How the pharma research ’sausage’ is made
Filed under: Health journalism, Hot Health Headline, Public records, Studies
Reporting on Health’s William Heisel has posted the latest installment in his series highlighting the spiciest entries in the Drug Industry Document Archive, this time focusing on the cold mechanics of the drug industry’s research paper assembly line, and its intimate relationship with pharmaceutical marketing.
Again, Heisel focuses on the deposition of Wyeth ghostwriter Karen Mittleman and related documents and memorandums. He lists the names of some key ghostwriters to look out for, then details a number of specific cases when production and marketing concerns clearly outweighed science, at least as far as the pharmaceutical manufacturers were concerned.
University’s ties to testosterone therapy questioned
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Hot Health Headline
When it comes to sketchy medicine, female hormone therapies have company. According to reporter John Fauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the fast-growing field of testosterone therapy is “based largely on iffy science, promotion, manipulation and conflicts of interest,” much of which originated at the University of Wisconsin.
Fauber found the questionable ties during an investigation of company-funded UW courses that count as continuing education credits for local physicians. Despite the lack of rigorous research into testosterone therapy’s effects, UW courses (with material created in part by drug company contractors and involving studies authored by doctors with drug company ties) and other like them have helped push testosterone therapies, especially Solvay’s AndroGel, to millions of American males. In his extensively researched piece, Fauber takes on not only local conflicts of interest, but also the male hormone replacement and anti-aging movement.
Pfizer tentatively tackles tweets
James Chase reports in Medical Marketing & Media that Pfizer has opened a Twitter account, @pfizer_news. The pharmaceutical behemoth will use the microblogging service for interacting and opening dialog with customers, rather than for product promotion or advertising, Chase reports. While Pfizer has been monitoring Twitter for months, executives were afraid to engage directly for fear that they would be “ripped to shreds” by the Twitterati.
“We’re trying to become transparent, but we’re doing it slowly and cautiously,” said (Ray Kerins, VP worldwide communications). “For us to jump in with two feet would be stupid. The first task was to get the communications team cleaned up because we’ve had a bad rap in that area.”
Pfizer hopes to increase its social media presence, but plans to do so cautiously and in gradual steps.
For now, Pfizer’s media relations team is charged with controlling all corporate tweeting, but Kerins said he hopes to expand the pool soon. “I would love to have by the end of the summer 100 people, from medical to public affairs, who have been anointed by the company and who can go out and Twitter.”
As of Monday morning (July 27), @Pfizer_News had gained 565 followers and was in turn following 225 users, many of them major media outlets.
FDA cracks down on drug-sponsored links
Filed under: Hot Health Headline, Pharmaceuticals
Medical Marketing & Media’s Matthew Arnold reports that the FDA’s marketing and advertising wing asked a number of major drug manufacturers to pull sponsored links touting various drugs in Google because the brief 90-character messages omitted risk information.
An agency spokesperson said in an email to MM&M that companies are subject to rules regarding disclosure of risk and other information “even if they choose to do so using a promotional vehicle that has space limitations,” and suggested that unbranded pieces or reminder promotions might serve as alternatives for space-restricted formats. Reminder promotions can feature the name of a drug but not indications, dosage recommendations or other representations of safety or effectiveness, but are not allowed for drugs that, like Cymbalta, carry boxed warnings.
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