LEVERAGE 305 Question Post

You're not getting the answer to your last two quite yet because I'm finishing the script to 316. And if Dean sees 372 questions answered before he gets his script, he will kill me with my Macbook.

But some context for this evening's pharmaceutical-themed episode.

During one week in June Pfizer 1) agreed to pull its 10-year-old leukemia drug Mylotarg from the market because it caused more, not less patient deaths 2) Suspended pediatric trials of Geodon two months after the FDA said children were being overdosed 3) Suspended trials of tanezumab, an osteoarthritis pain drug, because patients got worse not better, some needing joint replacements (pattern, anyone?) 4) Was investigated by the House for off-label marketing of kidney transplant drug Rapamune and targeting African-Americans 5) Saw a researcher who helped established its Bextra, Celebrex and Lyrica as effective pain meds, Scott S Reuben, MD, trotted off to prison for research fraud 6) was sued by Blue Cross Blue Shield to recoup money it overpaid for Bextra and other drugs 7) received a letter from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) requesting its whistleblower policy and 8) had its appeal to end lawsuits by Nigerian families who accuse it of illegal trials of the antibiotic Trovan in which 11 children died, rejected by the Supreme Court. And how was your week

(h/t Balloon Juice)

Of course, our episode is not based on Pfizer. It is an amalgam of about a thousand similar, shitty stories. But just a reminder that the bad guys in our stories are, if anything toned down from reality. Seriously, I may have hit "Assholes in Suits fatigue" this year. I'm looking forward to six months of not reading about corporate malfeasance and innocent deaths.