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Pfizer, the largest drug maker in the world, disclosed 35 million in payments during the second half of 2009 to doctors who consulted or spoke on behalf of drugs and to the medical centers that tested them, The New York Times reports. This is Pfizer's first disclosure of this nature. "While other pharmaceutical companies have disclosed payments to doctors, Pfizer is the first to disclose payments for the clinical trials. The disclosure does not include payments outside the United States" (Wilson, 3/31). "The drugmaker made the disclosure as part of a government settlement after it pleaded guilty last year to...

Dr. Arthur Laffer, one of the great economic minds of our generation recently published a piece whose title he adapted from a quote by Steven Landsburg: "Economics Can Be Summarized In Four Words: People Respond to Incentives." Companies are just like people. In the early 1990's when BillaryCare was on the table, the Clinton Administration decided they needed a villain (sound familiar?) so they began a vicious attack on the pharmaceutical industry. The only problem was, the pharmaceutical companies were busy developing drugs like Lipitor that prevent costly and serious health problems such as strokes and heart disease. BillaryCare failed...

Enfield, Conn. (WTNH) - Thieves broke into an Enfield warehouse filled with prescription drugs over the weekend, getting away with up to $75 million worth of narcotics. The large, non-descript brown building back in the woods in Enfield is a transportation hub of sorts for prescription drug company Eli Lilly . Over the weekend someone cut a hole in the roof and rappelled inside, stealing between $50-$75 million worth of drugs. It's the largest theft in town history. "The hole was very high up and there was no way they you would be able to leap to the floor," Enfield...

The Obama Administration plan to put new generic drugs on the street faster is another example of how Washington healthcare reformers just don’t get it. While it is true that more generic drugs will reduce healthcare costs, it also is true that health risks will increases for many individuals sensitive to even the slightest changes in their medications. The Obama drug plan imposes $10 billion in fees over ten years on the brand-name pharmaceutical industry, to be parceled out among big drug makers to eliminate the so-called donut hole, or gap, in Medicare prescription drug coverage. The idea is to...

... Mr. Tauzin, 66, will retreat, to contemplate the apparent collapse of the grandest in a career of fearless deals — a pact to trade the drug industry’s political support for favorable terms under President Obama’s proposed health care overhaul. Mr. Tauzin is leaving his $2 million-a-year job as the top lobbyist for the drug industry amid complaints from drug makers that he bargained away their profits too cheaply, spent too much in his $150 million advertising campaign to sell the overhaul and miscalculated in his assessment that the passage of the legislation was all but inevitable. Other drug industry...

BRITAIN’s biggest drugs company, Glaxo Smith Kline, is to axe up to 4,000 more jobs as part of its plans to restructure its workforce and focus increasingly on emerging markets. The bulk of the cuts will be in America and Europe, and are part of the company’s efforts to shift resources away from low-growth territories into parts of the world with greater scope to expand sales. Glaxo, which has been headed for nearly two years by chief executive Andrew Witty, employs 99,000 staff across the world and is expected to reveal plans for select cutbacks alongside its annual results this...

The drug industry is threatening to end its support for President Barack Obama's health overhaul effort because of a rift with the administration over protecting brand-name biotech drugs from low-cost generic competitors. In an e-mail obtained Friday by The Associated Press, the president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America told the trade group's board members that "we could not support the bill" if the industry is given less than 12 years of competitive protection for the expensive products. Obama and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., are leading the drive to shorten that period, which...

WASHINGTON -- The drug industry is threatening to end its support for President Barack Obama's health overhaul effort because of a rift with the administration over protecting brand-name biotech drugs from low-cost generic competitors. In an e-mail obtained Friday by The Associated Press, the president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America told the trade group's board members that "we could not support the bill" if the industry is given less than 12 years of competitive protection for the expensive products. Obama and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., are leading the drive to shorten that...

Following the MA Senate debate on Monday, Martha Coakley was off to Washington DC where a big fundraiser was being held for her. Per the Washington Examiner, "17 of the 22 names on the host committee are federally registered lobbyists. Fifteen of those 17 have big health care clients such as Pfizer, Merck, Amgen, Sanofi-Aventis, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Astra-Zeneca, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, HealthSouth, and United Health among many others. In addition, among the other five hosts there are direction connections via marriage and/or direct professional ties to the health care industry." After the fundraising event, Coakley took two...

How Angry is the Left at Obama? Watch this Video

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...

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...

For days now, the health care legislation in the Senate has been stalled. Democrats are divided over a proposed amendment that would let consumers buy pharmaceuticals from abroad. During the presidential campaign, Obama promised to allow such purchases. But earlier this year he announced his opposition in return for pharmaceutical companies promising to spend at least $150 million, and possibly as much as $200 million, to push his health care legislation. President Obama obviously faces a dilemma: either he keeps the campaign promise he made to voters or he keep his later promise to drug companies. Passing the proposed drug...

NaturalNews) The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report indicting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for allowing health professionals convicted of crimes to perform research for the agency and to supervise patients' safety during clinical trials. The FDA is required by law to disqualify from positions within its organization doctors that have been convicted of fraud or other crimes. Yet the GAO is publicizing that it takes an average of four years for criminals to be disbarred from their positions. In one case, a doctor who was convicted of 53 counts of criminal offense was allowed...

Democrats in Congress asked for two separate investigations of drug industry pricing Wednesday as they continue working on legislation to overhaul the nation’s health care system. Responding to news reports of unusually high wholesale price increases in brand-name prescription drugs, four House leaders and one senator asked for government reviews of the pricing practices. Although drug makers challenge the theory, some experts say the run-up in wholesale prices may be partly related to the industry’s concerns about future cost containment under any health care legislation. “Recent studies have indicated that the industry may be artificially raising prices for certain pharmaceutical...

Pfizer (PFE) has laid off 26,300 employees since 2005, and hopes eventually to lay off a total of 30,900 through 2012, according to its 10-Q filing with the SEC. The company had several rounds of layoffs before its acquisition of Wyeth in an attempt to get $6 billion in annual savings out of its business model. The company has said it wants to ax about 19,500 jobs to make the Wyeth merger work. The new company will have about 130,000 workers. The layoffs are ongoing, Pfizer said: In the third quarter of 2009, we reduced our workforce by approximately 1,100...

A pro-life organization is blasting a Switzerland-based cosmetics manufacturer whose website openly admits some of its products were developed from the tissues of an aborted baby. Children of God for Life is a non-profit organization focused on the bioethics of embryonic tissue use in medicine and manufacturing. One of its current campaigns includes petitioning pharmaceutical companies to produce safe, effective alternatives to vaccines derived or cultivated from aborted fetal tissue.

Julie Gibbons takes a measurement in the lab at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland's School of Pharmacy in Baltimore. The college is one of four U.S. colleges opening new pharmacy schools this fall semester at a time when the nation has a shortage of pharmacists. (CNS/Bob Roller) By Chaz MuthCatholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With a projected national shortage of pharmacists, two U.S. Catholic colleges just inaugurated new pharmacy schools to help fill the gap in meeting the country's pharmaceutical needs. Seventy students at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore began their first...

Progressives Turn on Obama as Air America Exposes ‘Fascist’ Drug Deal Charming Liar’: Progressives Turn on Obama as Air America Exposes ‘Fascist’ Drug Deal http://www.breitbart.tv/charming-liar-progressives-turn-on-obama-as-air-america-exposes-fascist-drug-deal/

Drug Companies Resist White House Call to Reduce Rights to Exclusive Drug DataFOXNews.com Thursday, August 13, 2009 Drug companies that had agreed to support the Obama administration on health care reforms have found themselves once more at odds with the president, this time on exclusive rights to produce drugs that treat illnesses like arthritis, cancer and multiple sclerosis. **SNIP** The debate has rattled a deal that had been made between the White House and the drug companies to get the pharmaceutical industry on board with health care reform. In that deal, PhRMA agreed to cut its expected costs for drugs...