The code was written by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry’s trade association. But the code provides no definite limits on the millions of dollars...

Three Harvard psychiatrists facing a US Senate inquiry got a vote of confidence from their hospital as "beloved and trusted by thousands of grateful children and families." Senator Charles Grassley is looking into the doctors' failure to report payments of more than a million dollars in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007. A memo from top officials at Massachusetts General Hospital obtained by the Globe praised Drs. Joseph Biederman, Timothy Wilens, and Thomas Spencer as "pioneers in the field of child mental health" while also endorsing "closely managed" collaboration with industry and promising a review of conflict-of-interest...

The Washington Post finds McCain adviser Charlie Black’s work lobbying for various third world governments and an anti-Communist rebel group from 1985 to 1994 worth a front page story. Also, starting today, MoveOn.org "will air a national advertisement on CNN urging McCain to fire Charlie Black, a top adviser who has been a longtime lobbyist; McCain and Black have said that Black retired from lobbying in March." Okay. Fine. I think it's stupid to try to purge every campaign of anyone who has ever lobbied, since most campaign and political professionals need work in non-campaign years, and one of the...

New evidence shows that the drug makers Merck and Schering-Plough have conducted several studies of their popular cholesterol medicine Zetia that raise questions about its risks to the liver, but the companies have never published those results. Partial results of the studies, alluded to in documents on the Food and Drug Administration’s Web site, raise questions about whether Zetia can cause liver damage when used long term with other cholesterol drugs called statins. Most of the millions of people who use Zetia take it along with a statin like Lipitor, Crestor or Zocor. Or they take it in a single...

The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder by Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield Oxford University Press, 287 pp., $29.95 Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness by Christopher Lane Yale University Press, 263 pp., $27.50 Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression by David Healy New York University Press, 351 pp., $18.95 (paper) 1. During the summer of 2002, The Oprah Winfrey Show was graced by a visit from Ricky Williams, the Heisman Trophy holder and running back extraordinaire of the Miami Dolphins. Williams was there to...

RENO, Nev. - A jury levied a $134.5 million judgment against pharmaceutical giant Wyeth in a lawsuit filed by three Nevada women who claimed the company's hormone replacement drugs caused their breast cancer. It was the largest award to date against the Madison, New Jersey-based company, which faces about 5,300 similar lawsuits across the country in state and federal courts. "These are very large numbers for compensatory damages," said Howard Erichson, a law professor at Seton Hall University. "It has to be troubling for Wyeth because dollar figures like these suggest the jury entirely accepted the plaintiff's version of the...

On June 19, 1987, Ben & Jerry’s introduced Cherry Garcia, in honor of the man who played lead guitar for the Grateful Dead. The Food and Drug Administration struck back three months later, when it approved the first of a new family of statin drugs that curb cholesterol production in the human liver. A synthetic statin licensed a decade later would become the most lucrative drug in history. At its peak, Lipitor was streaming $14 billion a year into Pfizer’s coffers. Let’s not blame the victim: we don’t choose Cherry Garcia; it chooses us. Lipitor is a lifesaver for 600,000...

A pill that can correct a wide range of faulty genes which cause crippling illnesses should be available within three years, promising a revolution in the treatment of thousands of conditions. The drug, known as PTC124, has already had encouraging results in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. The final phase of clinical trials is to begin this year, and it could be licensed as early as 2009. As well as offering hope of a first effective treatment for two conditions that are at present incurable, the drug has excited scientists because research suggests it should also work...

With the recent ascent of the Democrats to the majority party in both Houses of Congress, we are seeing a number of changes in the direction and focus of proposed legislation. Among these are the minimum wage increase, “paygo” (a good idea if not used solely as a trojan horse for tax increases), rollbacks of subsidies for Big Oil. And with it, a change in the attitude towards Big Pharmaceutical Industry. The last time we had Democrats in power, it was under Bill Clinton, when Hillary attempted to take over the US medical care system. And we all know how...

As you may recall, in my last vanity, ”Confessions of a Crunchy Con, or, You Can't Judge a Conservative by his Birkenstocks”, I discussed how I became a “crunchy con”—someone who endorses certain cultural and lifestyle values which have traditionally been associated with the left. In this piece, I follow up with some thoughts about health and lifestyle issues, with application to American society at large. Taking fish oil supplements, despite my misgivings, and finding how successful it was at rejuvenating me, was a real eye-opener. In fact, it got me thinking not just of my own health, but the...

CBNNews.com – LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - As lawyers argued over which evidence should be allowed, a judge Monday delayed jury selection in the first trial of 4,500 lawsuits filed nationwide that challenge Prempro, a hormone-replacement therapy that some women say causes breast cancer. Linda Reeves of Benton sued drug maker Wyeth, claiming she developed breast cancer after taking Prempro for eight years. Helene Rush of Little Rock has argued similar claims in a federal suit against the drug maker. Rush has an Oct. 10 court date. Prempro is a widely prescribed estrogen-progestin combination used to treat premenopausal symptoms, such...

In the race to replace Henry A. McKinnell Jr., the embattled CEO of drug giant Pfizer, Jeffrey B. Kindler was the dark horse. Named as McKinnell's successor on July 28, he had no pharmaceutical experience prior to joining Pfizer (PFE) four years ago as general counsel. But for months, the drug industry has been racked with legal, regulatory, and public-relations challenges, with Pfizer right in the thick of it. Against that backdrop, the 51-year-old Kindler—an accomplished lawyer and veteran of McDonalds Corp. (MCD) and General Electric (GE)—brings much to the table.