Stories on the pharmaceutical industry
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Features
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Prescription for closing community pharmacies?
Proposals to deregulate the market for community pharmacy may end up cutting services patients need, says Richard Lewis
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The harmful pressure of market forces
Gordon Brown’s recent speech on the limits of market mechanisms did not go quite far enough, argues Margaret Cook
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Need not greed
Many deaths in developing countries could be avoided if essential drug prices were lowered. Ken Bluestone explains how pharmaceutical companies are being urged to take their social responsibilities seriously
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Whose DNA is it anyway?
Thousands of gene patents have been issued – yet in most cases they are not inventions, and patenting harms the public interest, warns Sue Mayer
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The price is still not right
Although pharmaceutical companies have lowered the price of many drugs for developing countries, generic equivalents remain cheaper – but may be impossible to import, explains Kevin Watkins
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Because you’re worth it
Drug companies want to expand sales by marketing their products directly to the public. Charles Medawar considers the consequences if they were to get the go-ahead
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Giving doctors the treatment
Peter Mansfield and Jon Jureidini explain why the work of the Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing is necessary to withstand the unhealthy prescribing habits promoted by drug companies
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Buying science, selling drugs
Steve Morgan, Morris Barer and Robert Evans explain how drug companies systematically manipulate scientific research in pursuit of profit
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A licence to print money?
John Abraham reports on how the ‘Europeanisation’ of regulation and licensing for marketing new medicines is profit-driven, unaccountable and a threat to public health
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Who will inherit the earth?
International agreement on intellectual property rights has been foisted on poorer countries in the interests of corporate profit, and will seriously harm public health, say Mike Rowson and Meri Koivusalo
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Winning the medical profits race
Despite all the talk of regulation and managed care, US drug company profits are booming. Geof Rayner reports
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Just keep taking the tablets...
Shamsul Alam and Myra Garrett explain how correcting patient misunderstanding can improve care, reduce the risk of harm—and save money into the bargain
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New moves in the battle of the bottle
New controls on baby milk marketing may help reverse falling rates of breast feeding. Patti Rundall reports
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Central America: going back to their roots
Five hundred years after they were invaded by the conquistadors, the people of Central America are having to rediscover the medicines of their ancestors, explains Frank Chalmers
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Tell them to pack it in…
New evidence confirms that tobacco companies are continuing to beat the TV advertising ban. But there’s no need to despair, says Cecilia Farren — there’s plenty we can all do to fight back
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Interview
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Britain’s own drug barons
Drugs are big business, and not just in Columbia or Panama. Joe Collier, pharmacologist and critic of the industry talks to healthmatters about Britain’s ‘legal’ drug problem
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Columns
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News
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Health research serves profit rather than the public
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Drugs dominate response to mental health problems
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Psychiatry ‘hijacked’ by Big Pharma
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Global pressure leads to falling drug prices
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Regulatory jobs go to industry bosses
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Medical campaign beats US blockade of Cuba
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Drug companies keep pushing the marketing limits
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Drug companies offering ‘freebies’ face prosecution
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Pioneering essential drugs policy is under threat in Bangladesh
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Cuba launches appeal to fight US blockade
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’Free’ GP computers crash
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In brief
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Cracking the drugs code
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Reviews
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To be taken in small doses
Regulation of the Pharmaceutical Industry
eds. John Abraham and Helen Lawton Smith
Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. £55 -
Facts, but no feelings
REGULATING THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL
David Taylor and Andrew Tucker
King’s Fund, 2000, £7.99 -
GP rules on CD, OK?
The Electronic Red Book
Radcliffe Medical Press, 2000, £99.00 -
Nursing’s navel gazing
Interpreting Professional Self-Regulation: A History of the UKCC
Celia Davies, Abigail Beach
Routledge, 2000 -
Dial M for medicine
THE TELEMEDICINE TOOLKIT: A workbook for NHS doctors, nurses and managers
Roy Lilley and John Navein
Radcliffe Medical Press, 2000 -
Evidently effective
EVIDENCE-BASED AND COST-EFFECTIVE MEDICINE FOR THE UNINITIATED
Tony Lockett
Radcliffe Medical Press, 1997 -
Customer rights OK?
Whose standards?
Charlotte Williamson
Open University Press, 1992 -
Down among the users
AIDS, DRUGS AND SEXUAL RISK: LIVES IN THE BALANCE
Neil McKeganey and Marion Bond
Open University Press, 1992 -
Treatments for foreign bodies
MEDICINE AND CULTURE: NOTIONS OF HEALTH AND SICKNESS
Lynn Payer
Gollancz, 1990, £4.99 -
Mixed greens, little meat
THE GREENING OF MEDICINE
Patrick Pietroni
Gollancz, 1991 -
Live cheap, die cheap
STRONG MEDICINE
Paul Menzel
OUP, 1990
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Letters
