America's Most Admired Lawbreaker: Chapter 5, "Three Card Monte"
A Convenient Re-Analysis Six days before Austin Pledger swallowed his first Risperdal, Janssen scientists and marketing executives met with an advisory board of doctors in a luxury hotel suite in New York. The group wrestled with problems concerning the prolactin and gynecomastia data that had come in from the clinical study Gorsky and his team had ordered up, hoping to put the issue to rest. This new study was actually a study of studies. It pooled the one study called “INT-
America's Most Admired Lawbreaker: Chapter 4, "Massaging the Data, Spreading the Word"
The Ghostwriters In 1999, Johnson & Johnson had signed a contract with a company called Excerpta Medica. Its specialty was medical marketing. Its sub-specialty was producing ghostwritten, data-filled studies on the efficacy and safety of a client’s drugs, finding the right academic scholars to be listed as the authors and then placing the articles in prestigious academic journals. Excerpta’s and Johnson & Johnson’s partnership with academics and the journals that publish them
America's Most Admired Lawbreaker: Chapter 3, "Sales Over Science"
Putting The Risks in 'Tiny Font' By the beginning of 1999, Johnson & Johnson had expanded the ElderCare unit to 136 salespeople from 83, and the materials they were using to pitch doctors had caught the FDA’s eye. On January 5, Lisa Stockbridge of the FDA’s Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications wrote to Janssen’s director of regulatory affairs complaining that “presentations that focus on this population are misleading in that they imply that the drug has
America's Most Admired Lawbreaker: Chapter 2, "Blowing Past the Label"
'Otherwise The Sky Would Be The Limit' In 1961, newspapers around the world ran stories (accompanied by horrific images) of deformed babies whose mothers had taken a drug to curb nausea during pregnancy called thalidomide. A vigilant FDA inspector had refused to approve thalidomide for sale in the United States because she was worried about its safety. But the thalidomide story, along with persistent new reports about other drug company abuses, were highlighted in hearings co
America's Most Admired Lawbreaker: Chapter 1, "The Credo Company"
Backstage at Johnson & Johnson On May 20, about 100 stock analysts gathered in the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to hear good news from top executives at Johnson & Johnson: The company had 10 new drugs in the pipeline that might achieve more than a billion dollars in annual sales. For 129 years, New Brunswick has served as the headquarters of J&J, America’s seventh most valuable public company. With consumer products from Band-Aids to baby
Getting your Kid to Talk about School
As the first day of school quickly approaches, parents are asking me how to get their kids to talk to them more about school. We parents want information! We feel that in exchange for our nurturance and worry and everything we did to get them ready for school, we should at least get to know what's happening there! So how can you get more than a "fine" out of your kids when you ask them "How was school?" Drawing on techniques from some of the most brilliant people I know -- pa
10 Do's & Don't's for a Successful Start to Kindergarten
My "big girl" is starting school next week. We have gone to her school and met some of the teachers, the principal, and done a little tour. Despite being told multiple times we were just there to finalize paperwork, she insisted on packing her backpack, bringing a snack, and was disappointed when we left her school after a half hour. While my sweet, eager little girl is only attending preschool for the first time, it got me thinking of how actual school isn't that far off. He
On Community, Self Acceptance and Having a Village
At one point in my life, being accepted was everything. In the 80's, I permed my hair, wore fluorescent orange sweaters and pink Reeboks, blue eyeshadow, and a crappy attitude because that's what was celebrated and included. None of those things made me especially popular, but I lived the norm and nobody in my high school called me weird. In college and after, they didn't, either. At least, to my face. When I was younger, I wanted to fit in. I still do. It wouldn't be authent
Characteristics of Autism Parents
You can find a lot of literature and books that list all the effective traits of being a good parent. Most often than none, those traits are very true. But what does it take to be a good autism parent? What does it take to be a good special needs parent? The parenting styles and traits are not comparable to parenting neurotypical kids with no disability. Since being a mom to two boys on opposite ends of the spectrum, I will tell you what I have learned that works with my boys
Why I Want my Daughter to Feel Entitled
Entitlement -- it's pretty much a parenting curse word, a bullet to dodge, a badge of shame to bear. Not for me. Entitlement is a parenting goal of mine; it is something to aim at and tirelessly work towards. I want my daughter to feel entitled to love and be loved. I want my daughter to feel entitled to respect. I want my daughter to feel entitled to dream. When I state these wants of mine, I feel utterly confused that anybody would frown upon this concept of entitlement for