Instagram Influencers Promote Drugs And Medical Devices

The Latest Instagram Influencer Frontier?  Medical Promotions by Suzanne Zuppello.  Vox.  February 15, 2019. 

DIY Drug Market In China

In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs.  Or Make Their Own by Sui-Lee Wee.  The New York Times.  November 11, 2018. 

Survey Of Pharma Lobbying

Drug Industry Spent Millions To Squelch Talk About High Drug Prices by Jay Hancock.  December 19, 2017. 

Vatican Cites Intellectual Property Law As A Barrier To Affordable Medicines For Poor People

The Vatican Just Called For Reforming The Biggest Health Care Problem You've Never Heard Of by Jack Jenkins.  Thinkprogress.  February 24, 2015. 

Women Physicians Paid Differently And May Practice Medicine Differently; Evidence--Payments By Drug Companies

Men Dominate List Of Doctors Receiving Largest Payments by Charles Ornstein.  The Upshot.  The New York Times.  October 8, 2014.

Walgreen Considers An Unprecedented Move For A U.S. Retailer

Walgreen Weighs Riding Tax-Inversion Wave by Paul Ziobro.  The Wall Street Journal.  July 15, 2014.

Need For Global Regulation Of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Reflected In Concern For Indian Practices

Medicines Made In India Set Off Safety Worries by Gardiner Harris.  The New York Times.  February 14, 2014.

(1)  India's pharmaceutical industry supplies _______ pervcent of over-the-counter and generic prescription drugs consumed in the United States.

(2)  American regulators are scrutinizing Indian firms for __________________________.  

(3)  The World Health Organization estimated that ______________ drugs made in India are fakes.

(4)  There is a long-running effort to create a ______________________ to help scrutinize the growing flood of products coming into the United States.

(5)  _________ of the seafood consumed in the United states is imported.

(6)  The Federal Aviation Administration ____________ india's aviation safety ranking because __________________.

(7)  F.D.A's efforts to increase inspections in China have so far been ____________________.

Top 100 Drugs By Sales And Prescriptions

100 Top Selling Drugs Of 2013 by Megan Brooks.  Medscape.  January 30, 2014.

Listings by sales and prescriptions.

In Significant Development, Johnson & Johnson Agrees To Release Clinical Trial Data To Researchers

Johnson & Johnson Will Release Clinical Data To Researchers by Cheri Cheng.  Counsel  & Heal.  February 1, 2014.

(1)  This action is a significant reversal from when drug-manufacturing companies have been persistent in _________________________________.

(2)   Historically, companies have avoided publishing any negative _________________.

Continuing Industry Trend Of Building Links To Academia, Major Drug Company Moves Corporate Headquarters Near Cambridge University

AstraZeneca Cozies Up To Cambridge University by Jeanne Whalen.  The Wall Street Journal.  October 22, 2013.

(1)  Other pharmaceutical firms have obtained research labs in _________________ which have become centers of _________________.

(2)  A major problem many pharmaceutical companies are also struggling with is how to improve ___________________.

(3)  Most pharmaceutical companies in recent years have ____________ and spend more on ______________ or striking _____________________.

(4)  AstraZeneca said its aim is for its researchers to to create a "very _____________"

(5)  What are some of the possible culture conflicts between Cambridge and ZstraZeneca?

Stems Cells Modified To Target Inflammation And Release Agents To Reduce Swelling

Stem Cells Engineered To Become Targeted Drug Factories.  Science Daily.  October 4, 2013.

(1)  The anti-inflammatory molecule secreted by modified connective tissue is _____________________.

(2)  This proof of concept study is drawing interest from biopharmaceutical companies because of its potential to ________________.

(3)  The rapid targeting of the cells to inflamed tissue produced a therapeutic effect despite ____________________.

CVS Institutes A Program To Limit Inappropriate Prescribing Of Painkillers

Abusive Prescribing Of Controlled Substances---A Pharmacy View by Mitch Betses and Troyen Brenan.  New England Journal Of Medicine.  August 21, 2013.

A major pharmacy chain takes steps to "take action against physicians and other prescribers who exhibit extreme patterns of use of 'high-risk drugs."

Drug Transporters: Key Predictor of Cardiovascular Drug Reaction

Research Looks Into Lessening The Danger Of Cholesterol-Lowering Statin Drugs.  Medicalxpress. August 6, 2013.  

(1)  Statin myopathy results in ______________ affecting up to ______5 of statin users.

(2)  An expert quoted in the article said that "we do not fully understand the _________ necessary for optimal statin therapy."

(3)  Key predictors of patients who will likely have high statin blood levels are the ________________.

(4)  Drug transporters are the ___________________

Sexual Desire Pill For Women May Be On The Shelf Soon; Implications Are Many

Unexcited?  There May Be a Pill For That  by Daniel Bergner.  The New York Times Magazine.  May 22, 2013.    Non-subscribers to the New York times can have access to 10 articles a month.  I would recommend a subscription to this vital publication.

First-Of-Its-Kind Collaboration Aims To Address Two Major Problems

U.S. Government Taps GlaxoSmithKline For New Antibiotics by Ben Hirschler.  Reuters.  May 22, 2013.

(1)  This first of a kind collaboration is designed to address the rise of ___________ and the potential threat that terrorists could _____________________________.

(2)  This arrangement will allow funding to ___________________ rather than _____________.

(3)  While antibiotic resistance has been rising for years drug companies have been reluctant to invest in new medicine because of __________________.

(4)  GlaxoSmithKline will cooperate with the _____________________________(BARDA) in the ________________________________.

(5)  The collaboration will follow a "portfolio approach" allowing work to move __________________  if a particular drug__________________.

Target Marketing Doctors By Prescribing Patterns, Social Networks, Patient Actions, And Insurance

Pills Tracked From Doctor To Patient To Aid Drug Marketing by Katie Thomas.  The New York Times.  May 18, 2013

Read the article and test your recall.

(1)  From the point of view of the drug makers the data analysis they utilize helps doctors by
___________________________________

(2)  Under federal law any __________________ must be removed.

(3)  Over the past decade, the list of available information has expanded to include ___________.

(4)  One company mentioned in the article promises to connect ________________________.

(5)  A medical ethics writer cited in the article says that drug company use of data has become ___________ and comes out of _____________.

(6) True or False:  People in anonymous databases can sometimes be re-identified.

(7) Doctors can opt out of use of their prescribing data through a program set up by ____________________________.

(8)  Drug makers say that by providing information to doctors customized ____________.

(9)  Insurers are interested in this information because __________________________

(10) Use of data is increasingly important to companies because doctors are ____________.

(11)  What is "influence mapping?"

Georgia Compounding Pharmacy Products Recalled Due To Concerns About Sterility Assurance

Compounding Pharmacy Recalls Drugs Over Safety Concerns by Liz Szabo.  USA TODAY.  March 21, 2013.

Clinical Specialities Compounding Pharmacy of Augusta, GA first recall Avastin and later all of its sterile products.  Avastin is used, off-label, for the treatment of macular degeneration.  Five patients have reported serious eye infections linked to Avastin obtained from the pharmacy.

Data Mining Of Internet Search Data Provides Clues To Unforeseen Side Effects

Search Engine Data Gives Early Warning Of Drug Side Effects by Sciencenow.  Wired.  March 7, 2013.

Unreported Side Effects Of Drugs Are Found Using Internet Search Data, Study Finds by John Markoff.  The New York Times.  March 6, 2013.

This "Big Data" tool, using millions of search engine results could be a new tool to spot drug side effects that may have escaped notice in clinical trials and FDA investigations.  The FDA instituted a program in 2008 that plans to monitor drug use by as many as 100 million people in the United States.

Biotech Drugs Still Won't Copy by Christopher Weaver, Jeanne Whalen and Jonathan D. Rockoff.  The Wall Street Journal.  February 26, 2013.

Conventional drugs can be duplicated by reproducing the formula.  Biotech drugs are products of living  cells with altered DNA and are more difficult to reproduce.  The difference between conventional and biotech has significance when patent protection of a drug expires and when generics move into the gap.    While generics of conventional drugs are identical to the original, the similarity of the generics of biotech drugs is more difficult to assess.  The article present issues involved in biosimilar drugs, or the generic equivalent of the biotech drugs.  

Drug Discount Program: Essential Or Abused?

Dispute Develops Over Discount Drug Program by Andrew Pollack.  The New York Times.  February 12, 2013.

A dispute between hospitals and pharmaceutical companies about a a program known as 340B which allows a hospital to purchase drugs at a deep discount if a hospital serves poor people.  The dispute centers around the fact that the hospitals are using the discounted drugs not just for poor people but for Medicare or private insurance payments.  In those cases the hospitals profit from the gap between the discount price and the reimbursement.  The pharmaceutical companies lose in such an arrangement and they are beginning to object.  Hospitals assert that the program was never intended to support only poor people but also the general program of hospitals that treat poor patients.  With the expansion of Medicaid in many states more hospitals will be eligible for the discount.  Of Georgia interest is a quote from the director of pharmacy at Columbus Regional Healthcare System