California Senate Bill OKs Druggists' Sharing Patient Files
San Fransisco Chronicle by Elizabeth Fernandez Friday, May 30, 2008
A bill that would allow pharmacies in California to share patient prescription information with third-party businesses working for drugmakers was approved in the state Senate 21-16 Thursday. Under the legislation, pharmaceutical companies could send mailings directly to patients suffering from illnesses such as cancer, Parkinson's and schizophrenia. The drug manufacturers would contract with a mailing firm, which in turn would pay fees to pharmacies. The bill is intended to offer a way for pharmaceutical firms to encourage patients to take their medicine as prescribed and to refill prescriptions if called for by their doctors, said Rocky Rushing, spokesman for the measure's author, Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello (Los Angeles County). "This bill will provide public benefits that will help people live healthier lives," he said. But critics say the legislation violates patient privacy rights and opens the door for medical identity theft. "There is nothing more private than our personal medical records, but this bill would let drug companies peek in our medicine cabinet to boost their profit," said Jerry Flanagan of Consumer Watchdog. "Once private medical information is transferred electronically, it is vulnerable to theft, accidental leaks and misuse." Calderon amended the bill after a 17-17 defeat on the Senate floor last week to allow patients to opt out from mailings when they pick up prescriptions. "It stops at the pharmacist's counter if the customer opts out," Rushing said. "No information is forwarded to the mailing house." The bill, which now moves to the state Assembly, was supported by, among others, the Mental Health Association in California and the National Association of Cancer Patients. The California Medical Association opposed it, along with some consumer organizations.
New Treatments For Viral And Other Diseases By Blocking Genes
European Science Foundation ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 29, 2008
The elusive goal of developing effective treatments for viral diseases such as AIDS and influenza has been brought closer by dramatic progress in the ability to interfere with viral genetic machinery...
Australian Full Federal Court Upholds Pfizer Inc. (PFE)'s Basic Lipitor Patent, Preventing Launch of Generic Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc. Product
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE) May 28, 2008
Pfizer Inc said today that the Australian Full Federal Court in Victoria has upheld on appeal the exclusivity of its basic patent covering atorvastatin, the active ingredient in Lipitor. The ruling, the culmination of a lawsuit filed in 2005 by generic drug manufacturer Ranbaxy, preserves Lipitor’s patent coverage in Australia through May 2012.
Firms Lose a Month a Year on Hyperactive Employees, Study Shows
By Chantal Britt May 27 (Bloomberg)
Employees suffering from attention deficit and hyperactivity do a month less work a year than staff without the condition, according to a World Health Organization survey. The findings suggest it may be cost-effective for companies to screen workers and offer treatment programs for the disorder as a way to recoup time lost and improve workplace performance...
Scientists Image A Single HIV Particle Being Born
Public release date: 25-May-2008 Contact: Thania Benios 212-327-7146
A mapmaker and a mathematician may seem like an unlikely duo, but together they worked out a way to measure longitude – and kept millions of sailors from getting lost at sea. Now, another unlikely duo, a virologist and a biophysicist at Rockefeller University, is making history of their own. By using a specialized microscope that only illuminates the cell’s surface, they have become the first to see, in real time and in plain view, hundreds of thousands of molecules coming together in a living cell to form a single particle of the virus that has, in less than 25 years, claimed more than 25 million lives: HIV.
Report highlights adverse events for Chantix
by Alison Fischer for FirstWord May 22, 2008
A report by a US non-profit organisation suggested that Pfizer's smoking cessation product Chantix (varenicline) has been linked to more than 3000 reports of adverse events including suicides, cardiovascular problems, diabetes and seizures. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices reviewed adverse event reports submitted to the FDA. The data showed that 988 serious injuries in those taking the drug were reported in the fourth quarter of 2007, more than any other product available on the market.
Cure For The Common Cold?
Saint Louis University from ScienceDaily May 21, 2008
Scientists at Saint Louis University have made two key discoveries that could lead to the first-ever human testing of a drug to target the adenovirus, which causes a number of severe upper-respiratory infections and is one of many viruses that causes the common cold...
Top 17 Paychecks In Big Pharma
FiercePharma by Tracy Staton and Maureen Martino May 19, 2008
Few statistics are as hotly debated as CEO pay reports. Investors, analysts, and the just plain curious all want to know how much the head honcho makes--and how one company's chief stacks up against another's. So here for your rubbernecking pleasure are the 17 highest-paid CEOs in Big Pharma. While the names themselves probably won't be a surprise, their pecking order might. For instance, the biggest drugmaker by sales--Pfizer--doesn't have the highest-paid executive, and one of the relatively small fry counts its chief among the top 10.
We've already ranked CEO pay at the industry's top five biotechs, but it's worth noting that if they had been included on this list, Amgen's Kevin Sharer and Genentech's Arthur Levinson would have ranked fifth and sixth behind Wyeth's Bob Essner. Genzyme's Henri Termeer made $14.6 million in 2007, coming in ahead of Merck's Richard Clark, and Gilead's John Martin made $10.8 million, slightly less than Roche's Humer.
For U.S. companies, FiercePharma's numbers are based on total compensation reported in their proxy statements. The numbers include base salary, bonus and "other" compensation in 2007. For overseas companies not required to file proxies in the U.S., we gleaned executive pay information from various press reports. Though we did as much due diligence as we could to make sure these reported totals were apples-to-apples comparisons, there's a chance we may have missed something. Feel free to let us know.
| Ranking |
CEO Name |
Pharmaceutical Company |
Compensation |
|
1 |
Miles White |
Abbott |
$33.4M |
|
2 |
Fred Hassan |
Schering-Plough |
$30.1M |
|
3 |
Bill Weldon |
Johnson & Johnson |
$25.1M |
|
4 |
Bob Essner |
Wyeth |
$24.1M |
|
5 |
Robert Parkinson |
Baxter |
$17.6M |
|
6 |
Daniel Vasella |
Novartis |
$15.5M |
|
7 |
Richard Clark |
Merck |
$14.5M |
|
8 |
Frank Baldino |
Cephalon |
$13.5M |
|
9 |
Sidney Taurel |
Eli Lilly |
$13.M |
|
10 |
Jeff Kindler |
Pfizer |
$12.6M |
|
11 |
Jim Cornelius |
Bristol-Myers Squibb |
$11.3M |
|
12 |
Franz Humer |
Roche |
$11.1M |
|
13 |
Robert Coury |
Mylan |
$8.5M |
|
14 |
Jean-Pierre Garnier |
GlaxoSmithKline |
$6.M |
|
15 |
Werner Wenning |
Bayer |
$4.77M |
|
16 |
David Brennan |
AstraZeneca |
$4.3M |
|
17 |
Gerard Le Fur |
Sanofi-Aventis |
$3.27M |
House Committee Leaders Warn Pharmaceutical Companies
To End Use of 'Misleading' Advertisements
Capitol Hill Watch | KaiserNetwork.org May 21, 2008
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) in a recent letter warned four pharmaceutical companies to end the use of "misleading and deceptive" direct-to-consumer advertisements for medications, CQ HealthBeat reports. The lawmakers sent the letter to Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer and Schering-Plough, as well as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
PhRMA Statement on DTC Advertising
Washington, D.C. May 20, 2008
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Senior Vice President Ken Johnson today released the following statement addressing the value of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising:
http://www.phrma.org/news_room/press_releases/phrma_statement_on_value_of_dtc_advertising/
Cure For The Common Cold?
Saint Louis University from ScienceDaily May 21, 2008
Scientists at Saint Louis University have made two key discoveries that could lead to the first-ever human testing of a drug to target the adenovirus, which causes a number of severe upper-respiratory infections and is one of many viruses that causes the common cold.
Experts Call for New Ideas, Increased Funding on 25th Anniversary of Paper Identifying AIDS
Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report May 20, 2008
Experts at a review of medical progress against HIV/AIDS highlighted the successes made over the past 25 years, including the identification of HIV and the development of antiretroviral therapy in the mid-1990s. They also acknowledged "cruel setbacks" -- such as the ongoing search for a vaccine and a successful microbicide to prevent HIV among women -- which "show basic questions remain to be answered about HIV's shape-shifting properties and its stealthy invasion of immune cells," according to AFP/Google.com. On May 20, 1983, Luc Montagnier and a team at the Pasteur Institute published a paper in the journal Science about a virus found in a person who died of AIDS-related causes. U.S. researcher Robert Gallo later showed that the same virus caused AIDS. A dispute over who first discovered the virus was settled in 1987, giving both the researchers credit. Montagnier said, "We still don't completely understand the various forms of the virus. It's more complicated for us than we thought." Jean-Francois Delfraissy, director of the National Agency for AIDS Research in France, said, "We need to go back to the question of basic research, to have new ideas, new teams, to take a new look at cellular biology." Alice Dautry, head of the Pasteur Institute, said the next step in HIV/AIDS research should involve "a multidisciplinary approach, for looking at the problem through different eyes. When there is a problem, it has to be attacked from every direction".
Feds To Offer Free Health Care To People With Very Rare Diseases
FOX NEWS | Associated Press Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The National Institutes of Health is seeking those patients — and ones who qualify could get some free care at the government's top research hospital as scientists study why they're sick. "These patients are to a certain extent abandoned by the medical profession because a brick wall has been hit," said Dr. William Gahl, who helped develop the NIH's new Undiagnosed Diseases Program. "We're trying to remove some of that." The pilot program, announced Monday, can only recruit about 100 patients a year. But federal health officials hope that unraveling some of these super-rare diseases in turn will provide clues to more common illnesses.
Coumpound Has Potential For A New Class Of AIDS Drugs
ScienceDaily University of Michigan May 19, 2008
Researchers have developed what they believe is the first new mechanism in nearly 20 years for inhibiting a common target used to treat all HIV patients, which could eventually lead to a new class of AIDS drugs.
Listening To Music Found To Lower Blood Pressure
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Friday, May 16, 2008 2:16 PM
Listening to half an hour of music each day may significantly lower your blood pressure, according to research reported at the American Society of Hypertension meeting in New Orleans this week. In the study, researchers found that people with mild hypertension (high blood pressure) who listened to classical, Celtic or Indian (raga) music for just 30 minutes a day for one month had significant reductions in their blood pressure.
Asthma Inhaler Misuse Widespread Among Anti-social Teens
ScienceDaily May 9, 2008
Nearly one out of four teens who use an asthma inhaler say their intent is to get high. Findings from a new University of Michigan study identified high levels of asthma inhaler misuse among anti-social youths, who displayed higher levels of distress and were more likely to abuse other substances.
Drugmakers Need To Rein In Ad, Hearing Told
WASHINGTON POST (Reuters) Thursday, May 8, 2008; 4:16 PM
Pharmaceutical companies need to be more responsible in touting products to consumers or else face tighter controls from Congress, a top U.S. Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday. Rep. Bart Stupak, at a hearing to discuss specific ads by Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) and Schering-Plough Corp (SGP.N), said television commercials in particular use deceptive techniques to push products to potential patients and increase sales. "It appears that we need to enforce significant restrictions on DTC (direct-to-consumer) ads to protect American consumers from manipulative commercials designed to mislead and deceive for the profit of pharmaceutical companies," said Stupak, head of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce investigative panel. The Michigan Democrat said Congress should consider whether ads promoting medicines should be allowed to continue to target consumers in the United States, the only country that allows such marketing except for New Zealand.
More Than Half Of US Reports Struggling, Suffering Daily
By MedHeadlines • May 7th, 2008 • Category: Lifestyle, Medical Research
In an on-going interview-based survey that has garnered more than 100,000 responses since January, 47% Americans say they are struggling with health and economic issues while an additional 4% are suffering, with no relief in sight. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index contacts 1,000 Americans seven days each week for an evaluation of their daily health and sense of well-being. The survey was begun in January and the organization expects to continue it for 100 years. Jim Clifton, Gallup chairman and CEO, says the organization’s mission is to create official statistics that the nation’s leaders and the general public can take stock of daily, just like the Dow-Jones, in an effort to develop solutions for change and improvement. The survey is expected to provide a much richer gauge of the outlook of the American public than has ever been possible.
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index Methodology and Questions
Gallup.com
Is Your Physician Under The Influence?
By Sally Satel, M.D. Wednesday, May 7, 2008 National Review Online
He or she is indeed, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The new Report of the AAMC Task Force on Industry Funding of Medical Education has called for a ban on "gifts," such as pens and mugs with company logos, handed out to doctors by drug companies promoting their products. "Such forms of industry involvement tend to establish reciprocal relationships that can inject bias, distort decision-making and create the perception . . . of being 'bought' or 'bribed' by industry," says the report.
Increased Risk Of Death From Smoking Reduced Within Several Years After Quitting
JAMA and Archives Journals (2008, May 7). ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 7, 2008
Women who quit smoking significantly reduce their risk of death from coronary heart disease within 5 years and have about a 20 percent lower risk of death from smoking-related cancers within that time period, according to a new study.
Waterpipe Smoking On College Campuses May Contribute To Growing Public Health Problem
Virginia Commonwealth University (May 6, 2008). ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 7, 2008
More and more U.S. college students are smoking tobacco using waterpipes – or hookahs – and it's becoming a growing public health issue, according to a new study led by a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher.
NanoViricides's Anti-HIV Drug Candidates Found Effective In Animal Studies
Pharmaceutical Business Review May 6, 2008
NanoViricides has announced that its anti-HIV drug candidates demonstrated significant therapeutic efficacy in the recently completed preliminary animal studies. The studies were performed at a Bio-Safety Level 3 Laboratory (BSL-3) facility in Boston, Massachusetts. The company's scientists are now designing the protocol for a follow up anti-HIV study to be performed at a major US government research facility. The company also said that animal studies for its drug candidates against bird flu (H5N1) are due to be scheduled at a major US government research facility. Eugene Seymour, CEO of NanoViricides, said: "Dr Menon has indicated to us that the results of the study validate the company's HivCide-I as a potential treatment for HIV/AIDS. Over the next several weeks, we expect to release additional study data."
How dirty is your Qwerty? Your Computer Keyboard: Dirtier Than a Toilet
ABC News Medical Unit May 5, 2008
It turns out that your computer keyboard could put a host of potentially harmful bacteria -- including E. coli and staph -- quite literally at your fingertips. A growing body of research suggests that computer mice and keyboards are, in fact, prime real estate for germs. A consumer advocacy group commissioned tests in which British microbiologist James Francis took a swab to 33 keyboards, a toilet seat, and a toilet door handle. Then the swabs were tested to see what nasty germs he managed to pick up, and found that four of the keyboards tested were potential health hazards -- and one had levels of germs five times higher than that found on the toilet seat.
Drugmakers Push For Looser Off-Label Rules
San Francisco Chronicle May 2, 2008
Drug advertising can alter the practice of medicine, which makes health advocates wary of promotional practices such as TV spots aimed at patients. Now, consumer groups fear that drug companies will soon win permission to use a seemingly sober and impartial source of information - scientific research articles - to publicize new uses for their products. The pharmaceutical industry is pressing the Food and Drug Administration for greater freedom to give doctors copies of scientific studies about experimental uses of their drugs - that is, to treat diseases not already included on the drug's FDA label.
One In Five Rooms Is 'Highly Contaminated' With Hidden Mold
ScienceDaily May 1, 2008
Surely your bathroom is fungus-free once you’ve wiped the mould off the tiles? Not according to a study by French scientists in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Journal of Environmental Monitoring. They report that almost one in five rooms studied with no visible mould was in fact “highly contaminated” by fungus which could aggravate conditions such as asthma.
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