After sorting through a mountain of nomination e-mails, we’ve whittled down the field of competitors for this year’s Worst Company In America tournament to 40 bad businesses. Here’s your chance to have your say on how these players will square off in the bracket, and which bubble teams will get left out in the cold. [More]
Pharma Medicine
Full-Page Ads Thank Trader Joe’s For Giving Consumers The Choice To Eat Drugged-Up Meat
By 3.14.14
Freedom of choice is a pretty awesome thing. But for quite some time, consumers have had very little choice when it comes to buying beef, chicken, or pork that wasn’t fed a massive amount of medically unnecessary antibiotics. That’s one of the reasons why our cohorts at Consumers Union have been pushing supermarket chain Trader Joe’s to stop selling meat from these animals — so consumers could have an affordable, convenient way to get meat that wasn’t pumped full of penicillin. But according to a series of full-page newspaper ads, consumers apparently want hamburgers that are contributing to the spread of drug-resistant infections. [More]
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Takes FDA Chief To Task On Weak Antibiotics Guidance
By 3.13.14
In December, the Food and Drug Administration showed just how little it actually cares about drugs in our food by — after more than 35 years of dragging its feet on the topic — politely asking drug companies to pretty please stop selling medically unnecessary antibiotics to farmers who put the drugs in animal feed solely to encourage muscle tissue growth. Today, Senator Elizabeth Warren had the chance to grill FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg on the topic, and she didn’t pull her punches. [More]
Outraged Strangers Beg Drug Company To Save 7-Year-Old’s Life
By 3.11.14
Most people would be appalled to hear that a pharmaceutical company is withholding a potentially life-saving drug from a dying 7-year-old child. The drug isn’t on the market yet, but could be administered under a “compassionate use” exception from the Food and Drug Administration. The situation is a lot more complex than “big mean company keeps drug away from little kid.” Update: Chimerix and the FDA found a way to let Josh Hardy access the drug. [More]
CVS Being Investigated After 37,000 Pain Pills Go Missing
By 3.11.14
The shelves of pharmacies are full of pills, tablets, capsules, and liquids that are worth a lot of money, especially to addicts. So when more than 37,000 prescription pain pills vanish from handful of CVS stores, the authorities get involved. [More]
Pfizer Recalls Antidepressant Effexor Because It Is Not A Heart Medicine
By 3.7.14
Two lots of Pfizer’s Effexor antidepressant and one lot of its generic form, Venlafaxine, have been recalled by Pfizer after a pharmacist discovered a different medicine inside one large bottle of the drug. [More]
Formaldehyde In Baby Shampoo Isn’t As Scary As It Sounds
By 3.4.14
Recently, Johnson & Johnson reformulated their classic yellow baby shampoo after a consumer outcry over a scary-sounding formaldehyde-based preservative in the product. If it’s not absolutely necessary, there’s no good reason to go slathering a product that contains unnecessary substances on infants. The important question is: should we be worried about formaldehyde in personal-care products at all? [More]
Groups Call On Walgreens To Stop “Evaluating” Cigarette Sales And Just Stop Them Already
By 2.12.14
Last week, Walgreens responded to the news that CVS would stop selling cigarettes by saying it was “evaluating its tobacco line.” That didn’t sit well with some advocacy groups who have called on the nation’s largest drugstore chain to give up its nicotine addiction. [More]
Chick Fil-A To (Eventually) Stop Using Antibiotic-Filled Chicken
By 2.11.14
In a move that could (hopefully) have a positive ripple effect on the rest of the fast food industry, Chick fil-A announced today that it will phase out the use of chickens raised using medically unnecessary antibiotics over the next five years. [More]
5 Things You Shouldn’t Buy At The Drugstore
By 2.6.14
Sure, you’ll still be able to buy cigarettes at Walgreens for the foreseeable future, but what else should you pick up while you’re there to get your smokes? Nothing, apparently. [More]
Walgreens Wants Everyone To Know It’s Continuing To Sell Cigarettes
By 2.5.14
Earlier today, CVS surprised an awful lot of people by saying it would give up $2 billion a year in cigarette sales because it’s “the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health.” Meanwhile, Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain, apparently wants the world to know that it will keep on selling tobacco. [More]
CVS To Stop Selling Cigarettes In All Of Its Stores By October 1
By 2.5.14
Drugstore chain CVS will stop selling cigarettes and all other tobacco products in its stores this year, the retailer announced this morning. [More]
Is Chipotle’s Anti-GMO Stance Resulting In Profits?
By 1.31.14
Last year, gut-busting burrito chain Chipotle quietly became the first restaurant of its type to begin identifying which of its ingredients may contain genetically modified ingredients, while also publicly stating that its long-term goal is to eliminate GMO ingredients from its menu. This can be a costly move in a business with relatively thin margins, but it may be working in Chipotle’s favor. [More]
Report: FDA Lets Farmers Use Antibiotics That Pose “High Risk” To Humans
By 1.28.14
Before it recently issued a “pretty please” to drug companies, asking them to voluntarily stop making billions of dollars off of unnecessary antibiotics sales to farmers, the Food and Drug Administration spent decades appearing to avoiding the topic. But a new report claims that the FDA actually spent 10 years internally reviewing the safety of dozens of antibiotics used in animal feed, drugs that the FDA’s own scientists said pose a high risk to human beings. [More]
Why Is Express Scripts Making Me Buy A New Blood Glucose Meter?
By 1.23.14
As diabetics, people with diabetic loved ones, and anyone who has seen a TV commercial starring Wilford Brimley all know, keeping track of one’s blood glucose levels is an important part of staying healthy with diabetes. But what happens when you suddenly can’t get the supplies that you need for the brand of meter that you’ve chosen because your health insurer will only cover one brand of meter? [More]
Johnson & Johnson Reformulates Shampoo, Because Babies Don’t Need Formaldehyde In Their Baths
By 1.17.14
If you asked most folks if formaldeyde sounds like a great ingredient for baby shampoo, they’d say “no.” And possibly also, “ew, gross.” Baby-goods behemoth Johnson & Johnson agrees that formaldehyde is not so much a thing your baby needs, and has rinsed it right out of their iconic yellow shampoo. [More]
FDA Warns Doctors, Pharmacists Against Prescribing High Doses Of Acetaminophen
By 1.15.14
Even though many people pop Tylenols or slug NyQuil without thinking about the consequences, too much acetaminophen can wreak havoc on one’s liver. Today, the Food and Drug Administration has asked health care professionals to please stop prescribing and dispensing dosages of medicine that contain more than 325 mg of acetaminophen, saying the risk to a patient’s liver is higher than any additional benefit of the drug. [More]
CVS Valentine’s Display “Keeps It Sweet” With Candy, Flowers, Condoms, Plan B, Toy Handcuffs
By 1.8.14
It surfaced on Twitter: a “romantic Valentine’s display” at a CVS store somewhere in southern New Jersey with a very pragmatic take on what customers might need for a special evening. On the shelf: cupcake-shaped bath bombs, roses, picture frames, condoms, a variety of personal lubricants, a dose of Plan B, some “male enhancement” supplements, and toy handcuffs. Hmm, some of those things don’t seem appropriate. [More]
