Tag Archives: Drug companies

Drug Companies Hire Troubled Doctors As Experts

Drug companies say they hire the most-respected doctors in their fields for the critical task of teaching about the benefits and risks of the companies’ drugs.
But an investigation by ProPublica has uncovered hundreds of doctors receiving company payments who had been accused of professional misconduct, were disciplined by state boards or lacked credentials as researchers or specialists. To vet the industry’s handpicked speakers, ProPublica created a comprehensive database that represents the most accessible accounting yet of payments to doctors. Compiled from disclosures by seven companies, the database covers $257.8 million in payouts since 2009 for speaking, consulting and other duties. The companies include Lilly, Cephalon, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Pfizer.

Although these companies have posted payments on their websites — some as a result of legal settlements — they make it difficult to spot trends or even learn who has earned the most. ProPublica combined the data and identified the highest-paid doctors, then checked their credentials and disciplinary records.

Booming Sales of Antipsychotic Drugs Often Fueled by Illegal Marketing Tactics

The Times reports that civil and criminal lawsuits against big pharmaceutical companies have revealed hundreds of documents showing that some company officials knew they were using questionable tactics when they marketed these powerful, expensive drugs. According to analysts and court documents, these tactics have included payments, gifts, meals and trips for doctors, biased studies, and ghostwritten medical journal articles.

Sex, Lies and Pharmaceuticals—How Female Sexual Dysfunction (a “mental disorder”) was invented by the drug industry

Female sexual dysfunction – which is claimed to affect up to two thirds of women – is a disorder invented by the pharmaceutical industry to build global markets for drugs to treat it, it is claimed today. Drug companies have invested millions in the search for a female equivalent of Viagra, so far without success. But while doing so they have stoked demand by creating a buzz around the disorder they have created, according to Ray Moynihan, a lecturer at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

Britain ‘Massive spin’ on child ADHD study

A high-profile child psychologist accused drugs companies and other scientists on Thursday of falsely claiming attention deficit disorder (ADHD) was a genetic disease in order to promote the controversial drug Ritalin. Clinical child psychologist Dr Oliver James tore into a Cardiff University study on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, accusing the university’s child and adolescent psychiatry professor Anita Tharpar of “putting a massive spin” on the research which claimed to prove that ADHD was a genetic disorder….Dr James said the study in fact disproved any link between genes and ADHD because almost nine out of 10 of the children did not have the gene supposed to cause it.

Britain ‘Massive spin’ on child ADHD study

A high-profile child psychologist accused drugs companies and other scientists on Thursday of falsely claiming attention deficit disorder (ADHD) was a genetic disease in order to promote the controversial drug Ritalin. Clinical child psychologist Dr Oliver James tore into a Cardiff University study on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, accusing the university’s child and adolescent psychiatry professor Anita Tharpar of “putting a massive spin” on the research which claimed to prove that ADHD was a genetic disorder….Dr James said the study in fact disproved any link between genes and ADHD because almost nine out of 10 of the children did not have the gene supposed to cause it.