pharma

Buried in everything else going on today was the GOP blocking of a senate bill allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. The Bushco plan passed a few years ago was sold using deceitful cost estimates and also contained a specific prohibition against the negotiation of drug prices. Today's cloture vote was 55-42, falling short of the 60 votes needed to bring it to the floor.

NC lawmakers haven't learned from the Vioxx debacle. They have introduced legislation that will lend a great big helping hand to the Merck Pharma giant and encourage parents to let their children be used as guinea pigs.

I'm talking about Senate Bill 260, which is heading for the Senate floor soon. This bill will require schools to more or less advertise the Merck Gardasil vaccine for free, plus tell parents that this vaccine is appropriate for girls as young as 9.

While NC lawmakers fall for Merck's talking points, a lead researcher for the HPV vaccine cries foul:

Researcher blasts HPV marketing BY CINDY BEVINGTON

Ahhh, now we see what the reason for all those exorbitant profits were really for -- bad weather.

“Business Mobilizes to Defend Turf; Firms Plot Campaigns to Counter Effects of Democrats' Agenda,” by John D. McKinnon and John J. Fialka, Wall Street Journal. 1/4/07.

The industries that expect to take the biggest hits from the new Democratic Congress are scrambling their marketing, public-relations and advertising forces to shore up their defenses.

Eager to demonstrate a sharp contrast with Republicans who dominated Capitol Hill for 12 years, new Democratic leaders are vowing to raise the federal minimum wage; reduce oil-company subsidies; give the government bargaining authority in purchasing Medicare prescription drugs; shrink student-loan fees; and impose mandatory controls on emissions of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.