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Seek Them Out, Do Them In
A very large hat tip to our Inspired Leader's Twitter, which carried this news from Australia's current Vioxx trial. Excerpt provided...It ain't pretty.
Vioxx maker Merck and Co drew up doctor hit list
Milanda Rout April 01, 2009
Article from: The Australian
AN international drug company made a hit list of doctors who had to be "neutralised" or discredited because they criticised the anti-arthritis drug the pharmaceutical giant produced.
Staff at US company Merck &Co emailed each other about the list of doctors - mainly researchers and academics - who had been negative about the drug Vioxx or Merck and a recommended course of action.
The email, which came out in the Federal Court in Melbourne yesterday as part of a class action against the drug company, included the words "neutralise", "neutralised" or "discredit" against some of the doctors' names.
It is also alleged the company used intimidation tactics against critical researchers, including dropping hints it would stop funding to institutions and claims it interfered with academic appointments.
"We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live," a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read to the court by Julian Burnside QC, acting for the plaintiff.
Merck & Co and its Australian subsidiary, Merck, Sharpe and Dohme, are being sued for compensation by more than 1000 Australians, who claim they suffered heart attacks or strokes as a result of Vioxx. ......
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Drug Reimportation Bill
Well folks, it looks like the issue to drug reimportation is back on the table!
Former Presidential candidate Senator McCain has reintroduced a bill to allow FDA approved drugs from Canada, Australia, Europe, etc to be reimported to the US. This is all in an effort to get lower drug prices for Americans.
I am not sure how all of this will work, the backlash could quite possibly be that the drug costs will significantly increase in these other countries. Why do I say that? Very simply, this bill forgets the importance that a drug distributor like McKesson, for example plays in increasing drug costs to end users. So, while some provincial and federal governments in some of these countries do work hard to keep drug costs down because inevitably (oops Nathan there is that word again) the tax payers pay for the drugs through their universal healthcare plans....McKesson and other drug distributors finds many ways to go around them.
My suggestion is that we all need to keep a close ey on our drug costs....Lets see what happens to drug costs in Canada.
Read the full article on PharmaLive, then come back here and have your say....
http://pharmalive.com/news/index.cfm?articleID=609505&categoryid=9&newsletter=1
Former Presidential candidate Senator McCain has reintroduced a bill to allow FDA approved drugs from Canada, Australia, Europe, etc to be reimported to the US. This is all in an effort to get lower drug prices for Americans.
I am not sure how all of this will work, the backlash could quite possibly be that the drug costs will significantly increase in these other countries. Why do I say that? Very simply, this bill forgets the importance that a drug distributor like McKesson, for example plays in increasing drug costs to end users. So, while some provincial and federal governments in some of these countries do work hard to keep drug costs down because inevitably (oops Nathan there is that word again) the tax payers pay for the drugs through their universal healthcare plans....McKesson and other drug distributors finds many ways to go around them.
My suggestion is that we all need to keep a close ey on our drug costs....Lets see what happens to drug costs in Canada.
Read the full article on PharmaLive, then come back here and have your say....
http://pharmalive.com/news/index.cfm?articleID=609505&categoryid=9&newsletter=1
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