Submitted by Bob Burton on
The United States Senate Committee on Finance has released a damning staff report titled The Intimidation of Dr. John Buse and the Diabetes Drug Avandia.
To mobilize elderly Americans in an effort to overturn the new Medicare coverage policy for erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs, which boost red blood cell production), Amgen Inc. appears to have borrowed a strategy from the purveyors of alternative medicine.
The company launched a "Protect Cancer Patients" website, where visitors were invited to submit testimonials about the healing powers of ESAs. Also, they could contact members of Congress, or review the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services coverage decision and the House and Senate resolutions to vacate it.
Though the Internet designation ".org" suggests that the site is operated by an advocacy group, the "privacy policy" section notes that "this site is owned and operated by Amgen Inc." and can be used for communications with the company.
On the home page, the site is described as "online headquarters of a national campaign to protect cancer patients on Medicare from a decision denying them ... coverage for needed medicines."
"Amgen's mission is to serve patients, which is why we openly support the Protect Cancer Patients website," Kelley Davenport, an Amgen spokesman, said in an email. "The site educates cancer patients on Medicare and their caregivers about a Medicare policy that impacts cancer patients, so that their voices and concerns are heard by government policymakers.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Spending on word-of-mouth marketing "has increased from $76 million in 2001 to $981 million in 2006 and is expected to grow to approximately $3.7 billion by 2011," according to a report by PQ Media.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Procter & Gamble, the largest U.S.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
A recent Supreme Court decision that ended the ban "on political advertisements by corporations, including nonprofit groups, within 30 days of a primary and 60 days of a ge
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
The British government's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that an advertisement by Royal Dutch Shell promoting its waste recycling breaks rules with regards to "truthfulness" and "environmental claims." The print ad claimed that Shell has "creative ways to recycle.
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
Corporate-funded attack dog Rick Berman, who has previously atta
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"Renewable Fuels Now," a new ethanol industry group, "plans a splashy ad campaign next week that will appear in popular Capitol Hill publications, including The Hill and Roll Call," reports Lauren Etter. The group, which counts the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association among its members, has hired the PR firm Manning Selvage & Lee.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Pharmaceutical companies "are turning to the developing world as profits stagnate in the West. But regulation in these countries is weak," writes Jeremy Laurance.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
As investigations into its shootings of Iraqi civilians continue, the private military contractor Blackwater USA is softening its public image. "The company's roughneck logo — a bear's paw print in a red crosshairs, under lettering that looks to have been ripped from a fifth of Jim Beam — has undergone a publicity-conscious, corporate scrubbing," reports Paul Von Zielbauer.
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