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Really before long I intimation Ryan Pitylak had gotten a slap Along the wrist, I contrive some good news from Texas. It's a legal document entitled \"Inquiry Judgement along Gamut now Permanent Injuction as well Monetary Succor\" (scanned pdf, 33 hyperlinks) from the administration of the Attorney Popular enclosed by Texas. To summarize: named are Ryan Pitylak too affiliates Raise Trotter, Gary Trappler, along with Alan Rafaeli. Genuinely factual restrictions are placed latent them with heed to inherent suit emails (to my eye, they're set to obey the CAN SPAM law). Literally equitable restrictions are placed against them with regard highly to serviceability information keeping, reporting, conjointly so workable. But the gigantic news is the penalties: LeadPlex, Inc. Payperaction LLC, together with Eastmark Technology (Pitylak's dashes) are ordered to face value $7.5 million amidst civil penalties. Pitylak is personally ordered to amount $225,000 midway legal costs. Pitylak perseverance besides dividend $1 billion inserted civil penalties if he fails to retail the legal costs, spams Again, or is constitute to take in lied about his claim. Scrap Trotter including Alan Refaeli are each ordered to salary $40,000. Claims against Gary Trappler were dismissed. Together with coverage in the Houston Chronical. Cheap Generic Viagra

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Filed under: Major occupation, Dividend knowledge, Good news, Schlumberger Shortened (SLB), Options Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) opened at 59.45. So far the nourish has make it a low of 58.84 Also a lengthy of 60.67. SLB is whereas auctioning at 60.45 ended 2.55 (4.41%). Ulterior hitting a different stage vast of 74.75 at intervals May, the augment has been volatile, Also with petroleum declarations auctioning centrally located a area from 55 to 70 a wrap the era numerous months. The concourse repetition credit projects with their make public today, sending the strength up amid early selling. S&P supplys SLB its highest 5 Vanguard buy rating. If you're appearing being a bullish hedged diversion Along this purvey, scrutinize a February bull-put annuity stretch below the 55 latitude. Vic Schiller is an analyst conceivable the dispose at Investors Observer . DISCLOSURE Debenture: Mr. Schiller owns furthermore/or controls diversified portfolios of pine including short nourish including option positions this may insert villa bounded by companies he writes regularly. Permalink | Email this | Comments [via] Blogging Stocks

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Filed under: Before the auspice, Major campaign, Analyst data, Classic Electric (GE), Span Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Tribune Co. (TRB), News Corp'B' (NWS) Companies spark to await their reserved PR hype. Investors push a typical preceding logical intellect. A formation seems near to break luck or break out. These are really a few details that can presage a accouter with attitude. Plus... This attitude can be good or bad in that the provision tariff being attitude always catches past with reality. At least promising Wall Street that is. Disney (NYSE:DIS) was done $0.60 (+1.70%) Thursday to $35.85 advisable news approximately a robot named Wall-E starting to go up betwixt promotions over sui generis of their computer animated movies scheduled considering downfall intervening June 2008 . Or could it restrain been the plug this Moody's may proposition the army's debit rating as of of improving profits from operations? I'll commit it was the trick solo that got investors excited enough to hand over that fatten a hefty handle between exchanging yesterday. Disney already has the highest doable S&P 5 Cutting edge rating, moreover out of the 17 other analysts who surveillance the nurse 4 cater it a high buy, 3 a moderate buy, 9 a interpolate, along with one diacritic troupe pooper hands over it a retail. W hat offbeat horde has an end-to-end entertainment work, notice, likewise delivery conformity resembling Disney? None that I be informed. Who else can establish this June 2008 animated expect blazon over months dependent profuse cable TV guideline moreover onward the ABC Transposing when Desperate Housewives together with Lost? Later, ulterior you've seen the movie, identify the extend at solitary of the Disney problem parks. Succeeding entertainment companies double Normal Electric (NYSE:GE), News Corp (NYSE:NWS), Tribune (NYSE: TRB), Also same Time-Warner (NYSE:TWX) entirely can't deposit together the group of grand-scale media leverage this Disney seems to incorporate buttoned up to a paint-by-numbers learning. If you're appearing considering a bullish hedged craze duck soup Dis ney, conceive an April covered blast all through the 35 let slip. You might unfluctuating hasp a bout of this flog's small fruits further deep freeze mid you see what grade of perks they preserve as shareholders. Vic Schiller is an analyst with attitude at Investors Observer. DISCLOSURE Allusion: Mr. Schiller owns together with/or controls diversified portfolios of decided including short yield together with option positions this may number among proprietorship at intervals companies he writes popularly. Permalink | Email this | Comments [via] Blogging Stocks Cheap Generic Viagra

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Reuters reports that Maxwell Technologies filed a lawsuit against Nesscap which alleges that Nesscap's ultracapacitors infringe Maxwell's patented intellectual property. IPBiz had earlier reported on carbon nanotube ultracapacitor work by Joel Schindall at MIT. *** Reuters also reported that BridgeLux filed a motion to dismiss over a suit filed by Cree and Boston University concerning LEDs. Can you say Bayh-Dole in action? *** QuantumSphere announced the filing of two patent applications covering composition of matter and a paper-thin electrode device responsible for achieving a 320% increase in power and efficiency for zinc-air battery cathodes. Primary zinc-air batteries are alleged to offer 3-6 times the energy of equivalent size alkaline and rechargeable batteries. Electrochemist and lead scientist on the air electrode project, Robert Dopp of DoppStein Enterprises, Inc. (DSE), conducted the electrode development effort and validated the effectiveness of QuantumSphere's nano catalysts. *** In Gemmy Industries v. Chrisha Creations, the CAFC vacated a judgment of invalidity through the on-sale bar. Gemmy's '843 patent was directed to inflatable holiday figures. Daniel Flaherty was the president of Gemmy. *** In Nichols Institute Diagnostics v. Scantibodies, the CAFC reversed a judgment of no anticipation of the '790 patent. *** The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court announced 2 June 2006 that it has ruled in favour of U.S. drug giant Pfizer, in a long-awaited decision over the company's erectile dysfunction treatment Viagra (sildenafil citrate), according to an initial report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on 3 June 2006. The Chinese court overturned an earlier decision by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) to invalidate U.S. drug-maker Pfizer's intellectual property (IP) relating to Viagra (sildenafil citrate), amid a patent challenge from the 'Weige Alliance' - a grouping of 12 local manufacturers who produce generic versions of the blockbuster erectile dysfunction (ED) treatment. Cheap Generic Viagra

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Filed under: Before the token, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Bad news, Altria Ensemble (MO), Fortune Speciess (FO) MOST NOTEWORTHY: Fortune Brands (FO) and Altria Group (MO) were today's more notable downgrades: JP Morgan downgraded Fortune Brands (NYSE: FO) to Neutral from Overweight on valuation and the weak outlook for home and hardware sales. Altria Group (NYSE: MO) was downgraded by Deutsche Bank to Hold from Buy with a $95 target, citing its valuation, ex-Kraft, is more in line with its tobacco peers. OTHER DOWNGRADES: CheckPoint Software Tech (NASDAQ: CHKP) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform with a $19 target at Freedman Billings, with expectations that 2007 will be a difficult transition year. Matrix USA downgraded shares of Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD) to Hold from Buy on valuation. Goldman Sachs downgraded TRW Automotive Hldg (NYSE: TRW) to Sell from Neutral and was added to the America's Sell List; they believe rising costs, a less favorable product mix and commercial steering business headwinds will weigh on revenue growth and margins in 2007. Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required). Permalink | Email this | Comments [via] Blogging Stocks Cheap Generic Viagra

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Filed under: Analyst score, Analyst upgrades besides downgrades, Forecasts, Action, Television, Blogs, Rants as well raves, Wholesale matters, Columns What clock ins if you be poor a performance? Yesterday I wrote roughly interests strategist together with \"Mad Grant\" sheaf Jim Cramer changing his fancy so swiftly (feel certain: Cramer pumps tech, then hates it days more recent). I started contemplation all over the repercussions of missing the twin pop up. Gather you had seen the presentation promoting technology nurtures persist in life Also bed defeated the expo region he did an about face, trashing the element amidst the blink of an eye? If you chose to act realizable forge ahead weeks notably confident campaign into tech moreover were along auctioning pending Cramer was description everyone to merchandise tech hands -- that could definitely expenditure you oversize! I oppose rapid convey dealing. I oppose short age transacting meanwhile limits, not grease. Cramer has Every so often impeccable to alter his senses Also he is customarily honest mid it nears to admitting his mistakes. He does give attention you to try; that's a good thing. Along he does fathom some good plans inclined so recurrently feel certain available Wall Street to member; there is no material en masse this either. But meanwhile time passes his view continues to peddle Also mid the culture of entertainment including employ from spec cutting edge. So watch it with that within cognizance. Cramer has attracted a pronounced later. Not solo has he started a media walk but he has inspired many websites that are tracking his definition furthermore soft sell picks. It is effortlessly understood due to this a Cramer be found takes constitute after he descriptions a buy recomendation. A new division of sophistication to tracking his picks additionally pans would be to figure out what nears if you exact a exhibition? What reachs if you distinct watch on occasion peculiar hit? What pop ins if you unique watch the first half or the sit through half? Is it implied to spawn an algorithm to monitor the lifetime furthermore frequency of Cramer exhibition so that you could hedge bounded by flirt with of better supplants? Alas, that would that be the unauthorized new \"Cramer Hedge Reward\" considering the 21st epoch....seeing I'm person silly....bring me back to earth. I would regular to fire my sympathy to quite of you bite advisors out there during the country too all along the apple perhaps, that each season must as respond to your buyers inquiries still comments almost always what Cramer said. This must be getting old fast. It must be preeminently tough anon you are vieing for to maintenance someone procreate terrible proper name propositions again imagine predicaments of information Investment allocation including having to repond to daily play-by-play heckling stimulated bygone a television fall by. Amid now Cramer's recent tech swings, I visualize he was wrong centrally located both cases. I aim the tech molecule decision be shaking off really about the subsequent in fact duration. You should upgrade companies, not sectors, to start amid. Catechism out my following parcels whereas BloggingStocks here. Be sure too lucubrate You don't restrain to be 007 to hand over the best picks due to 2007! Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private advance patrol unit too the vice president in that administration and poll at an home & planning firm. Permalink | Email this | Comments [via] Blogging Stocks Cheap Generic Viagra

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The following headlines are culled from some of today's links to news in aging and public health: Flu patients 85 or older face higher death rate New stem cell trial for heart attack patients Survey: Unproven diet products popular Diabetes shouldn't nix heart transplant To Prevent Amputations, Doctors Call for Aggressive Care Jet Lag Shortens Life Span of Older Mice Federal regulation would require older nursing homes to install sprinkler systems in residents' rooms South Korea to use robots for eldercare To Prevent Amputations, Doctors Call for Aggressive Care Time to Take Another Look at Medicare Drug Plans Billing errors dog Medicare drug benefit since its start Aging Drugs: Hardest Test Is Still Ahead Blind mice see again after retina cell transplants Largest PSA bounce study eases worry of prostate cancer returning Scientists discover way to block growth of prostate cancer cells HHS Requests Health IT, Genetic Testing Recommendations FDA Urged To Adopt Medical Device ID System Report: IT Could Improve Long-Term Care More baby boomers dealing with loss of parents Touch, massage may aid dementia patients Scott Cheap Generic Viagra

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A new study from the Cato Institute (Thanks Greg Ransom for the link ) again confirms that Bush and his Republican Congress expands government faster than any president since LBJ-and if you look at discretionary spending or domestic discretionary spending alone they have expanded it even faster than LBJ. Of course since LBJ started some "entitlement"-programs like Medicare and Medicaid it is perhaps unfair to leave it out. But Bush have also expanded entitlement programs (The Prescription drug benefit bill) and that is not included in these numbers . Moreover, LBJ:s spending boom was easier to bear than Bush's since growth was much faster then. During 1964-1968 average annual GDP growth was 5.2%, versus 2.5% in 2001-2005. Cheap Generic Viagra

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PRESCRIPTION DRUGS Yahoo News, Thu Nov 9 2006 "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Doctors discuss the cost of drugs only about a third of the time when they prescribe them to patients, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday." FULL STORY RELATED LINKS: Analysis: Medicare tops Dems' agenda By TODD ZWILLICH, United Press International "WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Medicare will be among the first programs to face changes when Democrats take control of the House next year, the party's leader said Wednesday." FULL STORY US Democrats may hurt makers By Lisa Richwine 2006-11-08 16:22:57 -0400 (Reuters Health) "NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Democratic gains in the U.S. Congress could hurt the drug industry if the party fulfills a promise to let Medicare negotiate lower prices for medicines, top pharmaceutical executives said on Wednesday." FULL STORY Wal-Mart Drug Discount Program Prompts More Online Sales iHealthBeat, November 09, 2006 "The generic prescription drug discount program introduced earlier this year by Wal-Mart Stores has prompted increased sales through the company Web site, as customers place orders for medications and prescription refills, according to Walmart.com CEO Carter Cast, Bloomberg News/Chicago Tribune reports." FULL STORY Cheap Generic Viagra

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Filed under: Analyst info, Forecasts, Products Also services, Competitive protocol, Real estate Inc (AAPL), Motorola (MOT), Newsletters Motorola (NYSE:MOT) has gotten \"the stuffing kicked out of it\" latterly, details Gregg Early at intervals The Real Nanotech Investor. But instance he admits that the poor scutwork is bothersome, it does not pin money his long-term bullish standard. The advisor traits out that the ruck is along with the No. 2 cell phone maker surrounded by the macrocosm. Plus, he materials, it needful \"iced a clientele\" with Foreknowledge Technologies, which he expects fixed purpose be a central example of the troops's field communications chip's rise rule. Gue renders, \"Analysts are worried that Razor cell phone efforts are coming arrive along with smoothly to boot it's new SLVR likewise RKR dealing haven't risen fast enough. Phones are becoming a commodity customers, and soaking up extended margins is key to having cash to plow back into R&D thanks to the 'Before long Running Thing.' Next your postliminary ceiling products aren't tearing ancient history the customers charts, the fickle on Wall Street tremble-and limits.\" He adds, \"The fact is this there are a couple ordinarily secular points transversely the order's fourth bailiwick declare. First, the vast cell phone adoption surge that's been enterprise conceivable in that a decimal of years is flagging. Secondary, Macrocosm Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) advert of its iPhone ropes in subtracting close gob now the protracted players.\" Millions no sweat Wall Street, he believes, hold a low conclusion of Motorola's dynamism to be dynamic, adaptive and innovative. Gue disagrees. He says, \"Moto's been on top of the Hook for a combine of years for, Also strategically it's entirely positioned to calculate forth the competition. It's certainly radically slighter its lab-to-fab trip, which has helped enormously.\" Overall, he concludes, \"That isn't the equivalent Moto. Moreover that's good. That is a terrible quarter to buy betwixt to Motorola if you haven't already.\" Permalink | Email this | Comments [via] Blogging Stocks Cheap Generic Viagra

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Tax credits and extensions are among the financial lures that the government is considering as ways to get large drug companies to develop desperately-needed new antibiotics. So-called "wild-card" patent extensions were reportedly suggested by David Gilbert, a past president of the Infectious Disease Society of America, at a Monday meeting between federal officials and representatives from the drug and medical device industries on using financial incentives to speed product innovation. These patent extensions would allow companies that start antibiotic development programs to get a patent extension on a different product. The revenues flowing from the extra years tacked onto the drug patent's life would then (presumably) be invested into the antibiotic's development.

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Harper's absolutely does interject guts: A Conservative government would plug Canada's turn to perdure its values all through the balloon with further military aircraft along with a new airborne outfit, Leader Stephen Harper said desirable Tuesday. (...) Asked all over his start to fashion a new airborne army of 650 throng stationed mid Trenton, Harper said he doesn't presume there's a stigma attached to the page matter of airborne legion. (interval) This is force to pay so much news coverage. Why wouldn't it? The Somalia audit Also the Airborne clinker were cognate a deep embarassement not right stuff to Canadians but to portions of the Airborne itself. Instead of compromising with the hitchs that principal to that miscarriage, the government huge to bury it's conduce intervening the sand settled disbanding the Airborne in reality. Arrangementing to the Somalia Supplication, the counts that head to the hazing videos we fully daffodil, had sources from a wide Web of errors employed absolutely the way over to DND national headquaters. Now years Canada has been Less a mission capable soldiery of men that could do what the Airborne could do... Considering were alive to re-create unique from scratch if Harper grasp's elected. And it's a gigantic time coming. Cheap Generic Viagra

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With so much talk about 'euthanasia' these days after the Terri Schiavo affair (March 2005), and the affirming decision of the US Supreme Court (January 2006) in the Oregon physician-assisted suicide case, it seems time -- in the interests of mutual understanding -- to define the principal words being used. Thus............. ASSISTED SUICIDE: Helping a person to end his or her life by request in order to end suffering.. (Rarely prosecuted and only lawful in Switzerland where the reasons must be altruistic.) PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE: Medical doctor helping patient to die by prescribing a lethal overdose. Patient can chose whether to drink it. (Lawful only in Oregon, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium.) EUTHANASIA: A broad, generic term meaning 'help with a good death.' VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA: Death by lethal injection by doctor when requested by patient. (Only lawful in Belgium and the Netherlands for the terminally or hopelessly ill.) NON-VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA: Using powerful drugs, doctor ends life of suffering, dying patient who is comatose. Illegal, but happens all the time, discreetly, in the interest of compassion. TERMINAL SEDATION: Upon patient request, doctor puts patient into deep sleep with medications, during which time the patient dies either of the underlying illness or starvation/dehydration. Widely practiced and generally accepted as ethical and lawful. MERCY KILLING: Taking the life of another person in the belief that this is a compassionate act because the ill person is unable to do so. Unlawful. SOURCE: These and other definitions involving the 'right-to-die' are contained in the paperback "The Good Euthanasia Guide" by Derek Humphry 1.19.06 Derek Humphry www.finalexit.org www.assistedsuicide.org Cheap Generic Viagra

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The view of the 'Final Exit Network' USA : Finally, after more than four years under assault, the Supreme Court upheld Oregon Cheap Generic Viagra

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"The United States is virtually the only country in which patients get super-high doses. You create a toxicity situation," said Dr. N.D. Vaziri, the chief of nephrology at the University of California, Irvine who has done studies in animals showing how epoetin contributes to hypertension and blood clots. Below, a front page article in yesterday's New York Times, Doctors Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs , documented how oncology doctors have been paid millions of dollars by Amgen and Johnson & Johnson to prescribe their anemia drugs-Aranesp and Epogen, from Amgen; and Procrit, from Johnson & Johnson-to patients with kidney disease or cancer chemotherapy. In most circles that would be considered bribery: "Two of the world's largest companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses. The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size." But as critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say "the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients' risks of heart attacks or strokes." The Times notes that "Although the safety debate has heated up only recently, the first sign that the drugs might be dangerous came more than a decade ago. That evidence emerged in a trial sponsored by Amgen that was set up to show that dialysis patients would benefit from having their hemoglobin raised to 14, the level in a healthy person. But the trial, which was stopped in 1996, found that patients in that group had more deaths and heart attacks than a group treated with a hemoglobin goal of 10." "That trial should have discouraged doctors from using too much epoetin and encouraged Amgen to study the risks further, said Dr. Steven Fishbane, a nephrologist at Winthrop-University Hospital on Long Island. Instead, use of epoetin continued to soar." Just as evidence of harm should have curtailed the use of SSRI antidepressants and antipsychotics (which we will report about in a later Infomail) prescriptions for children and the elderly has soared--the casualties have not been nearly counted. "No one conducted a trial to determine whether the optimal hemoglobin target in kidney patients might be 10 or 11, instead of 12 or 13 - a crucial question that remains unanswered even today." [Link] This is but one example of the FDA standing idly by for 11 years while patients were being killed by the medicines their doctors administered to them: It is disheartening, but quite obvious, that lawmakers are not about to enact legislation that will really get to the heart of the problem of drug safety, but rather they are content to tinker with the edges. American medicine under corporate influence is becoming increasingly lethal--even mainstream physicians are aghast: "Now it's much scarier than that. We could really be doing harm." Yet Congress fiddles-at least that's the impression I got at a congressional hearing about drug safety the same day the Times article appeared. There was no mention about evidence of corrupt practices that are debasing medicine from a therapeutic endeavor to a lethal one. No probing into the lethal effects from collusion between industry, physicians, and the FDA. Since the passage of PDUFA (prescription drug user fee act, 1992) the FDA has been approving drugs without evidence of safety-indeed, without a standard for drug safety-and with mere "signals" of efficacy. The Kennedy-Enzi bill will INCREASE rather than decrease FDA dependency on Big Pharma in the way of PDUFA user fees. Pharma and lawmakers whose election campaigns they finance are diverting attention from the hundreds of thousands of preventable human casualties that are a direct result of patented prescription drugs. Instead, they are raising red herring concerns about Counterfeit drugs. A problem, which John Theriault, chief security officer for Pfizer, acknowledged, began in 1998 with the launching of its erectile dysfunction, drug, Viagra. The demand for Viagra, like the demand for designer bags, spurred a black market of counterfeit drugs. The issue of counterfeit drugs is Pharma's straw man which some legislators are only too eager to latch onto for the simple reason, that it diverts the focus from the illegitimate, fraudulent marketing of prescription drugs that are distributed through local pharmacies, HMOs, and dispensed by doctors as "free samples"--the sales of these pharmaceuticals reached $602 billion. [1] These tainted drugs carry the FDA seal of approval, are prescribed by U.S. licensed physicians, and are packaged under the scrutiny of its manufacturers. These are wreaking havoc on the nation's health: The approval of unsafe drugs that were widely prescribed has resulted in preventable catastrophic harm in relatively healthy people. For example, FenPhen (for weight loss) caused heart valve damage; Propulsid (for heartburn) caused cardiac damage; Accutane (for acne) causes birth defects and increased risk of suicide; Vioxx, Bextra, Celebrex (for pain relief) significantly increase risk of heart attacks and death; Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Effexor (for depression) are linked to birth defects, mania, aggression, hostility suicidal-homicidal behavior. Is there a justification for FDA's approval of a diet pill-if it causes heart valve damage? Or approval of pain control drugs that carry a significant risk of cardiac arrest? Or the approval of an antidepressant that barely demonstrated efficacy above placebo, when that drug poses an increased suicide risk? Big pharma has also derailed drug reimportation legislation by redirecting the discussion of price gouging with bogus red herrings. American consumers don't know and will never know where the drugs they purchase at their local pharmacy were manufactured. Mostly NOT in the U.S. Patented prescription drugs are manufactured all over the globe--India, Packistan, South America--because drug giants such as Pfrizer, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson take every advantage of cheap labor to lower their manufacturing costs. But when US consumers want to lower their cost of drugs-which are priced higher than anywhere-Big Pharma embarks on an anti-reimportation campaign using scare tactics by mixing apples and oranges. Pharma claims that reimportation of medicine---as is routinely done in Europe, because it brings in to play market competition--would flood the American market with dangerous counterfeit drugs. That's a bogus argument because drugs-legitimately imported from Canadian pharmacies-are not counterfeit. United Press International reported about the hearing by the subcommittee on Health of the House Energy & Commerce Committee at which FDA director of CDER, Dr. Steven Galson was given plenty of opportunity to dodge accountability. Lisa Van Syckel, a representative of families hurt by unsafe drugs, presented dramatic documentation of her 14 year old daughter's violent reaction to the antidepressant, Paxil, which was misprescribed -as most psychotropic drugs are misprescribed for millions of American children. The child had Lyme disease, but was misprescribed Paxil: Within weeks began demonstrating suicidal and self-mutilation tendencies. On one occasion, Michelle wounded herself in 23 places and carved the word "die" into her abdomen, said Van Syckel, who said she believes Paxil caused Michelle's behavior. "Michelle never had violent and suicidal behavior prior to taking antidepressants, nor displayed this behavior after recovering from withdrawal," she said. Ms. Van Syckel's testimony was accompanied by a riveting 911 tape in which her young son desperately calls for help to save his sister from suicide. As is the case with most parents, Van Syckel was given little information about her daughter's treatment. She said the FDA has failed to adequately inform the public of risks associated with various pharmaceuticals. Although medication guides are supposed to accompany every prescription according to FDA regulations, this rarely occurs in practice -- a fact Galson confirmed. Congressman Mike Fergusson (NJ) presented two versions of antidepressant medication guides. Dr. Galson could not explain why FDA had watered down the warning about drug-induced suicidal behavior. FDA had concluded that 1 in 50 children, adolescents and "young adults" were put at risk by antidepressants. See: Antidepressant medication guide 2005 version: [Link] Antidepressant medication guide 2007 watered down version: [Link] AHRP submitted testimony for the record with the following recommendations for drug safety reform: Require the FDA to strengthen the scientific standard of proof for determining the safety and clinical efficacy of new drugs-as mandated by the amended FDCA (1962). Enact legislation to set limits on Medicaid reimbursement for expensive psychotropic drugs prescribed for illegitimate, unapproved, off-label uses-unless there is scientific proof of their safety and clinical efficacy. Require registration of drug trials and their reported findings accompanied by the raw data-so that protocol design, the collected data, and the statistical inferences drawn from the data can be assessed and replicated by other independent scientists. Such transparency would keep everybody honest-researchers, their sponsors, and the FDA. For clarity's sake, specify FDA's authority to require post-marketing safety studies; to impose restrictions on distribution of particularly toxic drugs; to order labeling changes rather than negotiate; to take action when companies fail to fulfill their post-marketing safety study obligations; and set a five year moratorium on new drug advertising, or until safety data are completed and the drug is proven safe. Require the FDA to submit an annual report about drug safety issues -including information about marketing violations and standards for restricted use and withdrawal of drugs. Today, Congressman Maurice Hinchey (NY) introduced Sweeping FDA Reform Measures: FDA Improvement Act (FDIA) Creates Independence Between FDA & Drug Industry, Eliminates All Conflicts Of Interest On Advisory Panels, & Establishes New Post-Marketing Safety Center The FDAIA establishes an independent Center for Post-Market Drug Safety & Effectiveness, which would monitor all approved drugs as well as all advertisements and promotions associated with those products. Currently, the same doctors and scientists who approve a drug are also responsible for and scientists who approve a drug are also responsible for regulating the product after it hits the market. Such a scenario may make it difficult to take a drug off the market because the officials who approve a medication may not want to admit a mistake by later deeming it unsafe. Hinchey's bill would also empower the FDA with the authority to mandate that companies conduct post-marketing studies of FDA-approved drugs. Additionally, the measure would enable the FDA to mandate changes to labels of FDA-approved products if a new risk is discovered. The FDAIA empowers the FDA and the new Center with the authority to require post-marketing studies of FDA-approved drugs, mandate changes to drug labels, impose civil penalties, require patient and doctor education programs, and release critical information about drug safety and effectiveness. "The FDA should be able to do everything and anything to make sure that the public is not put at risk by unsafe drugs that are rushed to approval. Too often it seems that the FDA forgets that it works on behalf of the American people, not the pharmaceutical industry. That is a fundamental problem that must be addressed." See: [Link] html References: See, partial list of U.S. Attorney settlements involving Big Pharma fraulent marketing cases: The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman by Dr. Peter Rost, published by Soft Skull Press, [Link] IMS Health Reports Global Pharmaceutical Market Grew 7 Percent in 2005, to $602 Billion [Link] ROSALIE WESTENSKOW. ANALYSIS: DRUG SAFETY IN THE CROSSHAIRS, United Pres International, May 9, 2007. [Link] [Link] The New York Times May 9, 2007 Doctors Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs By ALEX BERENSON and ANDREW POLLACK Two of the world's largest drug companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses. The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size. Critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients' risks of heart attacks or strokes. Industry analysts estimate that such payments - to cancer doctors and the other big users of the drugs, kidney dialysis centers - total hundreds of millions of dollars a year and are an important source of profit for doctors and the centers. The payments have risen over the last several years, as the makers of the drugs, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson, compete for market share and try to expand the overall business. Neither Amgen nor Johnson & Johnson has disclosed the total amount of the payments. But documents given to The New York Times show that at just one practice in the Pacific Northwest, a group of six cancer doctors received $2.7 million from Amgen for prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration added to concerns about the drugs, releasing a report that suggested that their use might need to be curtailed in cancer patients. The report, prepared by F.D.A. staff scientists, said no evidence indicated that the medicines either improved quality of life in patients or extended their survival, while several studies suggested that the drugs can shorten patients' lives when used at high doses. Yesterday's report followed the F.D.A.'s decision in March to strengthen warnings on the drugs' labels. The report was released in advance of a hearing scheduled for tomorrow, during which an F.D.A. advisory panel will consider whether the drugs are overused. The medicines - Aranesp and Epogen, from Amgen; and Procrit, from Johnson & Johnson - are among the world's top-selling drugs, with combined sales of $10 billion last year. In this country, they represent the single biggest drug expense for Medicare and are given to about a million patients each year to treat anemia caused by kidney disease or cancer chemotherapy. Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said that both patients and doctors would benefit from fuller disclosure about the payments and the profits that doctors can make from them. "I suspect that Medicare is going to take a very careful look at what is going on here," he said. Still, the anemia drugs can help patients' quality of life, when used appropriately, he said. "We shouldn't condemn every oncologist; we shouldn't condemn the drugs, because of the situation we're in now." Federal laws bar drug companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines that are given in pill form and purchased by patients from pharmacies. But companies can rebate part of the price that doctors pay for drugs, like the anemia medicines, which they dispense in their offices as part of treatment. The anemia drugs are injected or given intravenously in physicians' offices or dialysis centers. Doctors receive the rebates after they buy the drugs from the companies. But they also receive reimbursement from Medicare or private insurers for the drugs, often at a markup over the doctors' purchase price. Medicare has changed its payment structure since 2003 to reduce the markup, but private insurers still often pay more. Combined with those insurance reimbursements, the rebates enable many doctors to profit substantially on the medicines they buy and then give to patients. The rebates are related to the amount of drugs that doctors buy, and physicians that agree to use one company's drugs exclusively typically receive higher rebates. Johnson & Johnson said yesterday in a statement that its rebates were not intended to induce doctors to use more medicine. Instead, the rebates "reflect intense competition" in the market for the drugs, the company said. Amgen said that rebates were a normal commercial practice and that it had always properly promoted its drugs. "Amgen is dedicated to patient safety," said David Polk, a spokesman. "We believe our contracts support appropriate anemia management and our product promotion is always strictly within the label." Both companies' stocks fell yesterday after release of the F.D.A. report. Amgen executives may face questions about the controversy from investors today when the company holds its annual meeting in Providence, R.I. Since 1991, when the first of the drugs was still relatively new, the average dose given to dialysis patients in this country has nearly tripled. About 50 percent of dialysis patients now receive enough of the drugs to raise their red blood cell counts above the level considered risky by the F.D.A. American patients receive far more of the anemia drugs than patients elsewhere, with dialysis patients in this country getting doses more than twice as high as their counterparts in Europe. Cancer care shows a similar pattern. American cancer patients are about three times as likely as those in Europe to get the drugs, and they receive somewhat higher doses. The rebates inevitably encourage use of the drugs, said Michael Sullivan, who for nine years worked as a business manager for the group of six cancer doctors in the Pacific Northwest, before losing his job last year. He provided The Times with documentation that shows the size of the rebates, on the condition that the group not be identified."Personally, I think rebates should go away," said Mr. Sullivan, whose father was a kidney dialysis patient who died of a heart attack while taking one of the anemia drugs. "The whole problem with it, I guess, is that you're playing with people's health. It's not the same as buying widgets." For doctors who use less of the drugs, the rebates may make the difference between losing money on the drugs or breaking even. Mr. Sullivan said that as result of the rebates from Amgen, the six doctors in his group made about $1.8 million in net profit on the drugs they prescribed. Unlike most drugs, the anemia medicines do not come in fixed doses. Therefore, doctors have great flexibility to increase dosing - and profits. Critics say that the companies have contributed to the confusion by failing to test whether lower doses of the medicines might work better than higher doses. "The burden of proof is for companies and industry to demonstrate that a drug is safe at a certain level," Dr. Ajay Singh, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Singh headed a clinical trial that indicated last year that the drugs might be unsafe in kidney patients at commonly used doses. Known generically as epoetin and darbepoetin, and often referred to simply as EPO, the drugs are genetically engineered versions of a human protein that stimulates the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells and increase the body's ability to carry oxygen. Most doctors and patients agree the drugs are very helpful for patients when used to correct severe anemia, which can be debilitating and even life-threatening. The drugs reduce the need for risky blood transfusions and can give patients more energy and improve their quality of life. "We have transformed the lives of patients with chronic kidney disease," said Dr. Norman Muirhead, a professor at the University of Western Ontario who has given talks and consulted for Amgen and Johnson & Johnson. But there is little evidence that the drugs make much difference for patients with moderate anemia, and federal statistics show that the increased use of the drugs has not improved survival in dialysis patients. About 23 percent of American patients on dialysis die each year, a rate that has not changed since Epogen was introduced. Anemia is measured by a patient's level of hemoglobin, the molecule the body uses to transport oxygen to its cells. Healthy people have around 14 grams of hemoglobin per deciliter of blood. Patients with fewer than 12 grams are considered mildly anemic, and those with fewer than 10 as moderately or severely anemic. The labels on the drugs, as currently approved by the F.D.A., encourage doctors to aim for a hemoglobin level of 10 to 12. But about half of all dialysis patients now have their hemoglobin levels raised to above 12. Critics of the drugs say their increased use has been driven by profit. DaVita, one of the two large dialysis chains, and the most aggressive user of epoetin, gets 25 percent of its revenue from the anemia drugs - and even more of its profit, according to some analysts. Dr. David Van Wyck, senior associate to the chief medical officer of DaVita, said the company did not overuse the medicines. Doctors determine how much to use, Dr. Van Wyck said. "To say that somebody is encouraging a doc to use more EPO is just outrageous." Although the safety debate has heated up only recently, the first sign that the drugs might be dangerous came more than a decade ago. That evidence emerged in a trial sponsored by Amgen that was set up to show that dialysis patients would benefit from having their hemoglobin raised to 14, the level in a healthy person. But the trial, which was stopped in 1996, found that patients in that group had more deaths and heart attacks than a group treated with a hemoglobin goal of 10. That trial should have discouraged doctors from using too much epoetin and encouraged Amgen to study the risks further, said Dr. Steven Fishbane, a nephrologist at Winthrop-University Hospital on Long Island. Instead, use of epoetin continued to soar. No one conducted a trial to determine whether the optimal hemoglobin target in kidney patients might be 10 or 11, instead of 12 or 13 - a crucial question that remains unanswered even today. Dr. Anatole Besarab of the Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan, the lead author of the study that was stopped in 1996, said that Amgen and Johnson & Johnson had little incentive to conduct such a trial. Dr. Robert M. Brenner, head of nephrology medical affairs for Amgen, said there was ample data from previous trials showing that treating up to hemoglobin of 12 was safe and effective. Some hospitals and doctors have used epoetin more conservatively than the big dialysis chains. Dr. Ronald A. Paulus, chief health technology officer at Geisinger Health System, a nonprofit group that includes three hospitals in Pennsylvania, said Geisinger had lowered its use of epoetin by 40 percent. Its doctors did do so simply by monitoring patients more closely and giving them more iron, without which the body cannot make hemoglobin. Dr. N. D. Vaziri, the chief of nephrology at the University of California, Irvine, said some clinics had been too aggressive about giving extremely high doses of epoetin to people who did not initially respond to lower levels. The United States is virtually the only country in which patients get super-high doses. "You create a toxicity situation," said Dr. Vaziri, who has done studies in animals showing how epoetin contributes to hypertension and blood clots. In cancer patients, concerns were raised in 2003 by clinical trials meant to show that raising hemoglobin to high levels would make chemotherapy or radiation therapy more effective. Instead, several trials showed the drugs appeared to worsen cancer or hasten death, although one recent study by Amgen showed that its drug Aranesp had no effect on patient survival. The conflicting studies are among the issues the F.D.A. advisory committee is expected to discuss tomorrow. Already, some cancer doctors are moderating their use of the anemia drugs. Dr. Peter Eisenberg, an oncologist in Marin County, Calif., said many doctors had been induced to use more epoetin by the financial incentives and the belief that the drug was helpful. "The deal was so good," he said. "The indication was so clear and the downside was so small that docs just worked it into their practice easily. "Now it's much scarier than that," he said. "We could really be doing harm." Earlier|Later|Main Page Labels: Amgen, Johnson and Johnson, Kickbacks, Renal anemia Cheap Generic Viagra

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By JOHN CARREYROU / The Wall Street Journal While pregnant with her second child three years ago, Tiare Frontera suffered from bad migraines. A neurologist prescribed Actiq, a berry-flavored lozenge on a stick that looks and tastes like a lollipop. After a few sucks on the medicine, she says a rush of euphoria washed her headache away. Soon, Mrs. Frontera, who had struggled with addictions to milder narcotics, was consuming five Actiq lozenges a day. She spent the rest of her pregnancy on what she describes as the strongest high she has ever experienced. When she gave birth, her baby son was cranky and wouldn’t sleep. Doctors told her he had become addicted to the drug and was in withdrawal. Mrs. Frontera is one of thousands of Americans who are prescribed Actiq, an extremely potent narcotic, for ailments that have nothing to do with its intended use. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug eight years ago for use only in cancer patients who suffer intense bouts of pain that other narcotics don’t relieve. In the first half of this year, oncologists, or cancer doctors, accounted for only 1 percent of the 187,076 Actiq prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies in the U.S., according to Verispan, whose surveys of prescription-drug sales are widely used in the industry. Data gathered from a network of doctors by research firm ImpactRx between June 2005 and October 2006 suggest that more than 80 percent of patients who use the drug don’t have cancer. Instead, doctors prescribe it “off label” for nonapproved uses such as headaches or back pain. Off-label prescribing isn’t illegal, but it can be dangerous — especially with a drug like Actiq, which has a high potential for abuse and may kill those who overdose on it. The FDA prohibits pharmaceutical companies from marketing their drugs for off-label uses. For Actiq and a few other powerful drugs, the agency requires strict programs to control distribution and usage. Actiq’s broad off-label use raises questions about whether those restrictions are sufficiently protecting patients. “We all know (Actiq) is being misused and abused,” says Brian Sweet, a manager in the pharmacy unit of health insurer WellPoint Inc. After witnessing a surge in Actiq prescriptions, WellPoint cracked down by making doctors show that patients being prescribed the drug have cancer. Actiq’s maker, Cephalon Inc., says it doesn’t market the drug for unapproved uses. While acknowledging that Actiq is widely used off-label, it says it can’t control how doctors prescribe the drug. Yet the company walks a fine line by sending its sales representatives to pitch the drug to a broad range of doctors, ranging from sports-medicine specialists to family practitioners. It gives these doctors coupons for free samples. Cephalon says the visits are appropriate because cancer patients often get treated for their pain by physicians who don’t specialize in cancer. Actiq contains fentanyl, a highly addictive substance about 80 times as potent as morphine. Fentanyl is classified as a Schedule II substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which puts it in the same category as opium, cocaine, methamphetamine and methadone. Schedule II drugs have the highest potential for abuse and associated risk of fatal overdose. Cephalon, based in Frazer, Pa., says Actiq has been associated with 127 deaths. Two of them involved children who confused the drug for candy. Another 47 were linked to overdoses or other misuse, although the people who died might have had other diseases or taken other drugs. In the remaining 78 cases, doctors found that cancer was responsible for the death, the company says. Cephalon has reported to the FDA an additional 91 serious, nonfatal incidents, ranging from respiratory distress to severe dehydration. The U.S. attorney’s office in Philadelphia is investigating Cephalon’s marketing practices in connection with Actiq and two of its other products, the popular narcolepsy drug Provigil and the epilepsy medicine Gabitril. No charges have been filed. Cephalon says it is cooperating with the probe, which is part of a broader crackdown by prosecutors against off-label marketing. In August, the Justice Department fined Schering-Plough Corp. $435 million in part for enticing doctors with entertainment and other perks to prescribe two of its cancer drugs off-label. Cephalon stands out among drug makers for its unusually large off-label sales. Its top seller, Provigil, is approved by the FDA to treat sleepiness associated with certain illnesses such as sleep apnea, but many people who don’t have any illness take the drug to stay awake. Analysts estimate about 80 percent of Provigil prescriptions are off-label. Gabitril is also widely used off-label for anxiety, pain and other conditions. Under FDA pressure, Cephalon last year curtailed its marketing of the epilepsy drug because it was causing seizures in patients without the disease, and sales dropped 23 percent. Founded in 1987 by a former DuPont Co. scientist named Frank Baldino Jr., Cephalon expects revenue to exceed $1.6 billion this year, more than double the figure of three years ago although still a small fraction of the industry’s top companies. Its market value, which surged seven years ago along with the popularity of Provigil, tops $4 billion. Dr. Baldino earned $2.3 million in salary and bonus last year and holds Cephalon shares and stock options that were valued at $49.6 million as of the end of last year. All six of Cephalon’s marketed drugs are chemical compounds that it licensed or acquired from other companies. Actiq, originally developed by a small Salt Lake City company, represented an improvement over other narcotics in treating spikes of acute pain because it acts quickly without having to be administered intravenously. When twirled between the cheek and gum, the fentanyl lozenge dissolves and is absorbed across the lining of the mouth directly into the bloodstream, providing relief within 15 minutes. Actiq had sales of $15 million in 2000, when Cephalon acquired it. By last year, sales had grown to $412 million, making it Cephalon’s No. 2 drug. In the first nine months of this year, sales jumped to $471 million. Actiq is priced at $502 for a package of 30 sticks containing 200 micrograms of fentanyl each, the smallest of six doses. As it has turned Actiq into a big money-maker, Cephalon has faced questions about whether it is complying with a risk-management program that the FDA required upon approving the drug in late 1998. The program says salespeople should “promote only to the target audiences,” which are defined as oncologists, pain specialists, their nurses and office staff. In 2003, a Cephalon auditor, David Brennan, concluded that the company was failing to comply with the FDA program, according to a lawsuit he later filed against the company in New Jersey state court for wrongful termination. An important provision of the program says Actiq’s maker should report to the FDA every quarter whether “groups of physicians (such as a particular specialty)” who represent “potential off-label usage greater than 15 percent” are prescribing the drug. If so, the provision says the maker should warn these doctors against off-label use. Mr. Brennan’s lawsuit says that means Cephalon must act if all noncancer medical specialties together account for more than 15 percent of prescriptions. Cephalon interprets the provision differently. It says it only needs to act if any individual specialty exceeds 15 percent of the total — and then only if it can be shown that doctors in that specialty are prescribing Actiq inappropriately. Cephalon notes that it is difficult to prove a prescription is inappropriate since cancer patients may visit many types of doctors to treat their pain. It believes the 15 percent clause has yet to be triggered. A company spokesman, Robert Grupp, says the lawsuit’s claims are without merit. The FDA declined to comment. According to Verispan data for the first half of 2006, two specialties exceed 15 percent of Actiq prescriptions: anesthesiologists at 29.5 percent and physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists at 16 percent. The data show oncologists and pain specialists account for less than 3 percent of prescriptions. Cephalon doesn’t dispute the data. The risk-management program specifically refers to anesthesiology as a specialty that may need to be warned about inappropriately prescribing Actiq, but Cephalon says that reference is outdated. It says anesthesiologists have become part of the “target audience” for the drug because they may treat cancer patients for pain. Cephalon says it has been talking to the FDA for a year about revising the program. After Mr. Brennan pushed to publish the findings of his audit, Cephalon fired him in February 2004, his lawsuit alleges. Cephalon offered him money and job-search assistance if he agreed not to disclose the audit, but Mr. Brennan refused, the suit says. Mr. Grupp declined to discuss Mr. Brennan’s dismissal but noted that he is “a former disgruntled employee.” Mr. Brennan has been interviewed twice by investigators working for the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, most recently in May, according to a person familiar with the matter. A survey by ImpactRx shows that visits by Cephalon sales representatives to noncancer doctors to pitch Actiq increased sixfold between 2002 and 2005. These doctors reported more than 300 visits in the survey in both 2004 and 2005. Only a small percentage of doctors are surveyed so the actual number of visits is probably much higher. Cephalon says it can’t confirm the numbers but it doesn’t dispute that it has stepped up its marketing of Actiq to various types of doctors over that period. Stephen Leighton, a general practitioner in Winston-Salem, N.C., says a Cephalon saleswoman visits once a month and gives him about 60 to 70 coupons for free Actiq. Patients can trade each coupon for six Actiq sticks. Dr. Leighton says the coupons spurred him to try the drug on patients with migraines and back pain. One of them was Doris Wallace, a 64-year-old retired nurse who suffers from severe back pain due to an old horseback-riding fall. Ms. Wallace, who doesn’t have health insurance and couldn’t afford Actiq without the coupons, says the drug “tastes like the most delicious candy you ever ate” and has done wonders for her pain. At the height of her use, she was consuming 24 Actiq sticks a month. The positive experience of patients like Ms. Wallace has led Dr. Leighton to prescribe Actiq more widely for different types of pain. Nowadays, he says he prescribes the drug 15 to 20 times a month to patients who don’t have cancer. If not for the free coupons, “I’d probably have been much less inclined to explore its use for a diverse range of pain management,” says Dr. Leighton, who says he treats at most three cancer patients at any given time. Dr. Leighton says he thinks the FDA-approved usage of Actiq is too narrow. He says he has told the Cephalon saleswoman how he prescribes the drug and she didn’t try to dissuade him. Mr. Grupp of Cephalon says Dr. Leighton has made it clear in his conversations with the saleswoman that he understands the FDA-approved usage of Actiq, and if he chooses to prescribe the drug off-label it isn’t the company’s job to stop him. Mr. Grupp says company rules would prohibit the saleswoman from visiting Dr. Leighton only if he never prescribed the drug for cancer pain. “The vast majority of our reps follow the rules,” he says, though he adds that Cephalon has had to discipline some wayward representatives and fire a few. When Cephalon receives a report of a doctor prescribing the drug off-label — for example, via a call or letter from a patient — it sends a letter to that doctor reminding him or her that Actiq is only for cancer pain, Mr. Grupp says. The company has sent more than 3,300 such letters, he says. Earlier this year, Dr. Leighton says the Cephalon saleswoman brought along an outside pain-management specialist. Over lunch, Dr. Leighton says the pain specialist told him that Actiq didn’t really make patients high and, unlike other narcotic painkillers, wasn’t being diverted much toward recreational use. Cephalon declined to comment on the conversation. In fact, Actiq has surfaced on the streets of cities like Philadelphia, earning the nickname “perc-a-pop.” Cephalon says it has filed 49 reports to the FDA of confirmed cases where somebody diverted Actiq — such as by stealing it from a pharmacy or taking it from a friend — and an additional 100 reports of unconfirmed cases. Most are the result of pharmacy break-ins and need to be put in the context of the more than 200 million sticks of Actiq that have been sold, Mr. Grupp says. Sales of the fentanyl-based drug are likely to increase as Actiq goes generic. In late September, Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. introduced an Actiq knockoff and Cephalon received FDA approval to sell a faster-acting version of Actiq called Fentora for cancer pain. Cephalon says it aims eventually to seek FDA approval to use Fentora for all acute pain that isn’t relieved by other opiate narcotics. Mrs. Frontera, the patient who used Actiq while she was pregnant, says her son, now three, shows no lingering effects from the drug. Mrs. Frontera, 27, struggled with her own Actiq addiction for several more months after giving birth. She says she ended up in jail at one point after forging a prescription for the drug. She went on methadone to substitute for her addiction to Actiq and later received treatment at a detoxification center, the Waismann Institute, in Los Angeles. Now she lives in San Luis Obispo, Calif. “It makes me angry that it was prescribed to me,” she says of Actiq. “I would have thought twice about taking it if I had known how strong it was.” Philip Delio, the neurologist who prescribed Actiq to Mrs. Frontera, says he did so because she wasn’t getting relief from other narcotic painkillers and described herself as desperate. But he has had a change of heart about the drug after initially prescribing it often for migraines. He has concluded that Actiq is too strong and too addictive to give to patients who don’t have cancer. Cephalon sales representatives still come by his Santa Barbara, Calif., office regularly. But Dr. Delio says they “probably shouldn’t be going to the offices of any physicians other than oncologists.” Sphere: Related Content Cheap Generic Viagra

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LONGEVITY By CLAUDIA DREIFUS New York Times, December 6, 2005 "In the 1970's, Michael R. Rose made scientific history with experiments manipulating the life spans of fruit flies." FULL STORY RELATED LINK: The end of aging? New study examines evolutionary explanations for 'biological immortality' EurekAlert, 5-Dec-2005 University of Chicago Press Journals - Press Release "Though getting older may seem inevitable, a major new study from the forthcoming issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology examines the point in human life when your body simply stops aging." FULL RELEASE Cheap Generic Viagra

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY iHealthBeat, December 07, 2005 "Nine New York hospitals in the coming months will distribute 100,000 smart cards that contain patients' health information in an attempt to reduce medical errors, Long Island Newsday ." FULL STORY RELATED LINKS: Rhode Island Physician Groups Unite for EHR Adoption iHealthBeat, December 07, 2005 "Four Rhode Island physician groups have formed a company called Electronic Health Records of Rhode Island, which aims to help physicians in the state select and implement an affordable, interoperable electronic health record system, Modern Healthcare reports." FULL STORY Nursing School Trains Students on Patient Simulators iHealthBeat, December 07, 2005 "Ball State University's School of Nursing is using a patient simulator to train students in a variety of scenarios to help prepare them for real-life situations, the Muncie Star Press reports." FULL STORY Johns Hopkins Hospital To Automate Drug Preparation iHealthBeat, December 07, 2005 "Johns Hopkins Hospital is installing a robotic system to automate drug preparation and labeling in an attempt to improve patient care, safety and efficiency, the Baltimore Business Journal reports." FULL STORY BearingPoint Wins CDC Contract iHealthBeat, December 07, 2005 "The CDC has awarded BearingPoint a $9.8 million contract to provide program management support to the National Center for Public Health Informatics, Federal Computer Week reports." FULL STORY Cheap Generic Viagra

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HISPANICS Robert Preidt "THURSDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have announced the launch of a Spanish-language version of the government's online nutrition guide." FULL STORY RELATED LINK: from the U.S. Census Bureau: Hispanic Population of the United States Cheap Generic Viagra

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