We've just added a new feature to PeoplesPharmacy.com which we hope will be useful to you. Each article now has a "thumbs up/thumbs down" icon beneath the title. You can use these icons to share your opinion, and help other... (Read More)
The Soapbox
There is a powerful "Perspective" in the New England Journal of Medicine titled "Lost in Transmission--FDA Drug Information That Never Reaches Clinicians" (JAMA, Oct. 29, 2009). It is written by Lisa Schwartz, MD, and Steven Woloshin, MD, from the Dartmouth... (Read More)
This is a breathtaking settlement! It is easy to zone out when seeing big numbers, but this is a truly mind-boggling amount of money. Pfizer (and its subsidiaries Pharmacia & Upjohn) have agreed to cough up $2.3 billion to... (Read More)
Welcome to the new PeoplesPharmacy.com! We hope you like the new look, and we think you'll find it easier to explore our new site and find the information you need. We want to hear what you think of the site!... (Read More)
Has the Food and Drug Administration painted itself into a corner when it comes to bisphenol A (BPA)? This chemical is found in hard, clear plastic. It also used to line metal cans (soda, beer and food). Dentists use BPA-containing... (Read More)
A story that was virtually ignored by the mainstream press and disappeared almost without a trace has to do with serious allegations against Ranbaxy Laboratories, an Indian drug company. Ranbaxy is not just any drug company. It is the largest... (Read More)
OK, I admit it: I am somewhat nervous about exposure to EMF (electromagnetic field) radiation. My interest predates the cell phone and cancer controversy. It all started during the late 1960s because I was working in a neuropharmacology laboratory at... (Read More)
Melinda Beck of the Wall Street Journal has written about the generic drug controversy. You can read it at: Health Journal. Years ago, we loved generic drugs and encouraged patients to request that their doctors prescribe generically whenever possible. The... (Read More)
The Food and Drug Administration has one overarching mandate from Congress: Make sure that all drugs are safe and effective.Sounds simple, but it’s far trickier than it seems. For one thing, there is no such thing as a drug that... (Read More)
It’s worse than we imagined. For the last five years or so we have been sounding an alarm about generic drugs. That’s because we’ve been hearing from readers and listeners that sometimes their generic medicine has not worked as expected.... (Read More)
We interview a lot of medical experts on our syndicated radio show but we don’t usually test their advice ourselves. We just had an opportunity to do that, though. We recently interviewed patients-rights advocate Janet Lynn Mitchell and Pierce Scranton,... (Read More)
Americans love being #1. Just watch any sporting event—high school, college or pro—and you will see team members and fans flashing the big #1 sign with their forefinger whenever the camera zooms past them. Obviously, not every team in... (Read More)
The FDA has a mandate to make sure all drugs (prescription and OTCs) are “safe and effective.” This is the law. The only trouble is that FDA’s definition of ‘safe’ is hard to get a handle on. The feds routinely... (Read More)
Have you ever bought a car? Did you pay full sticker price or did you bargain with the dealer? Most people realize that the price is negotiable. If you drive a hard bargain, you can often save thousands of dollars... (Read More)
It’s all about greed. Pet food manufacturers figured out that they could save money by buying ingredients from China. The Chinese figured out that they could get a higher price for wheat gluten if they added melamine. That’s because this... (Read More)
Remember when you were a kid and you told your mother that everybody else was doing something you wanted to do too? For most moms that excuse never worked! That’s why we’re so surprised to see the latest Celebrex ads.... (Read More)
Millions of cat and dog owners have been horrified to learn that pet food has been contaminated and could be harming or even killing their companion animals. We now know that wheat gluten, used in a variety of pet foods... (Read More)
Are you as sick and tired of drug ads on TV as I am? Have you had it with commercials for erectile dysfunction, overactive bladder or high cholesterol? Unfortunately, there is no relief in sight. The FDA is actually considering... (Read More)
When Congress passed the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit for seniors, we thought that something smelled suspicious. The pharmaceutical industry has generally resisted government involvement in its business. Why, we wondered, did big Pharma seem pleased with this huge... (Read More)
Turn on the evening news and you will inevitably see commercials for prescription drugs. It might be something for restless legs, overactive bladder, cholesterol control, osteoporosis or erectile dysfunction. In most cases the actors are smiling and thrilled to tell... (Read More)
Millions of Americans are just now entering the “donut hole� of Plan D. This Medicare prescription drug benefit has been a hot political potato for years. Faced with growing anger from senior citizens about the high cost of medicine, Congress... (Read More)
Americans love to plug and play. We don’t want to waste a second reading manuals. We just want to plug in the new computer, turn it on and start surfing the Web. That may be an OK strategy for computers... (Read More)
Welcome to Joe's Blog. This is Number 1 and I sincerely hope that you will find my ramblings of interest and worthy of comment. I welcome your feedback. Even before I started writing about drug-related issues 30 years ago, I... (Read More)