Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise.....The Merck Madness Continues.

All 3 of my regular readers may remember my earlier rant about the string of lawsuits facing Merck and its myocardial infarction inducing wonder drug, Vioxx. Merck has insisted throughout the legal process that the best scientific evidence showed Vioxx had no increased risk for heart problems unless it was used for more than 18 months, but pesky juries had this annoying habit of awarding damages to people who took the drug for shorter periods of time. Obviously a case of "jackpot justice" as our Republican friends would like to say, people ignoring the evidence to sock it to a deep pocketed corporation and deliver undeserved big awards to someone with the bad manners to complain that a loved one was dead. Maybe, or maybe those juries knew a thing or two about the trustworthiness of corporate America. From today's New York Times:

Merck Admits a Data Error on Vioxx

In an admission that could undermine one of its core defenses in Vioxx-related lawsuits, Merck said yesterday that it had erred when it reported in early 2005 that a crucial statistical test showed that Vioxx caused heart problems only after 18 months of continuous use.

That statistical analysis test does not support Merck's 18-month theory about Vioxx, the company acknowledged yesterday.

Outside scientists said yesterday that Merck's admission, when considered along with other clinical trials of the drug and studies tracking real-world Vioxx use, supports critics' longstanding claims that Vioxx caused heart problems quickly.

"There never was any evidence for the 18-month story," said Dr. Alastair J. J. Wood, a drug safety expert at Vanderbilt University.


Well, well, well. A "data error" that doesn't get caught for over a year? Didn't their arithmetic teacher ever talk to them about the importance of checking their work? Mrs. Keller drilled that into the drugnazi's head back in the 5th grade. Of course I'm not a corporate bastard whose "error" may provide me an excuse for not taking responsibility for some dead people.

In other COX-2 news, we have this:

Celebrex Ads Are Back, Dire Warnings and All

The ads for the Pfizer painkiller Celebrex feature a man holding a boy's hand as they walk up a stadium staircase. "52 steps won't keep you from taking him out to the ballgame," they say.

But a heart attack would.

Each ad includes a boldface warning that begins, "Important Information: Celebrex may increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke that can lead to death."

As it resumes ads for the controversial medicine, Pfizer, the world's biggest drug maker, is offering consumers a decidedly mixed message. But 16 months after the company stopped advertising Celebrex over concerns about its heart risks, Pfizer has returned to the consumer ad market in hopes of reviving sales of the drug, which plunged last year during the ad moratorium.

The new campaign in magazines has raised the ire of consumer groups, who say that Celebrex is so dangerous that Pfizer should stop selling it, not encourage patients to use it.



So with one hand Big Pharma is getting ready to write some big checks to people it's COX-2 inhibitors have been found responsible for killing, and with the other it's getting ready to start shoving that exact same category of drugs down your throat once again. Be careful out there folks, it's a dangerous world, and you sure as hell can't count on others to be looking out for you.

you can read both articles here and here.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

So The Drugnazi Says To The Addict.....

....."this was a 30 days supply filled 15 days ago. You're gonna have to wait a couple weeks for your next refill unless you can get your doctor to OK an early one."

Then the addict says to the drugnazi:

NO YOU'RE WRONG!!!!!! IT WAS A SIXTY DAYS SUPPLY!!!!!!

Ummm........you may want to change your line of argument there Perry Mason

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Sometimes The Lab Rats Just Don't Cut It.....

....and finding people in the rich countries of the west to experiment on can be just a pain in the ass; getting their permission, following basic safety procedures, what a drag! Well Pfizer has come up with an outside the box solution on how to cut through the red tape involved with testing your chemicals on humans. Just use African children. From the Washington Post:

A panel of Nigerian medical experts has concluded that Pfizer Inc. violated international law by testing an unapproved drug on children with brain infections at a field hospital.

The report concludes that Pfizer never obtained authorization from the Nigerian government to give the unproven drug to nearly 100 children and infants. Pfizer selected the patients at a field hospital in the city of Kano, where the children had been taken to be treated for an often deadly strain of meningitis. At the time, Doctors Without Borders was dispensing approved antibiotics at the hospital.

Pfizer's experiment was "an illegal trial of an unregistered drug," the Nigerian panel concluded, and a "clear case of exploitation of the ignorant."

Five children died after being treated with the experimental antibiotic and others showed signs of arthritis, although there is no evidence the drug played a part.


Exploitation of the ignorant is the bedrock upon which capitalism is built baby. Whatever gets that stock price up.....

Read the whole article here.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Drug Company Rip Off Of The Day Number 4

Black people have been given the shaft in this country for a long time. Brought here in chains to do all the backbreaking, menial jobs we didn't realize Mexicans would come here voluntarily to do, they and their descendants were held in bondage for over two centuries before being "freed" into the arms of Jim Crow, who made sure they wouldn't do things with their freedom like vote, get good jobs, or ever address a white person without using the word "sir." It wasn't until the late 1960's that you could even to begin to make an argument that a black person had a shot at achieving what a white kid takes for granted. The effects of discrimination continue today, as when we see that African-Americans are 30% more likely to die of heart disease, 1.6 times as likely to have diabetes, and 2.5 times more likely to have a child that will die before it's first birthday. Makes me proud to be a cracker. Not really.

The good folks at Nitromed are doing something about these numbers though. Their new drug, Bidil, is the first medicine specifically indicated for a particular racial group. This blockbuster combination of hydralazine and isosorbide dinitrate has been shown to reduce mortality from heart failure in African-Americans by 43% over current standard therapy. Yay.

Except that somewhere out there a retired 120 year old pharmacist, nurse, or doctor just saw the words "hydralazine" and/or "isosorbide" and was taken back to the happy days of their youth. You see, neither one of the drugs in Bidil is new. The only breakthrough is the idea that the combination of the two might be of some benefit to black folks. If you're wondering why it took so long for someone to try this, read the first paragraph again. There is also a new and improved (for Nitromed) price. According to the New York Times, Nitromed has set the price for Bidil at $1.80 a tablet, meaning a months supply at the usual starting dose will set you back $162. You can buy a months supply of the two meds separately at drugstore.com for around $37. So while Nitromed may get some points for a rip-off disguised as good intentions, you can see Bidil is just another plot to keep the black man down.

Ever Have A Zit Reappear.....

....in the exact same place as one that just healed? Now I have to ride the zit-cycle all over again, with people thinking I'm the pharmacist of the eternal zit. Christ.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Dear Meth Heads. Your Competence Gives You Away

Crystal Meth is certainly the illicit drug currently in fashion. Ecstasy is just so 2000, and if you're still taking crack, you probably do things like the Macarana when you get high. Crystal Meth is in baby. I theorize it has something to do with our current workaholic, go-go culture that gives a drug that can keep you awake for a week it's appeal.

Or perhaps it's the do it yourself aspect. in case you've been living under a rock and don't know this, it's possible for a person to cook up crystal meth using the common OTC cold medicine Sudafed. This brings us to the worst part of the meth epidemic. It inconveniences me. Your nanny government has decided the best way to deal with the problem is to take products that contain pseudoephedrine and move them behind the pharmacy counter. To their credit though, perhaps they do realize that it is incredibly easy to divine the motives of someone wishing to acquire the magic red pills. Two conversations will illustrate:

CUSTOMER NUMBER ONE:

Ummmmmmmmm.....yeah......what's good for a cold?

Me: It's a matter of matching up the right medicine to your symptoms. What kind of symptoms are you having?

Customer: I've got that thing that's going around.

Me (Now going into what's known as "beat it out of them" mode): Do you have a cough?

Customer: I don't think so. (5 seconds of silence)

Me: A fever?

Customer: Noooo.......

This will continue until I figure out nasal congestion is their only problem right now.

Me: Do you have any heart problems? High Blood Pressure?

Customer: I take that white pill, from Dr. Smith.

I now trudge over to the computer to look at the idiot's drug profile. It checks out OK.

Me: Why don't you try this. (The irony being I am now more likely to recommend Sudafed since it is now right behind me as opposed to having to leave the happy pill room and go to the cough/cold section.)


CUSTOMER NUMBER TWO:

I need the 96 count package of psudo-gest. (Customer has the exact amount the purchase will total, including tax, laid on the counter next to the cash register.)

Me: Get out of the store.

Friday, May 19, 2006

The Drug Company Rip Offs Just Keep On A Comin'

Seriously, I don't look that hard for them, but they keep pouring in like the Vicodin down Rush Limbaugh's throat. From this morning's USA Today:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is accusing Abbott Laboratories of vastly inflating prices of its drugs as part of a fraudulent billing scheme alleged to have cost government health programs more than $175 million.

Abbott bumped up the reported price of the intravenous antibiotic vancomycin as much as 18 times what it charged health care providers, knowing that the Medicare and Medicaid programs would reimburse the providers based on the manufacturer's price, according to a whistle-blower lawsuit unsealed Thursday.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of whistle-blower claims against drug manufacturers. Settlements in other cases have totaled more than $3.1 billion in recent years.

Now let's go to the official Abbott web site:

Abbott's Patient Assistance Program is a physician-based referral program that offers free Abbott medicines to low income patients who do not have or do not qualify for prescription drug benefits through private insurance or government funded programs. In 2005, Abbott provided more than 229,000 patients with free medicines valued at $167 million.


Hmmmmm....$175 million in rip-offs and $167 million in free drugs. Quite literally giving with one hand and taking with the other.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

From The Jihad Watch, Some Of Them Actually Are Clinically Nuts

Came across this gem today while waiting for my morning (2 in the afternoon for me) coffee. Through the magic of the Internet, we go to La Crosse, Wisconsin:

A former Wal-Mart pharmacist who objects to dispensing birth control was found guilty of obstruction for an incident at a store in Onalaska.

Neil Noesen was arrested after creating a disturbance while working briefly at the Onalaska Wal-Mart last July.

Police officers told Noesen to leave the store, but he refused to leave, telling customers about his religious beliefs about birth control. He had to be taken from the store in a wheelchair.

La Crosse County Circuit Judge Michael Mulroy fined Noesen 500 dollars plus court costs.

It's Noesen's fourth conviction on charges related to his objections as a Catholic to dispensing birth control prescriptions and devices.


Taken from the store in a wheelchair? WTF! Damn good thing this didn't happen where I work, as there are no wheelchairs to be found. I suppose I would have had to hit him over the head with one of the 500 count generic Vicodin bottles we go through every day, then drag his sorry unconscious ass out to the curb next to the homeless dude who comes in a couple times a week to ask me if it's safe to drink rubbing alcohol.

Speaking of the dregs of society, it would seem the judge missed a golden opportunity here. Since this clown seems so committed to proselytizing, what better place to get it done than among the downtrodden, lost, wayward souls to be found in the county jail? He could have told them all about his opposition to condoms as the Crips were making a deal to trade him for a carton of cigarettes. Ah well, maybe on conviction number 5.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Why I Would Make The Worst Teacher, Or Pharmacy Manager, Ever

You may have picked up by now that I'm not much of a people person. This extends not only to customers and my interactions with folks in day to day life, but to my fellow employees as well. I generally have 2 rules for the cashiers, techs, and other assorted staff under my supervision in the happy pill room:

1) Keep yourself busy.

2) Stay out of my way.

I can be flexible on rule number 1, but number 2 is written in stone. This usually puts me in pretty good stead with the people I work with, as I've been lucky enough to by and large have staff who knew their jobs well and appreciated the autonomy my anti-socialness gave them. Sometimes though I run into problems. Because of the way we fill prescriptions, the order in which labels print out is not the order in which they were entered into the system. This means at the end of the day we have to go through the day's prescriptions, sort them into numerical order, and put them away in the file cabinet. The other day I was working with someone who was attempting this for the first time. I gave her the day file box with the instructions "Just put them in order and file them by hundreds" , thinking this was about all the training someone would need for the task. I was wrong.

A few minutes later I was presented with a pile of prescriptions in what appeared to be random order. I think they were in a different order then when the job was started, but what system was used was beyond my comprehension. I said something like "No, you just need to put them in order"

I was then asked a bizarre question about what to do with the "ten twenty ones and the ten twenty twos"

It was then I realized. This person could not understand they were to put little slips of paper in order. That 10 was bigger than 9 was bigger than 8........and try as I might, I was unable to get the point across to them.

The moment I decided it would be easier to just do it myself was the same moment I decided to vote "yes" for the preschool funding initiative on next months ballot.

Old Medicare, Good, New Medicare Very, Very Bad

As you can tell from my last post, I like Medicare, mostly because it's a hell of a deal. For just short of $6100 per person per year, every single old and disabled person in this country gets complete health coverage. That's about $1000 less than Blue Cross/Blue Shield of California would charge to insure a healthy 64 year old with a policy they would cancel the moment the person actually got sick. More coverage for less money. So much for the myth of a bloated, inefficient government bureaucracy.

Let me be clear that I am not talking about the new Part D(isaster) drug benefit. For some reason (hint: $600,000,000 spent by the health industry in the political process over 3 years) "our" Congressional Representatives and members of Congress are married to the idea that private industry can always do everything better than the public sector. Go call your health insurance company right now. After you spend an hour listening to how "your call is very important to us" let me know what you think of the lean, mean efficiency of the corporate way of doing things. These are the people your government put in charge of the new Medicare drug benefit, and anyone who has been paying attention has seen the disasterous results. Confused, angry oldsters who simply wanted to sign up wading through oceans of information trying to figure out how not to get screwed. Worse yet, confused, angry oldsters bothering me expecting me to straighten them out when I barely have time to take a piss at work. The parents of the fucking Secretary of Health and Human Services couldn't figure out which plan was best for them, even with the help of their son, the SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES. Just mention the words "Medicare part D" to any pharmacy employee and enjoy the post traumatic stress disorder you'll witness.

But at least we got everyone covered you might be saying, and our seniors are getting some relief from crippling drug prices, and society is probably saving some money on our collective drug bill by buying in bulk, right? Um, no.

Almost 10 million eligible people missed Monday's deadline to sign up for coverage.

Twenty-three percent of seniors and people with disabilities are paying more for prescription drugs than they did before enrolling in a Medicare Part D plan.

Prices under the private drug plans in Part D are 75 percent higher than those negotiated by the Veterans Administration, 5 percent higher than at Drugstore.com, and 2 percent higher than at Costco. We would have been better off totally eliminating the "Pharmacy Benefit Managers" from the process and just having seniors go to a warehouse club and send in the bill.

Let me recap this because it goes so counter to the propaganda you'll hear from Fox news and the army of right wing hacks that dominate the AM radio dial. Old Medicare; completely government run. Costs less. Returns more. New Medicare; a public/private hybrid monster, bleeding the taxpayer dry and delivering shit for service.

This is what happens when your public servants are bought and paid for by corporations. This is what happens when they care more about how they'll fund their next campaign than what's best for the country. The corporations write the checks to the campaign committees, but we all pay the price.

Read more here and here if you want.

Fun Facts About Our Fucked Up Health Care System

Amount spent by the health industry on lobbying in 2003: $300,000,000

Amount spent on campaign contributions since 2000: $300,000,000

Amount of every dollar spent on private health insurance that goes to "administrative expenses": 15 cents

Amount of every dollar spent on Medicare that goes to administrative expenses: 4 cents.

Amount that would be saved in "administrative expenses" by shifting to a "Medicare for all" national health plan: $286 billion

Cost to cover everyone currently without health insurance: $80 billion.

Damn. 10 minutes on Google and I just solved one of the biggest problems the country faces. I'm more of a genius than I realized......

You can read more here and here.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Great News! I May Get To Save My Feet, Or At Least One Of Them

Simply by sacrificing a hand or two. Regular readers my remember my earlier post about how after a particularly suck-ass day at work, I was admiring the entrepreneurial can-do spirit of a man in Mississippi who was looking to raise, by my math, around $2 million by cutting off his feet live on webcam and charging people to watch. Alas, it can be tough out there for a small businessman, and the plan was never carried out. I think the guy's big mistake was in striking out on his own, and not getting under the protective umbrella of corporate America. Turns out while going through my annual statement of benefits from my employer, I've discovered I'm covered for $250,000 of "accidental death and dismemberment insurance." OK, the death part is definitely out, and 250k is a ways short of 2 million, but hey, the potential rewards as well as the potential risks are always smaller when you go corporate, and I'm thinking 250k would be enough to serve as a launching pad away from the soul crushing life behind the pharmacy counter. Turns out there are several ways to get the full payout and still live. Here they are and my thoughts on each:

1) Loss of both hands or both feet or sight in both eyes:

Hmmm....not too sure about this one. Seems a little too close to what that dude in Mississippi was trying to pull off, and if I lost both eyes I wouldn't be able to see hot chicks anymore. Think I'll pass .

2) One hand and one foot:

Now this one has possibilities, especially if you could stagger the sides of the missing hand and foot. That way you could still hold a walking stick or cane of some sort on the side where your foot used to be.

3) Speech and hearing in both ears:

If it were just speech, this would be a no brainier, as it would make it possible to live out my life-long dream of never talking to anyone ever again. Coupled with hearing though might be a problem. I've just discovered the kick-ass sounds of John Coltrane and want to see what else might be out there in the world of jazz. Wonder if I might be able to substitute loss of a hand or foot.

4) Quadriplegia:

This one confuses me. I always thought Quadriplegia was one of the Who's better albums, and I mean, even if you didn't like it, I hardly think it could be considered a disability. This might have something to do with being deaf, dumb and blind and acquiring an ability to sure play a mean game of pinball. I'll have to do more research into this one.

5) Either hand or foot and sight in one eye:

We might have a winner here. I'm thinking a foot, so I'd still be able to type, I'm closing one eye while banging away at the keyboard right now, and it seems very doable. Especially if it means 2,500 benjamins in the bank.

The question now of course is, what kind of accident cuts off a foot and one eye? The devil is always in the details, but a few more workdays like today and I will surely launch a full scale effort to find out.

Monday, May 08, 2006

"Authorized Generics"=A Screwing For You

A quick follow up to my earlier post regarding the skulduggery that goes on between Big Pharma and little pharma and their conspiracies to keep generic meds from the market. Today we hear by way of the trade magazine Pharmacy Times of yet another ingenious way that Big Pharma has to ensure the maximum amount of money is transferred from you to them. First a little background. The FDA has a "first across the line" incentive for generic med applications, meaning that the first company to get it's application approved gets 180 days exclusive marketing rights, essentially a temporary monopoly on the sale of any alternative to the brand name med. Anyone out there see the loophole yet? It works like this. Big Pharma sets up a subsidiary to apply for a generic approval for the parent companies med, and since daddy company is already making the stuff, it would seem that baby company might have a bit of an inside track to get it's application approved first. When it does, it happily sells it's product for a little bit less than brand name daddy, for 6 months, when it invariably loses interest in the product as the real generic companies start to manufacture and sell the med at the price the free market determines.

Ingenious. I'll give them that. I just wish they would turn the brainpower involved into researching out how to exploit the rules into maybe researching something like hmmmmm...cancer?

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Pavlov's Dog, Doctor Shoppers, and Right Wing Full Of Shit Gasbags.

The addict is a fact of life for those of us in the profession. When you work in a room full of drugs, you will undoubtedly have to deal with people who desperately want to get at those drugs. Someday I hope to turn this situation to my advantage though, as I posted earlier here. Until that day though, I am resigned to endless inquires from customers calling 7 days in a row to ask the exact day they can get their Vicodin refilled, excuses as to how the Soma got "lost", and "filled at other pharmacy" rejects from addicts on a budget who are trying to save a few bucks by using their insurance card for the 3 different narcotic prescriptions from 3 different doctors being filled at 3 different pharmacies. (sometimes I want to tell them that they were soooooo close to pulling it off, that if they just would've paid cash they would have gotten away with it) Back when I worked the late shift for a big box chain I remember a customer who would wait patiently in the designated patient area until midnight the day he was due for a refill. He knew when the magic hour had come because a tone would sound over the in-store radio system signaling the new day. Thing is, this customer had never been given the scoop as to what the tone was, he figured it out all on his own and got to the point that as soon as he heard it, he would get up and march zombie-like to the counter. I wondered sometimes what would happen if we played the tone for him sometime at 2 in the afternoon. Betcha he would have done the zombie march.

I'd be willing to bet though, that I'd be hard pressed to find a colleague out there who had a customer as maxed out as the one I read about the other day:

a prescription for 50 tablets of Lorcet was filled at the Zitomer Pharmacy on Madison Avenue in New York. The tablets were to be taken at a rate of two a day, and at that pace the prescription should have lasted 25 days. Three days later, a prescription was filled at the same pharmacy for another 50 tablets. A third prescription for 96 tablets of Norco was filled about the same time at the Lewis Pharmacy in Palm Beach, according to the court documents.




But wait, that's not all....

Prosecutors previously had said... received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors over six months, at a pharmacy near his Palm Beach mansion.



I don't know about my colleagues out there.....but you try shit like that at my store and you will be shown the door with my foot making contact with your ass.

Of course in this case It would have been the ass of a personal assistant.....or maybe a maid, as the master addict in this case is no other than right wing gasbag Rush Limbaugh, professional purveyor of pearls of wisdom such as:

"Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."
-- Rush Limbaugh. October 5, 1995 show transcript.



Wow, so we can all assume Rush did the honorable thing by taking his punishment like a man, right? Hmmmmm....let's let the Washington Post clue us in:

The charge will be dropped in 18 months, said his attorney, Roy Black, provided that Limbaugh continues treatment for drug addiction, as he has for 2 1/2 years. According to an agreement with the Palm Beach County state's attorney's office, Limbaugh also must pay $30,000 to defray the costs of the investigation, as well as $30 a month for his supervision.



$30 a month? Wow, I don't think I could say it any better than Rush himself:

"What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use, too many whites are getting away with drug sales, too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too."
-- Rush Limbaugh. October 5, 1995 show transcript.



The whole treatment thing doesn't look like it's off to a good start either, as the first step in overcoming an addiction is admitting you have a problem. This from the Post though:

"Mr. Limbaugh and I have maintained from the start that there was no doctor-shopping, and we continue to hold this position," Black said in a statement.




"Doctor Shopping" would be defined as getting multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors, kinda like this:

In court documents, investigators connected Limbaugh to 19 prescriptions for the drugs Lorcet, Norco and hydrocodone called in between April and August 2003. The prescriptions were issued by doctors in New York, Florida and California.



Do you need any more evidence he holds the public, and his listeners in particular, in contempt? I have more respect for the tone man customer, at least he wasn't pretending to be something he clearly wasn't.

You can read the whole Post Article here:

Friday, May 05, 2006

I'm Shaking My Ass In A Happy Dance This Morning....

....kinda like Snoopy in Peanuts, except I'm not sure if Snoopy actually shook his ass, but I digress.

What's given me happy ass today is this story from the Republican culture of corruption file. The news of crooked conservatives has been flying so fast and thick lately that the case of Lester M. Crawford is hardly getting any notice. When I saw his name next to the words "criminal inquiry" though, a warm, happy, smile broke out across my face, as it should across the face of any woman who doesn't want to submit to government-sponsored vagina inspections and anyone who cares about the integrity of science.

Lester is the former head of the FDA, and the force behind the denial of a move of Plan B, the "morning after" pill, to over the counter status. I posted earlier on his bullshit reasons here, but to give a quick recap, the FDA overruled its own subcommittee which said that Plan B should be OTC, citing "safety concerns" in selling the drug to younger teens. Two reasons why this was significant:

1) The political appointees that run the FDA almost NEVER overrule the scientists on their subcommittees.

2) There is no scientific evidence that would indicate any special need for concern for the safety of younger women using the med. None. Zero.

So it would seem Lester was simply too much of a puss to admit that he was imposing his morality on the rest of the country. People like that get stuck in my craw. I wish bad things upon them. Which is why these words were like Christmas in May:

Dr. Lester M. Crawford, the former commissioner of food and drugs, is under criminal investigation by a federal grand jury over accusations of financial improprieties and false statements to Congress, his lawyer said Friday.

Financial disclosure forms released by the Department of Health and Human Services showed that in 2004 either Dr. Crawford or his wife, Catherine, had sold shares in companies regulated by the agency when he was its deputy commissioner and acting commissioner. He has since joined a Washington lobbying firm, Policy Directions Inc.

The criminal investigation was disclosed at a court hearing in a lawsuit over the F.D.A.'s actions on the emergency contraceptive Plan B, a subject of bitter contention during Dr. Crawford's tenure as acting commissioner and commissioner. After the pill's maker, Barr Laboratories, applied three years ago to sell the pill over the counter, the agency repeatedly delayed making a decision on the application.



So if he hadn't been one of the Christian fascists imposing his God on us all, we wouldn't know he was also a crook. Priceless.

I suppose it would be better not to take joy in another persons suffering, that is in fact what the Jesus these people claim to follow would say. Hmmmmmmm.....nah.....this is too much fun. IN YOUR FACE LESTER!!!!!!! HAVE FUN IN THE POKEY!!! REMEMBER WHAT YOU PEOPLE SAY ABOUT CONDOMS NOT BEING THE WAY TO STOP HIV WHILE YOU'RE DOING YOUR TIME....BBBBBRRRWWWOOOHHHAAAAHHHHAAAHHHHAAA!!!!! Off to shake my ass some more......

Thursday, May 04, 2006

He Demanded The Phone Number Of His Insurance Company......

....because he was going to "sue their pants off" for not covering his Viagra prescription.

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.

Big Pharma And Little Pharma United......Against You

One of the things I don't miss from yesteryear are the daily instances of customers flying into a foaming at the mouth rage at the very thought of putting a generic medicine into their bodies. Back when I was a young drugnazi intern I was constantly talking people down from generic-induced screaming rants, people convinced I was part of some plot to rob them of their God given right to have a tablet that was slightly shiner and that came in a better looking box. It still happens occasionally, usually from people planning to sell their Vicodin who want to make sure the brand name is on the tablet so their customers know they're not getting ripped off, but for the most part, the screaming on this issue has died down considerably. I would like to think my years of patiently explaining to people that there was indeed no difference in the quantity of quality of chemical that gets put into your body are partly responsible. More than likely though it has to do with the ever-expanding gap in copays between brand name meds vs. generics. If your insurance covers the brand at all these days, you'll more than likely pay out the ass for it.

Here's the real deal scoop on generic meds. They're a win-mostly win situation for both your pharmacy and you. Your drugstore pays a hell of a lot less for generics wholesale and passes most of the savings on to you, meaning more money in the pocket of both you and your drugstore, and less for big pharma.....bbrrrrwwwwooohhhaaahhhhaaahhhhaaahhhhaaaaaa!!!!!! In your face GlakoSmithKline!!! Just like with any happy situation though, we should have known it would soon be under attack by giant corporations lusting after every last dollar they can suck up. And sure enough, we hear from the Washington Post this tale of a unique adventure in capitalism, companies getting paid to do nothing:

Brand-name drug companies have resumed the practice of slowing the sale of cheaper generic competitors by cutting deals that result in paying millions of dollars to makers of generic drugs while consumers continue to pay brand-name prices.

Generic drugs, which generally cost a fraction of the brand-name original, come to the market after the product's 20-year patent expires. The law and business practices governing patents can be complicated, however, and many generics become available only after successful court challenges.

When brand-name and generic companies agree to end their patent litigation, both generally benefit but the public suffers. The agreements allow the branded companies to maintain their patent exclusivity for longer periods, while the generic company receives money for, in effect, dropping its challenge. The generic companies also often enter into agreements to produce lower-priced versions of the brand-name company's drug at a predetermined date -- far in the future.


So it's still a win mostly win.

Win: Big Pharma

Mostly Win: Generic manufacturers, who get to live out the American Dream of getting large checks while sitting on their ass.

This time though, the in your face!!!! is directed at.....you.

You can read the whole article here.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Who Are The New York Nationals?

We all know literally who they are of course, the group of men who head out to the basketball court night after night to lose at the hands of the Harlem Globetrotters. What I'm really asking here is what makes these people tick? What is their motivation? Now I've never been to a Globetrotter game, but I'm assuming these Nationals have a certain amount of athletic talent. Enough that they weren't born with it, but rather had to earn it in year after year of honing basketball skills in the 'hood or the local YMCA, right through high school and college. The type of talent only a person driven to relentless pursuit of perfection can ever hope to obtain. And now they're professional losers. A laughing stock destined to be dribbled around, dunked over and humiliated in order to earn money to eat. I wonder if they ever secretly want to break free of their bondage and just put an ass-whooping on the Globetrotters that will have them crying for their momma. It can't be good to supress an urge like that. I worry about their mental health.

This Happened In America At The Beginning Of The 21st Century

Old lady comes up to the counter and asks a question. "I broke out in a rash and my doctor told me to get some Benadryl. Is this the right thing?"

Nothing unusual here. There are about 8,000 different types of Benadryl on the market, and if you're not a drug person and find yourself all blotchy and itchy, it's understandable you want to make sure you get the right thing. I answer this very question several times a week. If you find yourself in this type of situation in the future, look for the Benadryl Allergy in the pink box.

Which is exactly what the old lady had in her hand. Yay for her. When I told her that she indeed had the right thing she replied, "Well that's what the pharmacist at K-Mart said too, but since she was a woman, I thought I would ask again."

A woman was telling me that she didn't trust the advice of another woman. You've come a long way indeed baby.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

The Quickest Way To Hurt My Feelings.....

....to really insult and humiliate me, is to say something like "oh, you look like a pharmacist." A recruiting postcard I got in the mail today will illustrate why. These two men evidently would like to be my boss, and they're pretty typical of the type of people you'll see at pharmacy conventions, in trade publications, and corporate meetings discussing how the company's new computer system will help us to spend more time with patients:


Studies have shown this picture to be a more effective contraceptive than the morning after pill.


I seriously hope I don't look anything like a pharmacist.

The Magic Translator Bell.

Nothing says "professionalism in medical service" quite like a drive through window, or at least that is the thinking of my employer. Actually, no, I'm wrong. My employer cares about professionalism only when it can add $$$ to the quarterly earnings statement, so given a choice between a dignified atmosphere and running through a few more paying customers by making the place feel like a McDonalds...yeah, you know which one they pick. For the most part I'm ok with it though, their prompt issuance of large paychecks making the annoyance of dealing with idiots too lazy to get out of their car a fair trade in my book. Not to mention it's usually the techs or cashiers dealing with it. This morning though I had a little stretch where I was minding the happy little pill room all by myself, and the dreaded drive through bell goes off. Now there are 2 bells associated with the driveway of suck. One a motion detector that goes off when you first pull up, and a second button you can push like a doorbell. We really love that second bell. Be sure to push it a lot, especially when you can clearly see that we're on the phone or helping someone else. So, car pulls up and immediately hits that second bell. We're off to a wonderful start. The following is a transcript of the conversation that followed.

Me: Hi, can I help you?

Customer: Something in Spanish my gringo ass doesn't understand. Followed by the customer reaching out and ringing the bell again. DING!

Me: No habla espanol. Un momento. (reaches for phone to call for translator)

Customer: Something in Spanish my gringo ass doesn't understand. DING!

Me into store paging system: "I need a Spanish translator to the pharmacy please."

Customer: Something in Spanish my gringo ass doesn't understand. DING!

Me: No comprendo. No habla espanol.

Customer: yadda yadda yadda.....blah blah blah.......DING!

Me: What are you doing with that bell?

Customer: at least 1 minute of something I don't understand.....DING!

Did he think the button was translating what he was saying? Maybe that it was some sort of recording device that captured his speech and held on to it until he hit the "send" button? By this time the phone rang and when I was done with the call, a translator had shown up and taken care of the customer, so I guess I'll never know. Dumb son of a bitch.