News tagged with 'Big Pharma'

The vast majority of the $4.5 billion advertising budget for Big Pharma is spent on TV and magazine ads. The drug industry wants to move into the Internet and will seek guidelines and push its case when it meets with the FDA this week.

The second major drug company merger in as many months, Merck will acquire Schering-Plough for $41 billion.  Fewer blockbuster drugs, and the promises of healthcare reform are pushing changes in the pharmaceutical industry.  

Upon the news of President Obama's budget proposal, health insurance and health stocks took a dive. Merck led the pack along with insurers behind Medicare Advantage.

Even before the economy went south, journalism has been suffering from a dwindling advertising base and audience that's gone online. The latest casualty is the Web site, Pharmalot, which covered the pharmaceutical industry extensively with insider comments and insights, delivered by journalist Ed Silverman.

A little light reading for your new year - three new books about the pharmaceutical industry and how it creates the maladies we all pay for. The review itself is worth the reading as it goes into the background of the cozy relationship between money and the pharmaceutical industry.

NPR is distancing itself from the independent program, "The Infinite Mind," which it provided to the Sirius Satellite Network, after its host was found to have a lucrative relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.