By Darla Carter, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal When Mary Jo Payne hears about efforts to educate the public about cervical cancer, she thinks back to her own encounter with the disease at age 38. For stage IIB cancer, Payne had surgery that lasted seven hours or more to remove the organs in her pelvic area, including […]
Four Creepy Ways Big Pharma Peddles its Drugs
By Martha Rosenberg, AlterNet | News Analysis Big Pharma uses ads that sow hypochondria, raise health fears and sell diseases to adults and their children. It’s no secret that advertising works. Big Pharma wouldn’t spend over $4 billion a year on direct-to-consumer advertising if it didn’t mean massive profits. What is more unknown is why drug ads […]
Prosecutor on vaccine case, sacked adviser
Source: POLITIKA, TANJUG BELGRADE — Organized Crime Prosecutor Miljko Radisavljević says allegations about “proteges” in the swine flue vaccine procurement are “an artificially created scandal”. He added that this was also a “textbook example of the coherence and impact of organized crime on the media.” The prosecutor told daily Politika that many had felt threatened […]
Doctor Alleges Monopoly on Vaccine
By Cheryl Armstrong, Courthouse News Service NEWARK (CN) – In an antitrust class action, a doctor says Sanofi Pasteur, the world’s largest producer of vaccines, uses its monopoly on meningococcal vaccines in the United States to raise prices and crush competition. Sanofi has “an overwhelming 93 percent market share” of the meningococcal vaccine market in […]
Gardasil marketing: putting the profit cart before the proof horse?
By Wendi Lewis On first glance, a study published by drug manufacturer Merck & Co., in the New England Journal of Medicine appears to declare the Gardasil vaccine a resounding success. The pharmaceutical giant points to numbers that show its cervical cancer vaccine has an unbelievable 98 percent efficacy rate. On closer examination, however, perhaps unbelievable is the right word. The study was […]