|
Industry News
Big
Pharma self-medicates in a bid to lift ailing returns - July 27, 2008
Big
pharmaceutical companies are looking for new sources of profit. Many blockbuster
medicines are coming off patent and prices for prescription drugs are falling as
governments and health insurers demand bigger discounts. In the US, the
public has turned against the drug firms, which for years could push through
huge price increases thanks to their marketing clout and influence on Capitol
Hill.
Should
Doctors be Selling Drugs for the Pharmaceutical Industry? - June 20,
2008
Are senior doctors who
help drug companies sell their drugs independent experts or just
drug representatives in disguise, asks Ray Moynihan from the
University of Newcastle in Australia, in the British Medical
Journal.
Drug
Spending Moves Up for Diabetes, Down for Cholesterol
- May 15, 2008
In health spending, how many people are
being treated for a disease can be a lot less important than how much it costs
to treat each person. That's what we took from this report out today from
Medco, the pharmacy benefits manager.
Use of diabetes drugs increased only 2.3%
last year, but spending rose 12%. The big driver was the introduction of new,
expensive medicines that replace or are added to older, cheaper ones.
More
Americans are Taking Prescription Medications - May 14, 2008
Experts say the data reflect not just
worsening public health but better medicines for chronic conditions and more
aggressive treatment by doctors. For example, more people are now taking blood
pressure and cholesterol-lowering medicines because they need them, said Dr.
Daniel W. Jones, president of the American Heart Association.
In addition, there is the pharmaceutical
industry's relentless advertising. With those factors unlikely to change,
doctors say the proportion of Americans on chronic medications can only grow.
Alzheimer's
rates expected to climb among minority elderly - April 28,
2008
As research
findings coalesce around a collection of risk factors for Alzheimer's disease,
it is becoming obvious that poor and minority populations -- the ones most
likely to harbor risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes --also are more
likely than whites to encounter this brain disorder.
Why isn't the richest country in the
world the healthiest? -
July 3, 2007
Americans
die younger and spend more years disabled than our counterparts in
Canada
and
Europe. Our infant mortality rate is higher,
too. And yet, even though the most common objections to nationalized health
care from its opponents in the
U.S.
are that it's too expensive, too restrictive and too
inefficient, we spend way more money on health care than they do. Why, if our
health care is the best in the world
and
we spend more money on it than anyone else
and
the free market is a marvel of efficiency, aren't our results the best in the
world?
How to dispose of Rx drugs safely
- July 5, 2007
With
the rise in prescription drug abuse, three federal agencies issued guidelines
earlier this year for disposing of medications without harming the environment.
Study
finds higher drug costs discourage use
- July 4, 2007
Pushing
more of the cost of prescription drugs onto consumers causes patients to cut
back, sometimes with adverse health consequences, according to a review of two
decades worth of studies published on Tuesday.
Vitamin
D: Will it fight disease where others have failed?
- June 11, 2007
Calls by scientists to
increase vitamin D intake have been getting louder over the last few
years, making it the latest in a line of vitamins touted as a cancer
preventive.
New
study suggests bias in drug trials -
June 5, 2007
Researchers
reported yesterday that studies claiming one cholesterol-lowering medicine is
better than another may have more to do with the pharmaceutical company
financing the clinical trial rather than the drug's actual effectiveness.
GUEST
VIEW: A matter of health versus corporate power
- May 7, 2007
A
bill that would direct the secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate
prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies was recently stalled
in the U.S. Senate, and although 55 senators voted to end debate, it was not
the 60 percent required to overcome a filibuster. The House of Representatives
had already passed a similar bill.
US appeals court
denies Pfizer request to reconsider Norvasc ruling
- May 26, 2007
A US appeals court denied Pfizer's
request to reconsider a March 22 ruling that the drug maker's patent on
hypertension treatment Norvasc (amlodipine) was invalid, Bloomberg reports.
This
pharmacy is duly licensed in the province of British Columbia, Canada by the
College of Pharmacists of BC. If you have any questions or concerns you can
contact the college at: 200-1765 West 8th Ave Vancouver, BC Canada V6J 5C6.
http://www.bcpharmacists.org
|