By Martha Rosenberg There’s nothing like a celebrity endorsement to move a drug off the shelves and into the nation’s medicine cabinets. TV personality Joan Lunden and former baseball star Mike Piazza stumped for the allergy pill Claritin, ice skater Dorothy Hamill and track star Bruce Jenner for the pain pill Vioxx, and Sen. Bob […]
Gardasil: The Sales Pitch
By Maureen Lafrenière Last year’s federal budget commitment of $300 million to vaccinate girls and women against human papillomavirus (HPV) received a mixed reaction from consumers, health professionals and the media. Although preceded by Health Canada approval in 2006 and a positive recommendation from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, the March 2007 budget announcement took […]