Drug Company Puts Profits Before Patient Care

Recently filed legal documents show that Pfizer delayed publication of information about the ineffectiveness of their epilepsy drug Neurontin for off-label or unapproved uses for pain, migraine headaches, and bipolar illness, allowing physicians to continue prescribing the drug and earning big profits for the company according to a New York Times article published on October 8, 2008 ("Experts Conclude Pfizer Manipulated Studies"). Deliberate misinformation about the value or safety of other drugs including Vioxx and Vytorin, manufactured by other companies is mentioned in the story, also. A pending court case will decide if Pfizer must reimburse patients and insurance companies for "fraudulently misrepresenting the drug’s benefits."

Review selected library titles related to pharmaceutical companies and their research and marketing practices that may compromise consumer health at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a book, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3218 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words to find more in the library catalog:

• pharmaceutical industry ethics
• pharmaceutical industry marketing
• pharmaceutical industry corrupt practices
• physicians ethics
• drugs marketing

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs by Melody Petersen - Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008
call number: 338.476 Pet

Profits before People?: Ethical Standards and the Marketing of Prescription Drugs by Leonard J. Weber - Indiana University Press, 2006
call number: 174.961 Web

Big Bucks, Big Pharma [videorecording]: Marketing Disease & Pushing Drugs produced and written by Ridberg, Ronit - Media Education Foundation, 2006
call number: DVD Nonfiction 338.476 Big

Paid to Prescribe?: Exploring the Relationship between Doctors and the Drug Industry by United States Senate Special Committee on Aging - Government Printing Office, 2008
call number: online access at http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS90432