A Perfect Post on Avandia

Roy Poses of Health Care Renewal has penned a post that debunks GlaxoSmithKline's latest PR stunts regarding Avandia. Read it now. Included are our friends at Drug Wonks, a congressman, how GSK came to begrudgingly put its clinical trial data online, and much more.

Pepsi: Good for What Ails You

Roy Poses, as usual, has a great take on a story that you just could not have made up, even if you tried your hardest.

Deborah Powell, the Dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School, has taken a board of directors position for PepsiAmericas, which is interesting considering that Pepsi consumption promotes both tooth rot and obesity. Don't get me wrong, there is such a thing as responsible Pepsi consumption, but should a Med School Dean be in the position of helping to maximize Pepsi sales? Perhaps she can also be on the Board of Philip Morris or Coors?

Read the whole story, then roll your eyes and/or bang your head, as you deem appropriate.

The Mask, Missing Safety Studies, WHO, and More

A few links to posts I've found notable and relevant the past few days, then likely not much more out of me for the day...

Pharma Giles insists on continually being funny. Just a heads up that the latest post there is laugh-inducing. It involves a Darth Vader mask, a Hannibal Lechter mask, satire regarding Exubera, and more.

Oh, and the rant on the Pharma Giles site from last week was a thing of beauty.

As if Exubera is not getting kicked around enough, Brandweek attempts to slam more nails into the coffin of the bong-like insulin inhaler. A great read.

Meanwhile, Furious Seasons was among the first to discuss some of Marcia Angell's prescient comments regarding the drug industry. Did you know, for example, that drug companies frequently promise the FDA that they will conduct studies regarding the safety of their products, yet about 70% of these studies have apparently never been conducted?? Are you kidding me?

PharmaGossip notes that Abbott is cutting scientists from its workforce. Hopefully the marketing staff is safe. Insider also notes that the counter-detailing movement has started. Yep, individuals are hitting doctors' offices armed with science rather than sales scripts, sometimes even suggesting (*gasp*) that physicians may want to prescribe older, less expensive treatments! Oh the horror! Could this movement catch on?

Last, but not least, Health Care Renewal has posted on the World Health Organization seemingly accepting money from drug companies after the money was first laundered by patient advocacy groups.

Whisteblower Gets Smacked: What a Story...

Health Care Renewal has a post that tells a striking story about what can happen to whistleblowers. Here's the abbreviated version...

Paul Kornak (who went by Dr. Kornak yet never completed medical training) fiddled with medical records in drug studies and, adding injury to insult, apparently pled guilty to negligent homicide of a patient in a chemotherapy study. Making this tragic tale even worse was that when a few brave souls attempted to blow the whistle on dear Mr. Kornak, they were punished. This scandal could not be put at the feet of a greedy corporation... this was all done in the VA medical system. The retribution taken against the whistleblowers involved the loss of employment and trumped-up charges of patient abuse and practicing medicine outside of competence areas. If you think the teaser sounds bad, wait until you read the whole story.

Read more about the story at Health Care Renewal.

Words of Wisdom

Dr. Roy Poses at Health Care Renewal has a fantastic post about the fabricated data regarding the antibiotic Ketek, as well as the FDA's decision to look the other way regarding Ketek's poor safety record. I strongly suggest y'all read the full post here.

At the bottom of the post, after describing much about the Ketek story, Dr. Poses offers the following:

Unfortunately, these sorts of stories suggest that patients and physicians need to be very skeptical about the integrity of the evidence used to support use of the latest, greatest, and most expensive pharmaceuticals. If the drug industry wants to improve its sagging reputation, it will have to show that it can clean up how it does clinical research. Or perhaps we ought to think about getting drug (and biotechnology and device) companies out of the business of sponsoring clinical research on products in which they have vested interests? Of course, such a change will threaten quite a few peoples' sources of incomes, so we can expect plenty of resistance to it.

Amen!