There's a bevy of opinion pieces and articles about drug marketing in the news today, mostly in the wake of the "Jarvik-row-gate," the scandal concerning Dr. Robert Jarvik, Lipitor pitchman, being neither a licensed physician nor a practicing rower. We

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that academic medical centers have been slow – or slower than hoped – in addressing institutional conflicts of interest (ICOI) in a formal way. The gist – of 125 medical schools surveyed

At the recent Prescription Access Litigation Annual Dinner, (where we announced our first Annual Blockbuster Awards), we featured a pharmaceutically-oriented version of the classic Abbott and Costello comedy sketch, "Who's On First?" (Original here). Whi

One of my favorite organizations is Breast Cancer Action, which is also a member of the Prescription Access Litigation coalition. (See previous PAL blog posts about them here. They are the brilliant and creative people behind the Think Before You Pink ca

This week, drug giant Merck is out $671 million in combined settlements in one whopper of a health care fraud case.  Prosecutors for the states and federal government alleged that the maker of Vioxx and Zocor overcharged 49 states and the District of Colu

On Feb 6, David Lazarus, writer of "Consumer Confidential" for the Los Angeles Times, wrote an article on drug advertising, "Ads spur urge for drugs". The article didn't break any new ground in its analysis of how drug ads spur people to ask for drugs the

In case anyone had lingering doubts about Merck [NYSE:MRK], the embattled maker of Vioxx is in the news again. This time for agreeing to pay a $671 million to federal and state prosecutors for allegedly overcharging government programs for four drugs -- Z

The most recent issue of Health Affairs (subscription required) has an intriguing proposal on how we might pay for drugs to maximize the number of people who need drugs actually taking them while minimizing cost. ("Drug Licenses: A New Model For Pharmaceu

Last month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced that it would be looking into the use of celebrities in drug advertisements, and in particular into the appearance of Doctor Jarvik in Pfizer's ads for Lipitor. We posted "Should you trust Dr.