by Alison Bass | Mar 13, 2009 | Uncategorized
The news that a Massachusetts anesthesiologist fabricated data in at least 21 studies (and probably more) is disturbing on several counts. First, it raises serious questions about the credibility of the peer review process at all the supposedly respectable journals...
by Alison Bass | Mar 6, 2009 | Uncategorized
Not a week goes by without news of the growing concern — among consumer advocates, medical students and Congressional watchdogs — about the financial conflicts of interest that bind doctors to the pharmaceutical industry and may bias their judgment about...
by Alison Bass | Feb 26, 2009 | Uncategorized
The New York Times today reported that the Justice Department has sued Forest Labs for defrauding the government of millions of dollars by illegally marketing Celexa and Lexapro, its two blockbuster antidepressants. The fraud complaint is based on allegations that...
by Alison Bass | Feb 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
In a long-overdue step toward health care reform, the massive economic stimulus bill that the Obama administration approved on Tuesday includes $1.1 billion to compare the effectiveness of drugs, medical devices, surgery and other medical procedures. The money will...
by Alison Bass | Feb 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
The health blog of The Wall Street Journal was the first to report Jan. 29 that GlaxoSmithKline is taking a $400 million hit related to federal and state probes into the drug giant’s research and marketing shenanigans. Glaxo announced the charge in its fourth...
by Alison Bass | Jan 27, 2009 | Uncategorized
On Saturday, The Boston Globe ran a front-page story about how three medical groups have threatened to pull their annual meetings out of Boston if the state of Massachusetts restricts drug and medical device promotions at medical meetings and requires the industry to...
by Alison Bass | Jan 21, 2009 | Uncategorized
It’s good to see that our new President is eager to fund the installation of an ambitious electronic medical records system that links doctors and hospitals with patient records, according to The New York Times. But as a number of legislators and consumers...
by Alison Bass | Jan 15, 2009 | Uncategorized
We’ve all heard the ominous reports about newspapers: as their print advertising disappears under the double whammy of the Internet (craiglist etc) and the recession, metropolitan newspapers are being forced to downsize, lay off veteran writers and cut back on...
by Alison Bass | Jan 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
I came back from vacation this week only to be greeted with bad news: Pharmalot, Ed Silverman’s blog on the pharmaceutical industry, is no more. How disappointing! The demise of Pharmalot not only creates a big hole in coverage — for me and many other...
by Alison Bass | Dec 28, 2008 | Uncategorized
Three days before Christmas, Emory University gave its long-time chief of psychiatry a nice holiday gift: in return for his stepping down as psychiatry head, university officials are allowing Charles Nemeroff to stay at the university as a full professor despite his...
