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Should millions more people be taking Crestor? That’s a real balancing act. You have a decrease in heart attacks, but from a fairly small incidence rate. So at a minimum, you’ll need to balance the costs of those coronary events versus the cost of paying for all that Crestor. And [...]

Astrazeneca shares fell over 4% Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Drug Administration approved a generic version of its asthma treatment Pulmicort Respules, sparking fears a generic version will now be launched.[...]

Yeah, I know: you've never heard of "C-reactive protein" (CRP) as an indicator of heart disease, just like you'd never heard of restless leg syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome or a host of other ailments before they were heralded in pharmaceutical company commercials 24-7. But soon, you'll know all about C-reactive [...]

The ex-AstraZeneca CEO said today:"I, as the chairman of RBS, both personally and in the office I hold, am profoundly sorry about the position we have reached. I feel this sincerely, on a number of levels and for a variety of reasons."[...]

The hoopla over the Jupiter study, which measured levels of a protein called CRP that can indicate arteries are inflamed and point toward heart disease, is prompting debate over a number of points - the extent to which CRP should be used as a guidepost for treating cholsterol, the wisdom [...]

AstraZeneca took a pretty big risk in running a trial as big as the JUPITER one, but it seems to have paid off for them. As everyone has been reading, it appears that their Crestor (rosuvastatin), lowers the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with elevated C-reactive protein, even those [...]

We all know how Wikipedia works - the definitions and descriptions can be changed by the public at large. Now, Marianne Skolek has defined Purdue Pharma for all the world to see - and in her view, her recent entry helps to set the record straight about its OxyContin marketing. [...]

A widely anticipated study will be released Sunday morning at the American Heart Association meeting that will show whether AstraZeneca's cholesterol pill can reduce inflamed arteries. Positive results could double sales to more than $6 billion, according to some Wall Street estimates. Although, a little debate about the need for [...]

Payments by drugmakers to Vermont docs between July 2002 and June 2004 totaled more than $4.9 million, much more than the $2.7 million that was previously reported by Public Citizen in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in March 2007, the advocacy group now says. The [...]

As pipelines thin and regulatory approvals become more difficult, big drugmakers are increasingly shifting R&D around. The lastest change has John Patterson, 61, retiring from AstraZeneca this coming March, and he will be replaced by Anders Ekblom, 54, who actually assume full responsibilities at the end of January. Patterson was [...]

MISSING in ACTION on MEDSCAPECharles Nemeroff has been in the news lately, under investigation by Senator Grassley for allegedly violating NIH regulations on conflict of interest and disclosure. The fallout to date includes his severance from several NIH-funded projects at Emory University School of Medicine, a freeze of NIH funding [...]

A forthcoming AstraZeneca study could dramatically increase the market for cholesterol-lowering drugs, otherwise known as statins, which are already pharma's biggest success story, Forbes writes. Known as Jupiter, the study tested the theory that Crestor combats lower artery inflammation, which can cause cholesterol plaque to burst into heart-attack-causing clots. Some [...]

Kansas Attorney General Steve Six sued 13 drugmakers today, alleging they unlawfully inflated drug costs paid by taxpayers through the state's Medicaid program. The suit claims the drugmakers deliberately misreported pricing info in order to hike reimbursement. "We believe Kansas has lost millions of dollars as a result of these [...]

1. peterrost.blogspot.com/2008/09/sexy-sarah-palin-photos-with-automatic.html2. peterrost.blogspot.com/2008/09/fake-images-of-sarah-palin-is-swamping.html3. peterrost.blogspot.com/4. peterrost.blogspot.com/2007/01/forbidden-daniela-cicarelli-video.html5. peterrost.blogspot.com/2008/10/thomas-ebeling-kicked-out-from-novartis.html6. peterrost.blogspot.com/2008/10/banned-commercials-durex.html7. peterrost.blogspot.com/2008/10/do-you-see-anything-very-wrong-with.html8. peterrost.blogspot.com/2007/04/400-million-pfizer-settlement-for.html9. peterrost.blogspot.com/2007/05/former-us-astrazeneca-ceo-lars-bildman.html10. peterrost.blogspot.com/2008/10/google-loves-to-display-big-pharmas.htmlI guess some of those posts, even though they are over a year old, never stop attracting readers . . .Additional web pages: InSync Communication, Drug Expert Witness. Terms of use agreement and privacy policy. Copyright © 2006-2008 InSync Communication. [...]

The American Gastroenterological Association has just issued a new position statement on treating GERD, otherwise known as gastroesophageal reflux disease, which some people refer to as acid reflux. And the guidelines discuss various remedies, including medication and lifestyle changes. But let's start with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive [...]

The ongoing investigation by the Senate Finance Committee seems to be making some universities a bit, well, sensitive to the activities undertaken by faculty members. You may recall that Chuck Grassley, the commitee's ranking Republican, is probing pharma and NIH funding given academic researchers - particularly psychiatrists - and whether [...]

The drugmaker, which sells the Iressa lung cancer treatment, donated between $7,500 and $190,000 to four members of a 10-person task force that developed new usage guidelines at the behest of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, The Mainichi Daily News reports. The recipients are members of the Japan [...]

A federal judge in Boston has certified two nationwide classes and set the stage for two more trials in the multidistrict wholesale drug pricing case against AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb, The National Law Journal notes. The case alleges they published fraudulently inflated average wholesale drug prices, which led consumers and [...]

Courtesy of DrugPatentWatch.com: Drug Patent Expirations in October2008 *Drugs may be covered by multiple patents Tradename Applicant Generic Name Patent Number Patent Expiration CASODEX Astrazeneca bicalutamide 4,636,505 Oct 1, 2008 CONDYLOX Watson Pharms podofilox 5,057,616 Oct 15, 2008 COSOPT Merck dorzolamide hydrochloride; timolol maleate 4,797,413 Oct 28, 2008 ELIGARD Qlt [...]

Nothing like scandal, litigation and bad press to get the pharmaceutical industry to consider changing its practices. Over the past few months, one drugmaker after another has promised - in varying degrees - to disclose info about payments to docs and campaign contributions, publish more clinical trial data or end [...]

AstraZeneca expects the drug industry's sales in developed markets to go into decline by early next decade as a slew of patents on blockbusters expire, making emerging markets crucial to long-term growth.Chief Executive David Brennan said on Tuesday that U.S. and Western European markets were already growing at just low [...]