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Drug Companies

Big Pharma CEOs Rake in $1.57 Billion in Pay

Ethan Rome | Posted 05.08.2013 | Business
Ethan Rome

For people who were blown away to learn recently that the 11 largest global pharmaceutical companies made an astonishing $711 billion in profits over the last decade, here's another measure of the industry's greed.

Medication Nation

Mark Rubinstein | Posted 05.03.2013 | Healthy Living
Mark Rubinstein

Patients come into doctors' offices asking for something they've seen on TV. Big pharma's advertising blitz, coupled with its aggressive marketing to physicians (who all too often are readily seduced to prescribe), results in the ever-increasing number of prescriptions offered to patients.

Things You Want To Know About Psychiatric Medications But Didn't Know Who (Or How) To Ask

Lloyd I. Sederer, MD | Posted 04.19.2013 | Healthy Living
Lloyd I. Sederer, MD

I asked more than a dozen expert psychiatric colleagues, and myself, the questions they most frequently receive about psychiatric medications from people who take them or their families. Here are a dozen of those many questions; the responses are mine.

Big Pharma Pockets $711 Billion in Profits by Robbing Seniors, Taxpayers

Ethan Rome | Posted 04.08.2013 | Politics
Ethan Rome

Here's an outrage that must be changed: Big Pharma has been systematically price-gouging the Medicare program for seniors and people with disabilities -- and raking in billions in excessive profits.

We Should Take On Big Pharma's Price-Gouging Machine

Ethan Rome | Posted 05.21.2013 | Politics
Ethan Rome

Instead of punishing the folks who count on Medicare, we should start with some commonsense reforms, like letting Medicare use its buying power to bargain for discounts for prescription drugs.

Obama's 'Scheme' Will End the World as We Know It, Says Big Pharma... Good!

Wendell Potter | Posted 04.20.2013 | Politics
Wendell Potter

If you watched the SOTU, you might have missed the scheme that Obama unveiled that will ruin the Medicare prescription drug program, destroy pharmaceutical companies' incentive to develop new life-saving medicines and even imperil our country's economic growth. I know I missed it.

Seniors Shouldn't Have to Pay More to Medicare to Pad Drug Company Profits

Ethan Rome | Posted 02.10.2013 | Politics
Ethan Rome

Our goal shouldn't be to shift Medicare costs to seniors and make health care more expensive. It should be to make the wealthiest pay more.

Soaring Numbers of Children on Powerful Adult Psychiatric Drugs

Dr. Peter Breggin | Posted 08.14.2012 | Healthy Living
Dr. Peter Breggin

A recent blog of mine described how unethical and illegal drug company activities have driven the prescription of antipsychotic drugs to children. Now the "success" of this campaign has been documented in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Psychiatry: Start Listening to Your Patients and Their Families

Dr. Peter Breggin | Posted 08.10.2012 | Healthy Living
Dr. Peter Breggin

On the face of it, medication compliance makes sense. Patients should take their medications as instructed and families should ensure that they do. But is it that simple?

Drug Companies Drive the Psychiatric Drugging of Children

Dr. Peter Breggin | Posted 07.24.2012 | Healthy Living
Dr. Peter Breggin

The health professions would do far more good stopping the drugging of children than continuing or increasing it. Ethical professionals need to work toward removing children from psychiatric drugs.

Drug Company GlaxoSmithKline Puts American Values to Shame

Dr. Peter Breggin | Posted 07.09.2012 | Healthy Living
Dr. Peter Breggin

The capacity of government and its citizens to sue entities such as pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline for fraudulent practices is a necessary part of the checks and balances needed to restrain personal and corporate greed.

$3 Billion in Fines for Illegal Marketing of Paxil, Wellbutrin and Other Drugs

Dr. Peter Breggin | Posted 07.08.2012 | Healthy Living
Dr. Peter Breggin

Although it is encouraging to see the legal system to some degree catching up with drug company malfeasance, there are a number of problems with the criminal and civil cases brought by the Department of Justice against drug companies.

Well Look Who's Caught Up In A Drug Company Scandal

The Huffington Post | Harry Bradford | Posted 07.04.2012 | Business

GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay $3 billion this week in part to settle claims it paid doctors to illegally promote its drugs. Turns out, the company was...

Regulators Approve Take Home HIV Test

AP | MATTHEW PERRONE | Posted 09.02.2012 | Business

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans will soon be able to test themselves in the privacy of their own homes for the virus that causes AIDS, now that the Food...

Zach Carter

Obama Administration Says 'No' To Global Health Fund For Developing Nations

HuffingtonPost.com | Zach Carter | Posted 05.25.2012 | Politics

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration has alarmed global health experts by opposing a new international fund that would fight disease in the developi...

Dollars and Sense, Baby and Bathwater: The Case for CAM Research

David Katz, M.D. | Posted 07.07.2012 | Healthy Living
David Katz, M.D.

If we are prepared to acknowledge the widespread bullying to which both science and sense are subject at the hands of the almighty dollar, we might commit ourselves to the systematic effort of distinguishing the two.

Why Are Kids Suddenly So Sick?

Allen Frances | Posted 10.31.2012 | Healthy Living
Allen Frances

Giving a name to difficult problems that are poorly understood provides a kind of false comfort, but the label often doesn't really add to the understanding and may carry risks of its own -- especially unnecessary treatment, stigma and wasted resources.

Drugmakers Boost Prices Despite Political Risks

www.npr.org | Posted 01.14.2012 | Fifty

One thing big drug companies generally aren't keen on is being the focus of a hot political debate. In the past, the quickest way to become Exhibit...

Drug Giant To Cut Thousands Of Jobs

AP | FRANK JORDANS | Posted 03.14.2012 | Business

GENEVA — Drug maker Novartis will cut 1,960 jobs in the United States this year in anticipation of lower sales for two of its hypertension drugs...

The Psychiatric Drugging of America's Foster Children

Dr. Peter Breggin | Posted 12.22.2011 | Healthy Living
Dr. Peter Breggin

There were approximately 662,000 children in foster care in the U.S. in 2010. Now, there is a Government Accounting Office report confirming that foster children in five states are receiving shocking amounts of psychiatric drugs.

How Drug Advertisements Affect Our Emotions And Decisions

Big Think | Posted 12.03.2011 | Fifty

In today's technologically-driven digital age, consumers are constantly inundated with drug advertisements that encourage active engagement in making ...

Who Owns the Data?

Susan M. Love | Posted 01.08.2012 | Impact
Susan M. Love

Clinical trial data are typically collected by drug companies or academics specifically for their own trials on their own new potential medicines or pet theories. This means the data is often locked away in proprietary silos.

Drug Giant Beats Profit, Sales Forecasts

Posted 01.01.2012 | Business

Pfizer Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly results, helped by sales growth of its prescription drugs in emerging markets and its animal he...

Key Industry Throwing Its Money Behind Obama

The Huffington Post | Luke Johnson | Posted 12.27.2011 | Politics

President Barack Obama has raised more money from the health care industry than Republican candidates, according to an analysis conducted by the Cente...

Zach Carter

Patent Reform Bill Signed Into Law After Years Of Debate

HuffingtonPost.com | Zach Carter | Posted 11.16.2011 | Politics

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- President Barack Obama signed the long-debated patent reform bill into law on Friday, finally ending a seven-year nightmare for inn...