Prescription Access Litigation gives latest Bitter Pill Award to GlaxoSmithKline Drugmaker gets the ‘With Allies Like This, Who Needs Enemas?’ Award for Irresponsibly Selling a Formerly Prescription-Only Weight Loss Drug Over-the-Counter BOSTON, MA – Pr

Last year, we gave one of our Bitter Pill Awards to PhRMA, The "Fox Guarding the Henhouse" Award For Pushing Toothless Voluntary Guidelines on Drug Advertising. This honor was bestowed on PhRMA in the wake of its promulgating vague and unenforceable "Gui

In 2005 and 2006, PAL gave out the annual Bitter Pill Awards: Exposing Drug Company Manipulation of Consumers. The BPAs are awarded to the most egregious, outrageous or manipulative Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical ad campaigns of the past year.

Great article in today's Washington Post: "Doctors, Legislators Resist Drugmakers' Prying Eyes". The article discusses the now-hot issue of whether the data of what drugs Doctors prescribe should be private, or whether drug companies should be able to pu

The New England Journal of Medicine yesterday released a study showing that Avandia, a popular drug for treatment of Diabetes, increases the risk of heart attack by 43%. This story was widely reported in the mainstream media (see, e.g., the Associated P

Here's the latest installment of Ask Pharmie, where our guide Pharmie answers your questions on all things pharmaceutical. At my local drugstore, I see drugs that are available Over-the-Counter (without a prescription) that I used to need a prescription

How many pharmaceutical executives does it take to screw in a light bulb? (By Prescription Access Litigation) Seven: One to screw in the light bulb; One to file a patent for "A method for insertion of a light-emitting glass fixture into a power source

It's amazing how few doctors are aware -- and how shocked they are to learn - that pharmaceutical companies routinely purchase their prescribing data from pharmacies. So that attractive detailer walking into the Doctor's office knows exactly how many pre

The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) reauthorization, passed last week by the Senate (but not yet by the House of Representatives) contained a wide variety of sections unrelated to FDA User Fees. One of these, section 519 would permit the FDA to im