Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy, Education, Money, Pharma

Johns Hopkins puts screws on industry (FiercePharma)

Taking effect July 1, the policy prohibits any pharma-funded gifts and
entertainment, no matter how small their value. Drug reps will be
restricted to no-patients-allowed parts of the teaching hospital and its
clinics–and will be allowed even in those areas only by invitation. And
beginning in 2010, the school will also bar free drug samples. …

Bureaucracy, NeuroPsyche

Approval process lowers the number of kids on atypical precriptions (St. Petersburg Times)

None of the atypicals have been approved by the FDA for use on
preschoolers, and Florida Medicaid guidelines recommend they be used on this age
group “only in the most extraordinary of circumstances.” But those warnings
didn’t slow a tsunami of atypical prescribing. Between 2001 and 2004, the number
of kids under 6 taking atypicals increased 300 percent. For all youths under 19,
the increase was about 250 percent.