I’m in Amsterdam! Any ADDivas around?
Landed in Amsterdam yesterday and wondering if there are any ADDivas in the Netherlands.
Would love to connect if you’re available. I love ADDiva dining – ask anyone!
Warning! Doctors can sell your Rx history to Big Pharma
In yet another consumer-bashing move, the US Supreme Court ruled June 23, 2011, that pharmaceutical companies may now purchase lists of the drugs that individual doctors prescribe (without the name of the patient) for marketing purposes.
The ruling was made using the First Amendment Freedom of Speech argument that if researchers and journalist were allowed to gather such records, then marketers deserved equal access. Um, this doesn’t exactly seem like freedom of speech to me. It’s more like data mining. And that pretty much sucks.
Warnings on generics: Supreme Court rules against consumers
But what about our safety and our right to full disclosure? Is the tradeoff for cheaper prescription prices an incomplete warning label about a potentially long-term, debilitating neurological condition? In this case, apparently so.
What does this mean for generic manufacturers? That they may skip merrily down the road producing medications that may or may not negatively impact the end user without telling us about newly-discovered problems.
What does this mean for ADD medications? It means “caveat emptor” – let the buyer beware. The drugs that are “off patent” may or may not have new, serious side effects. But if we take a generic we’ll never know, because there is no requirement that we be told about them. And now, no way to seek legal recourse against the company that produced the drug.