The purging of drug companies from continuing medical education courses continues.

Psychiatrist Daniel Carlat points to what’s happening at the University of Wisconsin, where company-funded CME lectures conveniently left out side effects of the medications that were mentioned.

For instance, in a Pfizer-sponsored course on smoking cessation, not one of Pfizer-marketed Chantix’s many side effects were mentioned.

CME (more…)

So, what’s better than having one opinion piece published in a week?

Well, how about two.

My latest USA Today op-ed was published this morning: Pads, pens, prescriptions.

I talk about the “voluntary ban” that the pharmaceutical industry has instituted on itself, preventing doctors from receiving any type of gifts from drug representatives.

Will restricting gifts to doctors remove the (more…)

Massachusetts is considering implementing some of the toughest laws in the country regulating the pharmaceutical industry from giving gifts of any kind to doctors, and restricting drug company funding.

MedPage Today (via Dr. RW) reports that one unexpected consequence is that many major physician conferences are pulling out of the city.

For instance, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology pulled its 2015 convention (more…)

Think journalists are impartial to Big Pharma’s big money? Think again.

The BMJ highlights the practice of pharmaceuticals “influencing some media by endowing university chairs or underwriting professional groups; fund journalism awards; sponsor video material with high-profile broadcasters, and hire public relations firms to contract with freelance writers (whose ranks are growing as newspapers throw staffers overboard) (more…)