Hope your day is getting off to a good start. This is the beginning of what we call 'Son of Pharmalot,' a more modest version of the site since, as noted in our greeting the other day, posting will be more sporadic than in the past. Nonetheless, we hope you'll continue to stop by. And so, the time has come again for a cup of stimulation, and maybe a water bottle, too....
France's Chirac Vows Tough Action on Counterfeits (The Financial Times)
UK's NICE Offers Rationing Tips To Other Countries (Reuters)
Onyx Will Buy Proteolix For $276 Million (Reuters)
Vermont Doc Chafes At Speakers Bureaus (The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus)
3 Comments
Nice to see Pharmalot running again!
Welcome back Ed. Thanks for the article on the Vermont Doc and Schering Plough's sublingual asenapine. $170K for docs to push a drug that's going to result in widespread toxicity in kids. Why even the pediatric psychiatrist at the FDA AC meeting was already pushing it in kids (I mean all his patients who have difficulty swallowing tablets) already.
Salmon
Now that "consultants" can't be paid to offer their "opinions" any longer, we are back to the good old Promotional Program, where a practitioner willingly becomes a shill for the company and gives a "lecture".
Remember these are "Promotional programs", not CME.
By their very nature, they are biased, because the speaker can only use company approved slides, not that pharma companies would have biased decks. The practitioners I know that do these (and I know many) fall into 1 of 3 categories 99.9% of the time. 1- it pays good money, plus expenses 2 - it helps them reach out to build referrals (they or the companies would never admit this) 3 -Ego - they really think they can teach most of their collegues.
I have been surprised at some of the "virtous" Docs that have gone this way lately as reimbursements get cut to bolster income.