Good Stuff to Read

Here are some interesting articles and sites for your reading pleasure. As always, I welcome links to interesting stories from Drug Channels readers.

Rat advert complaints dismissed – Apparently not everyone enjoyed Pfizer's rat ad as much as the Drug Channels readership. 64 people in Britain complained about the rat ad that I describe in Pfizer Tries to Choke Demand for Parallel Imports. The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) sagely concluded: "we considered the metaphor of regurgitating a rat was likely to justify, for most people, the approach."

CVS Caremark's Smaller Competitors Seek Government Review – Dow Jones did a story on a possible Federal Trade Commission (FTC) review of CVS Caremark, which I wrote about in Could the FTC undo CVS Caremark? However, there is a high hurdle as indicated by the following perspective from the article:

Government action likely would depend primarily on whether the consumer is the one hurt rather than competitors. "The antitrust laws really are not there to protect competitors, and in fact every time a competitor complains it's looked at with suspicion," said Joseph J. Simons, former director of the FTC's competition bureau.

Behind Online Pharma – I just discovered this useful resource for news stories and analysis about online drug sales. According to the site: "We are 14 journalists training at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, which is dedicated to training students in investigative reporting at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism." They must be good journalists because they have linked back to your friendly neighborhood blogger.

Kujovic's Drug Channels Continue to Exists – Competition for Fein's Drug Channels?

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