Creative marketing
Testimony before the Federal Court of Australia indicated that drug giant Merck paid a division of medical publishing giant Elsevier to produce several volumes of a fake journal, The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, to flog the merits of its products, particularly the antiarthritis drug rofecoxib (Vioxx). The case involves an Australian man who claims the drug caused him to have a heart attack in 2003. He alleges that Merck downplayed the cardiovascular risk of the drug prior to withdrawing it from the market in 2004. In a statement to the online news magazine The Scientist, an Elsevier spokesperson said that the company “does not today consider a compilation of reprinted articles a ‘Journal’. Elsevier acknowledges the concern that the journals in question didn’t have the appropriate disclosures. It is worth noting that the project in question was produced 6 years ago and disclosure protocols have evolved since 2003.”
Pharmakiosks
Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care David Caplan says the province will allow drug dispensing machines to be set up in remote areas. Patients would insert their prescriptions and converse with a pharmacist at a call centre by videoteleconference. The pharmacist would verify the prescription and instruct the machine to dispense the drug. Caplan said potential benefits include patient convenience, a new made-in-Ontario industry and lower drug distribution costs.
Aging
An integrated health and social services plan and bolstered pensions are desperately needed to assist elderly Canadians, says a Senate Special Committee on Aging. Chaired by Senator Sharon Carstairs, the committee makes 32 recommendations to improve the lot of seniors, including dedicated federal financial transfers to provinces with a higher proportion of seniors (www.parl.gc.ca).