Former Roche employee is questioning the drug marketing of oseltamivir (tamiflu) to businesses in order to promote business continuity. He claims that there was no effort to speak only to healtcare professionals, as the law requires for prescription drugs.
BMJ 2010; 340:c2805
New BMA guidance advises that medical students should not accept gifts from pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical Marketing and Medical Students warns that medical students may cope less well with marketing techniques than qualified doctors. It also encourages medical students to develop critical appraisal skills. Read the full guidance at www.bma.org.uk/education.
EU law is not contravened by NHS schemes that offer financial incentives to prescribe cheaper generic drugs. The judges ruled that NHS schemes are compatible with law as doctors are obliged to prescribe in patients best interests and therefore will not be swayed by financial incentives.
BMJ 2010;340:c2232
There is an interesting article in this week’s BMJ regarding a letter that was written to the Times by various doctors warning against generic drugs and supporting branded ones. This letter was in response to a recent DH consultation on prescribing generics. However, it seems that this article was spearheaded by a small pharmaceutical company Norgine although conflicts of interest were not stated within the letter.
Read more at BMJ, 2010. 340 (7747), pp627.
AstraZeneca is to reduce its staff, shut operations, and cease research into several diseases as part of a wide ranging restructuring, unveiled at the start of March. The company will close some research centres in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the United States and is set to cut 3500 posts in research and development by 2014. It will stop all future research into 10 diseases, including acid reflux, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. It warned that patent expiries in the next few years could put sharp pressure on sales
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/340/mar08_2/c1365
England’s Department of Health has launched a consultation on proposals for automatic generic substitution, in which pharmacists could dispense generic forms of drugs instead of branded versions even if the prescribing doctor or nurse has written a prescription for a brand.
The consultation report outlines three options. The first is to keep the current arrangements, in which pharmacists are required to dispense exactly what is written on a prescription and cannot substitute a generic version for a brand name drug without prior agreement with the prescriber. The second would allow substitution of generic equivalents but would specify a list of exempt products. The third option, preferred by the health department, would allow generic substitution of a specified group of products.
Read article at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/340/jan08_3/c135
GSK has changed its policy on continuing medical education (CME) and will fund less, and only independent sessions with balanced information.
Read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092101342.html
Former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was talking about weapons of mass destruction and the war in Iraq when he referred to “unknown unknowns” in 2002, but he could just as easily have been explaining why drug companies have been able to make money out of the global flu pandemic. Within a few months of his comments, a series of events began to fuel growing international concern about a new pandemic. The mixture of fear and ignorance over its timing, nature, and severity soon sparked an unexpected bonanza for the manufacturers.
Since the emergence of swine flu in Mexico this spring finally triggered the first pandemic in four decades, J P Morgan, the investment bank, estimates that governments have made fresh orders for antiviral drugs of $3bn (£1.8bn; 2bn) and that recent or potential sales of vaccines are $7bn.1 All that despite signs that the virus is proving relatively mild, with potentially less impact than a standard seasonal flu outbreak.
One beneficiary has been Gilead, a fast growing US biotech business that initially developed the antiviral medicine oseltamivir (Tamiflu). In the three months to June this year alone it reported $52m in royalties on its drug. Another who gained was Rumsfeld, Gilead’s former chairman and continuing shareholder, who stressed that he disqualified himself from decisions that could have caused conflicts of interest.2
Read the full story at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/339/sep18_2/b3811
Europe’s member states are at loggerheads over plans to relax current restrictions on pharma communicating with patients.
The plans tabled by Commissioner Verheugen would allow pharma to communicate directly with patients via mediums like the internet, though through a strict vetting system. This would end current rules which outlaw any communication with patients, but Europe is deeply divided on the issue.
The various governments divide into two broad camps those who favour a more liberal approach to regulating pharmas communications, and those who demand more restrictions.
The UK, Sweden, and Denmark are among the most prominent countries who want a more liberal approach, while Germany, France and Spain take a more conservative approach.
The pharma industry’s European body EFPIA is keen to see a change to the status quo, but spokesman Colin Mackay is not optimistic of a breakthrough any time soon: “We probably wont see much happening this or next year,” he said.
Tuesday , September 01, 2009
http://www.pharmafocus.com/cda/focusH/1,2109,21-0-0-SEP_2009-focus_news_detail-0-493131,00.html
MORE than 150 girls in Scotland have suffered adverse reactions after receiving the cervical cancer vaccine introduced last autumn, The Scotsman can reveal.
Campaigners are calling for the vaccination programme to be suspended, claiming there are unanswered questions about the long-term effectiveness and safety of Cervarix. They are concerned that official information refers to mild side-effects, when some girls have reported serious reactions to the jab.
The families of six girls in England are suing GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the maker of Cervarix, after the girls suffered severe reactions resulting in partial paralysis, seizures and chronic fatigue. The Scotsman has learned two more have contacted the same solicitor after suffering severe painful swelling of joints.
The Scottish Government and GSK insist the number of adverse reactions experienced is in line with any mass vaccination programme. However, an investigation by The Scotsman has also discovered the guidance sent out on the £64 million vaccination programme was changed in several respects before being distributed to parents – after the intervention of a drug company.
http://www.scotsman.com/latestnews/Fears-over-reactions-to-cervical.5319871.jp
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