by Alison Bass | May 30, 2012 | biotech industry, clinical trials, conflicts of interest, drug marketing, pharmaceutical industry, Uncategorized
Senior executives at Vertex Pharmaceuticals made millions of dollars each by selling company stock in the days after the Cambridge-based pharmaceutical reported promising clinical trial data on an experimental drug for cystic fibrosis. And then weeks after they cashed...
by Alison Bass | May 16, 2012 | clinical trials, conflicts of interest, drug marketing, FDA, medical devices, pharmaceutical industry, public health
Congress is moving quickly to pass a bill that would authorize higher industry fees for the FDA in exchange for speeding up the approval of some drugs and medical devices and eliminating restrictions on financial conflicts of interest among the agency’s advisory...
by Alison Bass | Feb 20, 2012 | antidepressants, conflicts of interest, drug marketing, health care costs, pharmaceutical industry
When Dr. Irving Kirsch published his meta-analysis in PLoS Medicine in February 2008 showing that antidepressants were no more effective than a placebo in treating mild or moderate depression, the national news media ignored his explosive findings, for the most part....
by Alison Bass | Feb 7, 2012 | antidepressants, clinical trials, conflicts of interest, FDA, ghostwriting, pharmaceutical industry, scientific journal retractions, scientific misconduct
I was hesitant to weigh in at first when I learned that Brown University’s School of Medicine had decided not to pressure a psychiatric journal to retract the seriously flawed Paxil study that I wrote about in Side Effects. After all, Brown has been covering up...
by Alison Bass | Jan 26, 2012 | antidepressants, conflicts of interest, continuing medical education, drug marketing, ghostwriting, pharmaceutical industry, university industry collaboration
The Obama administration recently made it clear that it will require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment under the new health care law — see the New York Times. Large numbers...
by Alison Bass | Jan 18, 2012 | antipsychotic drugs, conflicts of interest, drug marketing, expert testimony, media coverage, pharmaceutical industry, whistleblowing
Allen Jones, the whistleblower in an ongoing landmark trial against the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, was very much on my mind this past weekend. I was participating in a workshop to develop curriculum to teach college students about the importance of...
