We have written often, and most recently this week, about the limp posture taken by US law enforcement and regulatory agencies in the face...
Know-Nothing, or Industry Shill? You Be The Judge.
I have not been writing much the past few weeks due to other concerns, and will probably not write much this summer. However, I have been co...
Merck Admits Little While Settling the Vioxx Case
A week ago, another legal settlement with some noteworthy aspects came marching along. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, here are th...
Do Health Care Leaders Realize They Do Not Practice What They Preach?
When we began Health Care Renewal in late 2004, we focused on "concentration and abuse of power" as a driver of dysfunction in the...
Merck Settles Another Vioxx Case
All the shenanigans that went on in the course of Merck's marketing of the now withdrawn Cox-2 inhibitor non-steroidal anti-inflammatory...
Physician Pleads Guilty to Fraud for Fabricating Celebrex (and Other) Study Data
As reported by the Springfield, MA, Republican : A former chief of acute pain at Baystate Medical Center has agreed to plead guilty to falsi...
BLOGSCAN - Merck Hired Elsevier to Create Fake Peer-Reviewed Medical Journal
You just can't make this stuff up. On the Respectful Insolence blog , Orac recounted how pharmaceutical giant Merck hired medical publis...
Caught in the Cross-Fire: Merck Tried to "Neutralize" Vioxx Opponents
Here is a new kind of example of how physicians have been caught in cross-fires between competing interests. The NY Times reported today abo...
The Managed Care View on the Vioxx Mess
On MedRants , a commentator expressed this "managed care" view of the Vioxx mess: Payers are frustrated that MDs are prescribing d...