Health

Medicare For Lobbyists

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"Rep. Billy Tauzin delivered a $540 billion prescription-drug benefit for Medicare. Now, the Louisiana Republican is leaving Congress for a $2 million-a-year job in the drug industry. When it comes to exposing your principles, Rep. Tauzin makes Janet Jackson look coy," the Palm Beach Post writes. Tauzin, who chaired the House Science and Commerce Committee, pushed through the early morning passage of the Medicare bill in December.

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Main Source: 
Palm Beach Post, February 12, 2004
Topics: 
Corporations
Ethics
Health
Lobbying

Same Money Politics. Less Accountability.

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"Same Medicare. More Benefits." is the theme of a publicly-funded $12.6 million advertising effort promoting the new Medicare law. Critics of the ad campaign include Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy and the conservative National Taxpayers Union, who called it "an election-year ploy." The Wall Street Journal reports that National Media, a firm already working for the Bush/Cheney campaign, is getting a piece of the new ad campaign pie.

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Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2004
Topics: 
Advertising
Ethics
Health
U.S. Government

Drug Researcher Continues To Challenge Industry Claims

Submitted by Laura Miller on

A Canadian professor of pediatrics and medicine vows to continue speaking out on the risk of a drug used to treat thalassemia, a hereditary blood disorder. Dr. Nancy Olivieri lost her attempt to get her research on the harmful side effects of deferiprone looked at by the committee for proprietary and medicinal products (CPMP) that regulates drugs in Europe. "This ruling guarantees that only a drug company attempting to sell a drug will control the content of the scientific data submitted or not submitted to the European CPMP," she said.

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Main Source: 
BMJ.com, January 24, 2004
Topics: 
Corporations
Ethics
Health
Science

US Obesity Expands PR Budgets

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"The United States spent $75.1 billion last year on medical expenses, such as drugs, doctor visits and hospitalizations, related to obesity, according to a study published this month in the journal Obesity Research," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The study, financed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that taxpayers paid half of the bill through Medicare and Medicaid programs.

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Main Source: 
Philadelphia Inquirer, January 22, 2004
Topics: 
Food Safety
Crisis Management

Bush Sweet On Sugar

Submitted by Laura Miller on

The World Health Oragnization's leading scientists are accusing the Bush administration of putting the sugar industry's interests ahead of the global fight against obesity. The Observer reports, "Professor Kaare Norum, leader of the World Health Organisation's fight to prevent millions developing diet-related diseases, has sparked an international war of words with a highly critical letter to US Health Secretary Tommy Thompson. In it he tells of his grave concern over American opposition to the WHO's blueprint to combat obesity.

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Main Source: 
Observer (UK), January 18, 2004
Topics: 
Corporations
Health
International
U.S. Government

PR Expert Blasts Beef Industry Over Mad Cow

Submitted by John Stauber on

Paul Holmes, long time journalist covering the PR industry for his own trade press publications, blasts the arrogance and stupidity of the US beef industry and its protectors in the government, over the emergence of mad cow disease in the US. Holmes writest that "more than a decade has passed since an epidemic of bovine spongiform
encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease, ravaged British beef
and dairy herds, so it's fair to say American cattlemen have had
every opportunity to study that outbreak and learn from it. Yet to

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Main Source: 
Holmes Report, January 6, 2004
Topics: 
Food Safety
Mad Cow Disease

Drug Companies Fund Patient Advocacy Groups

Submitted by John Stauber on

"Pharmaceutical companies are pouring millions of dollars into patient
advocacy groups and medical organisations to help expand markets for their
products.
They are also using sponsorships and educational grants to fund
disease-awareness campaigns that urge people to see their doctors.
Many groups have become largely or totally reliant on pharmaceutical
industry money, prompting concerns they are open to pressure from companies
pushing their products.
An investigation by The Age newspaper has found:

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Main Source: 
Sydney Morning Herald, December 13, 2003
Topics: 
Astroturf
Ethics
Health
Marketing

Drug Industry Spins Medical Journals Through Ghostwriters

Submitted by Laura Miller on

"Hundreds of articles in medical journals claiming to be written by academics or doctors have been penned by ghostwriters in the pay of drug companies," the Observer reports. "The journals, bibles of the profession, have huge influence on which drugs doctors prescribe and the treatment hospitals provide. But The Observer has uncovered evidence that many articles written by so-called independent academics may have been penned by writers working for agencies which receive huge sums from drug companies to plug their products.

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Main Source: 
Observer (UK), December 7, 2003
Topics: 
Ethics
Health
Marketing
Science

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