Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was relaxing and invigorating because — you guessed it — a new round of meetings, deadlines, and whatnot has returned. You knew this was coming, yes? So please join us for the mandatory cups of stimulation as we attempt to muddle through. Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest. Hope your day goes well and do keep us in mind for interesting tidbits …
An Express Scripts committee decides which drugs should be included on its recommended list of medicines for insurance coverage but refuses to disclose the identities of the committee members, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. The pharmacy benefits manager says their identities are not disclosed to shield members from lobbying, but critics say the process should be more transparent.
Santa Cruz, Calif., became the latest local government to adopt an ordinance requiring the pharmaceutical industry to pay for a drug take-back program. The move means that nine counties or cities in California and the state of Washington have created programs that require drug makers to foot the bill, and environmental activists say that more are being proposed elsewhere, such as in Cook County, Ill.
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For anyone who thinks that the Clinton Foundation is only about foreign influence peddling the Levaquin saga reminds us it is much closer to home. Based upon their generous contributions to the CF and Obama’s campaign by former FDA Commissioner Dr Margaret Hamburg and her multimillionaire hedge fund manager husbamd Peter Brown Mrs. Clinton recommended to Obama that Hamburg be nominated for FDA commissioner. During Hamburg’s tenure Brown’s company, Renaissance Technologies held large positions in J&J and stood to lose significant sums when the Levaquin safety lawsuits first broke. Dr. Hamburg would not have any of that and so she did whatever she could to delay and obfuscate the inquiry while she and Brown profited handsomely on J&J stock. Alas but the chickens have come home to roost for poor Maggie and Peter, as they now find themselves at the center of a RICO lawsuit for the aforementioned actions.
FDA commissioners have a nasty habit of getting in trouble on these things viz the former FDA boss Les Crawford, who should have stuck to being a veterinarian.
Story of the racketeering and corruption lawsuit below. Apologies of Ed has previously reported on this.
http://ahrp.org/former-fda-commissioner-charged-in-federal-racketeering-lawsuit/