A study published today shows that clinical trials with industry sponsorship report greater benefits and fewer harmful side effects. In the discussion, the authors note that most reviews and guidelines…
Pathology service providers should be encouraged to adopt a code of conduct similar to that of Medicines Australia.
Waiting room image from shutterstock.com
You’ve probably given little thought to the slip of paper your GP hands you when she sends you off for a blood test. After all, you’re likely to have more important things to worry about. But the next…
Australia has almost no capacity to fill international medicine shortages.
artisrams
The earthquake in the Northern Italian town of Medolla this May devastated the local community, killing 17 people and leaving 14,000 homeless. Because Medolla is the manufacturing epicentre of the Italian…
Pharmaceutical companies undertake clinical trials to determine whether a potential new drug meets the requirements for market authorisation.
Chain of figures photo from www.shutterstock.com
New medicines must be approved as safe, efficacious and of good quality before they can be prescribed. But authors of two recent articles in the British Medical Journal argue that governments should introduce…
Australia has no public register of gift or other relationships between practitioners and drug companies.
Aidan Jones
If it involved the record industry we’d call it payola: undisclosed kickbacks to radio station executives, owners and disk jockeys to boost broadcasts and thus record sales. In the pharmaceutical industry…
Drug prices reduce dramatically when large multinationals’ monopoly is broken.
m.p.3./Flickr
Two large multinational pharmaceutical companies are fighting for patents and monopoly pricing in Indian courts. The outcomes of the cases – involving Novartis and Bayer – are likely to determine the country…
Anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor has come off patent and faces tough competition from generic versions.
The.Comedian/Flickr
Anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor® (atorvastatin) has been estimated to generate Pfizer revenues of more than $130bn worldwide. Australian taxpayers' share of this is about $7bn, through subsidies from the…
SKB knew eight adolescents self-harmed or reported emergent suicidal ideas compared to only one in the placebo group but hid this.
Michael Valli
TRANSPARENCY AND MEDICINE – A series examining issues from ethics to the evidence in evidence-based medicine, the influence of medical journals to the role of Big Pharma in our present and future health…
If there are legitimate reasons for drug companies to gift doctors, then it should be disclosed.
Steven Depolo/Flickr
How would you feel if your local GP or specialist was pocketing money from a drug company to promote its products? If your gut tells you that this falls squarely into the category of Very Bad Ideas then…
Pharmaceutical companies are working in partnership with academia to bring drug candidates to clinical development.
Spark/Flickr
By Guy Krippner, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute
The 2008 global financial crisis and an impending “patent cliff” have had a profound impact on the profitability of the pharmaceutical industry – they have made it change how it works. So, to maintain…
Repositioning a drug affords pharmaceutical companies the opportunity to enhance the return on their initial investment.
bitzi/flickr
Many pharmaceutical companies are having to re-examine their product portfolio because of the difficult economic climate. New uses for established drugs affords a way for these companies to maximise financial…
The increasing trend of outsourcing drug production is leading to shortages in cancer drugs.
Flickr
It’s the pharmaceutical industry equivalent of the butterfly effect: a drug manufacturing plant in Ohio shuts down production after regulators on two continents uncover contamination problems. Suddenly…
Vioxx was withdrawn from the Australian market in October 2004 and there’s an ongoing compensation case.
DaGoaty/Flickr
The enormous medical impact of modern pharmaceuticals has on occasion been matched by some large-scale litigation regarding adverse events. The Vioxx litigation in Australia and elsewhere is one such recent…
The Pharmacy Guild has a deal that encourages pharmacists to sign up patients to Pzifer’s support programs.
Marcus Q
First it was the Pharmacy Guild’s deal with Blackmores that raised ethical concerns. Now it’s the Guild and Pfizer.
Both deals involve undisclosed payments from drug companies to Guild subsidiaries to…
Pharmaceuticals giant Merck has maintained a low-profile, despite a series of major law suits.
AAP
Welcome to “The most powerful companies you’ve never heard of” – an ongoing series from The Conversation that sheds light on big companies with low profiles. Today, Deakin University’s Philip Soos examines…
Doctors' wining and dining by drug companies distort prescribing patterns and may influence them to recommend less-than-ideal drugs.
PhillipC/Flickr
This week Radio National’s Background Briefing looks at how pharmaceutical companies market their products to doctors.
The program is presented by Ray Moynihan, an award-winning journalist, columnist…
They may have the same active ingredient, but fillers, colours and lubricants may vary.
Flickr/Harsh Vardhan
“Would you like the generic brand of that medicine?” It’s a question you’ve probably been asked, or at least heard, when picking up a prescription at your local pharmacy.
It’s likely you were told the…
Uncertainty about how drugs will be listed on the PBS has patient groups, health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry worried.
LadyofProcrastination/Wikimedia Commons
Any parent who watches kids' weekend footy knows that if the ref misses a breach of the rules, merry hell breaks loose.
But referees are human and sometimes make errors. We forgive the odd one pretty…
A test case is slated to challenge Myriad’s claim for breast cancer genetic mutations next February.
TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³/Flickr
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has found Myriad Genetics is entitled to patents on two sets human genetic mutations used to predict if women have an increased risk of breast and ovarian…
