by Alison Bass | Sep 3, 2009 | Uncategorized
When I was writing Side Effects, I learned that the New York State Attorney General’s office had sued Pfizer for the illegal off-label marketing of Bextra, its Cox-2 painkiller. (If you’ll recall, Bextra, like Vioxx, was withdrawn from the market because...
by Alison Bass | Aug 31, 2009 | Uncategorized
I can relate to Katherine Snow Smith, the mom in Florida who wrote in the St. Petersburg Times about how she lost it with her kids one time too many. But what I can’t relate to is Smith’s decision that she needs to take a potent psychoactive drug to calm...
by Alison Bass | Aug 26, 2009 | Uncategorized
Madness Radio, the radio station affiliated with Freedom Center, a nonprofit advocacy group for people with mental illness, interviewed me about Side Effects, the story behind the deceptive marketing of Paxil, and the ongoing battle to clean up corruption in the...
by Alison Bass | Aug 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
Many mental health professionals remain concerned that the regulatory warnings put on antidepressants in this and other countries have had a deleterious effect, possibly leading to an increase in depression and suicides among young people. This concern has been stoked...
by Alison Bass | Aug 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
It’s good to see The New York Times maintain a spotlight on the widespread practice of ghostwriting in drug research. In her article today, Natasha Singer focuses on Wyeth’s use of a ghostwriting firm to prepare an estimated 60 articles favorable to its...
by Alison Bass | Aug 17, 2009 | Uncategorized
It looks like the Obama administration may be backing off its insistence on a public health plan option in the health care reform bill wending its way through Congress. I’m sorry to hear that because I believe that the inclusion of a government-run plan (like...
by Alison Bass | Aug 13, 2009 | Uncategorized
In recent weeks, researchers with ties to the drug industry have once again tried to drum up opposition to the FDA’s black box warnings on antidepressants for children and young adults. The latest dart came in an Archives of General Psychiatry study in June...
by Alison Bass | Aug 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
At a conference I attended yesterday in Boston on Reinventing Journalism, the talk was all about how online social media tools are introducing new models of sharing information and helping journalists do their jobs better. The panelists made scant reference to the...
by Alison Bass | Jul 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
Since Congress isn’t going to pass a health care reform bill any time soon, this looks like a good time to take some vacation. I will resume blogging the week of August 3. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new...
by Alison Bass | Jul 21, 2009 | Uncategorized
In response to my blog on Frances Collins last week, a reader pointed out that the kind of data image manipulation that Collins belatedly discovered in his own lab is more common than many scientists would like to admit: as much as 25 percent of scientific papers...
