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. …

Biotechnology, Implications, Toxicology

Monsanto’s Roundup Residues in GM Food Cause Cell Damage (Mercola.com)

The researchers studied toxicity mechanisms of four different Roundup
formulations in human cells. The formulations were diluted at minimal doses (up
to 100,000 times or more), but they still caused cell death within a few hours.
The researchers also noted membrane and DNA damages, and found the formulations
inhibit cell respiration.

Implications, Money, NeuroPsyche

Is APA treatment advice tainted by pharma ties? (FiercePharma)

Some prominent psychiatrists have come under fire recently for thousands in
unreported income from drugmakers. Critics have said that these influential
doctor-researchers led the way toward off-label use of some powerful psychiatric
drugs–and perhaps their recommendations weren’t objective judgments but biased
by their financial ties to pharma. …

Implications, NeuroPsyche

Study questions long-term ADHD med use (FiercePharma)

The latest data confirm that there are “no long-term differences between
children who were continuously medicated and those who were never medicated,”
the Washington Post reports, citing the
Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry
. Meanwhile, the number of scrips for ADHD meds grew
to 39.5 million last year from 28.3 million in 2004. …