Using court documents from lawsuits over Merck’s Vioxx, a study in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association found that Merck often wrote first drafts or commissioned for-profit ghostwriters to write academic articles on the pain drug, then

Over at A Healthy Blog, our friends at Health Care For All (a member of the Prescription Access Litigation coalition) report today on the fight that is brewing in the Massachusetts legislature over a proposed ban on pharma gifts to physicians. They quo

The National Institutes of Health has a new online database, the Dietary Supplements Labels Database. This website allows you to look up the ingredients of over 2,000 brands of dietary supplements. You can look up your vitamins or supplements by brand, a

One of the beauty’s of the American marketplace is this: If you can buy ad-space, you can sell your wares, even when those wares have been proved a sham. This week’s proof? Vytorin.  Clinical trials of the combo-cholesterol drug, which were subject to a l

We bring you the second installment of our new feature, PAL Coalition Member Spotlights. In these Spotlights, we introduce you to our coalition members and give you the opportunity to hear from them about the work they do and the pressing concerns of thei

For anyone reading pharmaceutical news, this week was All Vytorin, all the time. For many, the plot is twisted but familiar. Vytorin is a combination drug of Merck’s Zocor (a cholesterol drug in the simvastatin family) and Schering-Plough’s Zetia, an eze

Julie Appleby at USA Today has a story in today's edition, "Drug costs rise as economy slides". In it, she says: People with health insurance are having more trouble paying for prescription drugs as higher out-of-pocket costs for medications and a slowin

In December 2003, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) decided to increase the price of its HIV/AIDS drug Norvir (ritonavir) by 400%. PAL member Service Employees International Union Health & Welfare Fund filed a class action lawsuit against Abbott in Octobe

Prescription Access Litigation (PAL) coalition member National Women's Health Network and MergerWatch, which is also part of PAL's parent organization, Community Catalyst, announce an important national conference coming up on April 17 and 18 in Boston,