It’s been a bad time in court and in the media for Big Pharma. Last week, according to the Wall Street Journal, Merck agreed to pay $950 million and plead guilty to a criminal misdemeanor charge to resolve allegations that the company promoted its now-defunct pain drug Vioxx for rheumatoid arthritis before the FDA approved it for that use. USA Today reports that in the last year the drug company Johnson and Johnson has been found liable or reached settlements totaling $751 million in taxpayer health care fraud claims and paid $70 million to settle foreign bribery charges. And in Montana, the Billings Gazette reports that Montana doctors, pharmacists and other health care professionals received $692,983 in payments and perks from drug companies between 2009 and early 2011, a practice that is legal but troubling to most patients and to medical ethicists.
Kraft to Introduce New Energy Drink Despite Health Concerns
Kraft Foods Inc. will enter the energy drink market by launching trial caffeinated versions of its popular MiO drink starting around the new year, reports the International Business Times. Kraft spokeswoman Bridget MacConnell said it’s a near-$6 billion market annually. “We think it’s a terrific product,” MacConnell told the Times. “Consumers have told us this is something they’re looking for. We’re very positive.” A recent review of the scientific literature on energy drinks in the medical journal Pediatrics concluded that, “energy drinks have no therapeutic benefit, and many ingredients are understudied and not regulated. The known and unknown pharmacology of agents included in such drinks, combined with reports of toxicity, raises concern for potentially serious adverse effects in association with energy-drink use.”
New Website Helps Marketers Target African-Americans
The Cabletelevsion Advertising Bureau, a trade organization, has launched a new website to help advertisers reach African-American markets. Reachingblackconsumers.com, says Cynthia Perkins-Roberts, VP of Multicultural Marketing & Sales Development for the Bureau, is a “groundbreaking new website” that “synthesizes all the expert data on today’s Black consumer, in one convenient place.”
Pharmacists Fight Higher Drug Prices
A national coalition of US pharmacists and pharmacy owners has begun a public information campaign to “expose the unjustifiably high prices of prescription drugs set by pharmacy benefits managers [PBMs],” reports PharmaTimes. The coalition Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency, which has members in 40 US states, describes PBMs as an “unregulated, multibillion-dollar industry” that controls prescription health plans for more than 200 million Americans. The coalition says it began the campaign to protect benefit plan sponsors and enrollees from overpaying for prescription drugs.
Federal Judge Blocks Graphic Warnings on Cigarette Packs
On November 7, a federal judge blocked implementation of a law that would have mandated tobacco companies to include on cigarette packages graphic pictures and messages showing the dangers of smoking. In his preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said the tobacco companies had shown a substantial likelihood of success, and that allowing the labeling requirements to proceed would cause them to “suffer irreparable harm.” He further said that the public’s “interest in the protection of its First Amendment rights against unconstitutionally compelled speech would be furthered.” According to CNN, Richard Daynard, a professor at Northeastern University Law School and head of the Tobacco Products Liability Project, said the case may not be resolved for years, and the matter is an urgent one. “Even a relatively modest percentage improvement or a percentage reduction in initiation or continued use will potentially save tens of thousands of lives per year,” he said.
Boulder Says No to Corporate Personhood
On November 2nd, Boulder, Colorado, became the second city in the nation to pass a ballot measure calling for an amendment to the US Constitution that would state that corporations are not people and establish that money is not free speech. The measure won with more than 70 percent of voters in support. Boulder’s campaign is the latest grassroots effort by Move to Amend, a national coalition working to abolish corporate personhood.
FDA Requests Proposals for Anti-Smoking Campaigns
The Food and Drug Administration has issued two requests for proposals for an integrated anti-smoking campaign targeting teens, reports Ad Age. With a total budget of up to $600 million over five years, the new campaigns will be overseen by the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products and Tobacco Control Act, which “grants the FDA the authority to regulate the manufacture, distribution and marketing of tobacco product.”
Multiracial Coalition Supports Higher California Cigarette Tax
At a briefing in California last week a group of multiracial activists assembled in support of the passage of the California Cancer Research Act (CCRA), writes Olu Alemoru of the Los Angeles Wave. The CCRA would add $1 to each pack of cigarettes sold in California and generate over $855 million in its first year which could be used for cancer research as well as California’s tobacco control and prevention program. Speakers cited research showing that African-Americans lose more years of life than all other groups from smoking-related causes, and that tobacco outlets and advertising are disproportionately concentrated in the African-American community. They also noted that three thousand Hispanics die every year from smoking-related illnesses.
West Virginia Court Tries Altria and Reynolds American
Bloomberg News reports tobacco companies including Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris unit and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. are on trial for more that 600 smoking-related personal- injury cases. The trial is to determine whether cigarettes are defective products, whether the companies failed to warn about the dangers of smoking, broke express warranties and fraudently concealed information from smokers. Kenneth McClain, a lawyer for the smokers, said last week, “This case is about the corporations’ responsibility. They were actively keeping from the public the information that they had.” Courts are hearing similar cases in Florida and Missouri.
Use of Anti-Depressants Quadruples in 23 Years
A new report from the U.S. Center for Disease Control reports that use of antidepressant drugs has soared nearly 400 percent since 1988. Fewer than one-third of Americans taking one antidepressant and less than one-half of those taking multiple antidepressants have seen a mental-health professional in the past year, the report shows. Experts attribute the rise in part to direct-to-consumer advertising of antidepressants.
Corporations and Health Watch 