Charlie writes:
Yesterday I did the unthinkable. I went to Radio Shack.
Pharma Medicine
Free Advice For RadioShack: Lock The Front Door Before Smoking Up
By 3.6.08
The FDA Wants More Money
By 2.27.08
Unlike Nancy Nord (she’s the CPSC boss that tried to hint to Congress that her agency needed more funding through sly winks and interpretive dance numbers), the FDA chief is ignoring Bush’s “do not ask for more money” rule and demanding more funds.
Say Goodbye To Dr. Jarvik As He and His Stunt Double Row Into The Sunset
By 2.27.08
Weary of all the “fake rowing” controversy, Pfizer has canned Dr. Robert Jarvik (the inventor of the Jarvik artificial heart) as a spokesperson for their blockbuster cholesterol drug, Lipitor.
By 2.26.08
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A new meta-analysis showed that popular anemia drugs Aranesp and Procrit increase the risk of death in cancer patients by 10 percent, a statistically significant number. [NYT]
Enzyte's Steve Warshak (And His Mom) Found Guilty!
By 2.23.08
Hooray! Steve Warshak, the snake oil salesman responsible for Enzyte (and consequently for those awful “Smiling Bob” ads) was found guilty today of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. So was his mom.
CVS Apologizes For Horrific Customer Service
By 2.22.08
Rachael writes in with an update about her complaint with CVS.
This Sunbeam Heating Pad Is Maybe A Little Too Hot
By 2.20.08
This is a Sunbeam heating pad that a LiveJournal user bought for his girlfriend. After a little while she said that the heating pad was too hot, even on low, turned it off, let it cool, and set it aside.
A Tragic Tale Of Horrific, Yet Typical, Service At CVS
By 2.19.08
Reader Rachael’s description of what its like to shop at her local CVS is a good example maddening, yet typical “customer service” that you find at chain drug stores. Why is buying razor blades and photo prints so insanely difficult? Why?
Rite Aid District Manager Successfully Handles A Customer Complaint
By 2.19.08
With all the customer service horror stories we post, you’d think businesses in the United States have lost the ability to treat their customers with respect—and by and large, you’d be right.
22,000 People Died As Bayer Reaped Profits, Withheld Key Study From FDA
By 2.17.08
The FDA yanked the heart surgery drug Trasylol off the market last November, but a medical researcher now claims that 22,000 lives could have been saved if Bayer AG hadn’t withheld the results of an earlier internal study proving the drug’s danger. An FDA committee held hearings in September 2006 to determine Trasylol’s safety, but three of the committee members had a financial interest in Bayer, and the drug maker had underwritten the committee chairman’s research.
This Is Your Brain On Chantix?
By 2.15.08
NY Magazine has published a interesting personal account from a patient who was taking the smoking-cessation drug Chantix. The FDA has reported 37 suicides and more than 400 reports of suicidal behavior in connection with Chantix, a pleasure blocking drug that sits in the nicotine receptors and prevents the smoker from properly experiencing their nicotine high. The FDA recently issued a patient advisory about the drug, requesting that patients carefully monitor their moods. The possible side-effects of Chantix now include “anxiety, nervousness, tension, depressed mood, unusual behaviors and thinking about or attempting suicide.”
Free Advice: Don't Deposit Bags Of Meth In The ATM
By 2.15.08
Here’s a little free advice from your friends at The Consumerist: Don’t deposit bags of meth at the ATM. You don’t get any interest and they’re probably going to figure out who are after they see your name and account number.
Coffee Shop Installs Fake Security Camera In Bathroom
By 2.5.08
A coffee shop in Montreal has removed a “dud” security camera from its bathroom after news of it hit the local papers. Corporate headquarters asked the franchise owner to take it down, and apologized/avoided blame in a press release that said they were “not consulted in advance.” The franchise owner had installed it as a sort of junkie scarecrow, to frighten away heroin users who were leaving dirty needles in the bathroom stall.
How About Those Super Bowl Ads!
By 2.4.08
Last night’s commercials were a tame batch of disappointment. Everybody wanted cutesy animals—squirrels, horses, ponies, pigeons, crickets, dogs, lions, and lizards—to endorse their products. After the jump, the four spots that caught our eye.
Health Group Asks Congress To Create National Drug Data Resource
By 1.25.08
The U.S. Institute of Medicine called on Congress today to “establish a single national resource of health information.” The resource would collect all available data on every drug in the marketplace, and be available to consumers to educate themselves about any and all possible treatments in order to make better-informed decisions with their doctors.
By 1.17.08
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A clinical trial of Zetia, a popularly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug, “failed to show that the drug has any medical benefits.” In fact, fatty plaques grew almost twice as fast in patients who took Zetia along with Zocor in a combo product called Vytorin. However, “patients who are taking Vytorin or Zetia should talk to their doctors if they are concerned and not discontinue taking the medicines on their own.” [New York Times]
One Third Of Antidepressant Studies Never Published
By 1.17.08
A new study—”the most thorough to date,” writes the New York Times—shows that about a third of the studies for some of the market’s most successful antidepressants (Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor) were never published because they didn’t have favorable results. “While 94 percent of the positive studies found their way into print, just 14 percent of those with disappointing or uncertain results did.” The implication is that the makers of these drugs intentionally misled consumers and the federal government on their effectiveness.
Make Money At Home Stuffing Supplement Capsules—No Anything Required
By 1.15.08
This personal testimony about health supplements from winstonthorne on today’s earlier post is too good—and disturbing—to leave buried in comments:One of my friends actually stuffs capsules for a living for a company making an herbal “sexual stimulant” – she literally sits there on her…
