Submitted by Bob Burton on
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has launched a $150 million promotion campaign for its over-the-counter (OTC) weight loss drug, Alli. But not all media coverage is up-beat about what is a lower-dose version of Roche's prescription only drug, Xenical.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
PR Week has more on McDonald's "moms' quality correspondence" PR campaign. The fast food giant met with the six mothers in early June, "at the company's global headquarters in Oak Brook, IL. Future interactions will include a visit to a beef supplier in August and a 'farm field' and produce supplier in September. ...
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Several members of Congress are asking about conflicts of interest at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after an FDA spokesman, who previously worked as a public relations representative for pharmaceutical companies, used agency email to attack the research of an independent scientist. Douglas Arbesfeld, a senior communications consultant to the FDA, sent an email to reporters attacking Dr.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
In an attempt to deflect criticism that its fast food makes children fat, McDonald's is recruiting mothers as "quality correspondents" to observe and report on its operations.
Gloria Tucker's mother and grandmother both smoked cigarettes. Both died from smoking-related health problems. An African American woman, Tucker believes that her loved ones' deaths were due to "racial profiling" by big tobacco companies. And she's got the documents to prove it.
On June 7, Miami attorney J.B. Harris filed a lawsuit on Tucker's behalf. The suit seeks $1 billion in punitive damages collectively from Philip Morris USA, Lorillard Tobacco, R.J. Reynolds, and Liggett Group. It accuses the companies of using predatory marketing techniques to target African Americans. Central to the case are hundreds of tobacco industry documents that detail how companies designed cigarettes especially for African Americans; tailored marketing campaigns to lower-income, less-educated African Americans; and continued to do so long after the U.S. Surgeon General's 1964 declaration that cigarettes are hazardous to health.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
In the wake of the latest study showing heart attack risk in an FDA-approved drug, there have been increased calls for greater transparency of clinical trial results. What does the U.S. Food and Drug Administration think about requiring companies to publicly release all of their trial results?
If you think the U.S. tobacco industry is bad, you'll find the behavior of many of the same companies overseas to be truly shocking.
Happily, the industry is beginning to be held accountable for its operations in the Global South. Nigeria's two largest states are following the lead of U.S. states, in suing British American Tobacco (BAT) of Nigeria, its U.K. parent company and Philip Morris International for the health care costs of treating sick smokers, The Times of London reported this week.
The new lawsuits demonstrate the importance of the online public databases of previously secret tobacco industry documents. The 1998 U.S. Master Settlement Agreement required major tobacco companies to reveal millions of pages documenting unethical -- and even illegal -- marketing, public relations and lobbying campaigns. A lesser-known treasure trove is the British American Tobacco Documents Archive, which has made some seven million pages of BAT documents freely available. These documents are of particular importance to countries like Nigeria.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
The chairperson of the Best Medicines Coalition (BMC), Louise Binder, recently appeared before the Canadian parliament's health committee to argue the case for patients gaining access to newer and more expensive drugs. When asked who funded BMC, Binder told the committee that half its funding came from the government agency, Health Canada, and the remainder was from the drug industry.
Submitted by John Stauber on
The Associated Press notes that the Bush administration "will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease. The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows," but the US government has said such private testing is illegal. "U.S.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Will it be "one of the most comprehensive screening programs ever to check whether chemicals can disrupt human hormones" or "a misleading $76 million waste"? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, which is slated to begin tests in 2008, is already controversial.
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