And Now, Michael Moore on Drugs

Wait - we didn't mean it that way. It's just that the "Fahrenheit 9/11" guy is doing his next documentary on the health-care industry, and six American pharmaceutical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, are telling their employees to watch out for what a Pfizer spokesman called "a scruffy guy in a baseball cap." If he approaches you, you're supposed to tell him to peddle his papers over at corporate communications. (How about just dosing him with Vioxx?) "Being screwed by your HMO and ill served by pharmaceutical companies is the shared American experience," Moore has said. When his film, to be called "Sicko," comes out a couple of years from now, it ought to spread the pain around more equitably.

The rumors have started already. Moore sightings have been reported at multiple locations*at the same time*and he's having to deny paying doctors to help set up hidden cameras. ("I didn't need to. So many doctors have offered to help, for free.") As a flack for AstraZeneca puts it, "Michael Moore is becoming an urban legend." - Armand Antommaria (Utah)

But did the Celebrex Guys Train There?

The Yale Herald reports on the completion of the Pfizer building in New Haven, where it is setting up shop to do an incredible amount of clinical research. Bob Levine and Samuel Gorovitz are quoted. The relationship with Yale promises to be, um, interesting:

THE CONSTRUCTION SITE OVERLOOKS the Yale Medical School, a neighbor which Pfizer is glad to have. In fact, the Medical School proved a tipping point in Pfizer's decision to build its new unit in New Haven.

Dr. Robert Alpern, Dean of the Medical School, expressed enthusiasm over collaborations between the institutions. "We're extremely excited about the opening of the unit in New Haven," he said. "Pfizer has a lot of talent, skills, and resources that Yale doesn't have, and vice versa, so we think we're actually in a position to help each other a lot" ...

And also, well, there are lots of really poor people in New Haven with not much to do, which prompts all sorts of interesting criticism

When Pfizer announced its plans in 2003, the initial reaction from the people of New Haven was mixed. The New Haven Advocate featured an article on its front cover, headlined, "Guinea Pig City." Written by Paul Bass, the article accused Pfizer of exploiting the inner city population of New Haven by offering volunteers high prices to take experimental drugs. Bass proposes that Pfizer allow community input on its ethical review boards.

Levine is point-blank about the risks of this cozy relationship: "'What if Pfizer says we want certain sorts of research done here? Are the review committees at Yale going to be intimidated? These people have already given us a $35 million building plus the funding, so we better do what they want,' said Levine. 'Even to a university with Yale's endowment, that's a pretty attractive thing.'"

Lose Reputation Now, Ask Me How

Nobel Prize winner Louis Ignarro, who won the prize in medicine, "endorsed a diet supplement for the heart sold by Herbalife International Inc. in exchange for royalties and then touted the ingredients in a scientific journal, without disclosing his financial interest to the publication,"according to Bloomberg.

The supplement company, based in the Cayman Islands, which rakes in so much money (2003 revenue of $1.16 billion) that it could afford to pay the small company Ignarro formed to consult Herbalife on a supplement (comprised of ingredients that Ignarro discussed in his article) roughly $500,000. Herbalife is in the midst of a public offering, in which it is attempting to raise $193 million, so the publication was well-timed indeed for its efforts. The supplement is supposedly capable of significantly reducing the risk of heart disease even without exercise.

"Ignarro, 63, is the featured speaker in a one-hour Los Angeles based-Herbalife promotional video in which he claims Niteworks protects against heart disease, strokes, Alzheimer's and other diseases." You have to wonder if they watch Herbalife infomercials in Sweden?

The FDA's Darkest Days Are Here

FDA Is Flexing Less Muscle, write Marc Kaufman and Brooke Masters in this major page one story on the FDA. The gist:

In the past four years, the Food and Drug Administration has taken a noticeably less aggressive approach toward policing drugs that cause harmful side effects, records show, leading some lawmakers, academics and consumer advocates to complain that the agency is focusing more on bolstering the pharmaceutical industry than protecting public health.

Today the New York Times joins in the page one coverage

:Federal drug regulators are "virtually incapable of protecting America" from unsafe drugs, a federal drug safety reviewer told a Congressional panel on Thursday, and he named five drugs now on the market whose safety needs "to be seriously looked at." In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Dr. David Graham, the reviewer in the Food and Drug Administration's office of safety research, used fiery language to denounce his agency as feckless and far too likely to surrender to demands of drug makers.

Votes & Values (Multiple Sources)

Just about enough time has passed for the Monday morning quarterback essays to come out in earnest about the election. Equally notable are the essays proclaiming victory. One of my favorite essays is Jeff Weiss' in the Dallas Morning News which analyzes the rhetoric of values in the election. The most read blog on the Internet, Daily Kos, summarizes his take on the most prevalent theories as to what the election means, and the discussion includes almost 400 responses many of which are from health policy analysts. Also around the blogs, Matthew Holt of Health Care Blog opines on winners and losers. The quite conservative San Francisco Chronicle discusses the role of celebrity endorsements, which really have reached an unprecedented pitch in this round of elections. Christian Science Monitor discusses the demonization of big pharma, which is interesting since the discussion of drug companies does not seem to have played a significant role in the election.