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News and Notes
Wednesday October 3 5:20 PM ET Drug Company to Pay $875 Million in Fraud Case ------------------------------------------------------------------ By Tim McLaughlin BOSTON (Reuters) - A joint venture between two drug companies has agreed to pay $875 million to resolve criminal and civil charges that it fraudulently priced and marketed a prostate cancer drug, US prosecutors said on Wednesday. TAP Pharmaceutical Products, a joint venture between Abbott Laboratories Inc. and Japan's Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd., agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy to violate the Prescription Drug Marketing Act and to pay a $290 million criminal fine--the largest criminal fine ever in a U.S. health-care fraud prosecution case, the Justice Department (news - web sites) said.
Friday October 5 10:49 AM ET Magazine Drug Ads Deemed Too Vague------------------------------------------------------------------ By Amy Norton NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Magazine ads for prescription drugs are high on emotional appeal, but short on evidence that they work, researchers report. Urging consumers to help their children fight allergies or to question whether their memory lapses might be Alzheimer's, most drug ads favor ``vague'' claims over clinical data, according to a report in the October 6th issue of The Lancet. Looking at ads in 70 issues of 10 leading US consumer magazines, researchers found that 87% chose ``vague, qualitative terms'' to describe the medication's benefits rather than providing research evidence. "Our findings indicate that these advertisements rarely quantify a medication's expected benefit, and instead make an emotional appeal,'' write Dr. Steven Woloshin and his colleagues at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (news - web sites) Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont. "This strategy,'' they add, "probably leaves many readers with the perception that the drug's benefit is large and that everyone who uses the drug will enjoy the benefit.''
Wednesday October 10 5:21 PM ET Arthritis, Crohn's Drug Linked to 70 TB Cases------------------------------------------------------------------ By Amy Norton BOSTON (Reuters) - A joint venture between two drug companies has agreed to pay $875 million to resolve criminal and civil charges that it fraudulently priced and marketed a prostate cancer drug, US prosecutors said on Wednesday. TAP Pharmaceutical Products, a joint venture between Abbott Laboratories Inc. and Japan's Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd., agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy to violate the Prescription Drug Marketing Act and to pay a $290 million criminal fine--the largest criminal fine ever in a U.S. health-care fraud prosecution case, the Justice Department (news - web sites) said.
Saturday October 20 02:37 AM EDT X-ray Division------------------------------------------------------------------ By Adam Marcus HealthScoutNews Reporter FRIDAY, Oct. 19 (HealthScoutNews) -- When two Danish researchers declared last year that routine mammograms didn't save lives, they were roundly criticized, and their work was discredited even by many colleagues. But in either a display of gluttony for punishment or scientific martyrdom, the two scientists say they've reviewed the data a second time and reached the same conclusion: Screening by mammography is at best a sketchy use of resources. It may lead to more aggressive treatments that could put women at unnecessary risk of harm, they reiterate. The new review appears in the latest issue of the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet. |
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