CT GOP Sen. candidate Linda McMahon warned steroid doctor of investigation

By GottaLaff

This won't exactly be a 2010 vote-getter:

In December 1989, as federal investigators were zeroing in on a Pennsylvania doctor who would soon be convicted of selling steroids to professional wrestlers, Linda McMahon sent a confidential memo to a fellow executive at Titan Sports, the family company that operated what was then known as the World Wrestling Federation.

The WWF, she wrote, should alert Dr. George T. Zahorian III that a criminal investigation could be heading his way, according to court documents reviewed by The Day.

"Although you and I discussed before about continuing to have Zahorian at our events as the doctor on call, I think that is now not a good idea," McMahon wrote in the memo. "Vince agreed, and would like for you to call Zahorian and to tell him not to come to any more of our events and to also clue him in on any action that the Justice Department is thinking of taking."

How above board and transparent of her. Who could ask for a better candidate than one who meddles in legal affairs that include steroidy drugs?

I'm sure she has a perfectly good explanation, though:

In an interview last week, McMahon said she could not explain the reason she directed Pat Patterson, a former wrestler, WWE executive and consultant, to alert Zahorian to the fact that he was under investigation.

See?

Connecticut can do better. Sneaky memos about secret drug dealings just won't cut it in a candidate. Then again, escapades like this are par for the GOP these days.

There is a whole lot more. Toddle on over and take a look-see.

H/t: TPM

Hooked on Liberals: Michael Steele: "Liberalism will kill you."

By GottaLaff

He's that proverbial gift that keeps on....

He went on to say, “The Republican Party’s credibility as the reliably conservative choice has been damaged, and it’s up to us to fix it. Faith, freedom, personal responsibility, respect for life and prosperity” Then he added, “Like a bad diet, liberalism will kill you. It’s a drug we don’t need to be hooked on. We are what stand between an America of prosperity or dependency. Which one do you want?” For that crowd, they wanted the Republican values of Michael Steele.

Now if you'll excuse me, my vein is pumped and ready for another injection of Liberal, my drug of choice.

No More Goodies for Doctors From Drug Makers

By GottaLaff

My dad is a (now retired) doctor, and he used to bring home all kinds of pharmaceutical toys: We got free rulers, pads of paper, pens, even posable human forms that I used as models for drawings (I was an art major). Well, those days are over for kids and parental MDs everywhere:

Starting Jan. 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on the kind of branded goodies — Viagra pens, Zoloft soap dispensers, Lipitor mugs — that were meant to foster good will and, some would say, encourage doctors to prescribe more of the drugs.

I'll have you know that my dad was not in the least influenced. He was one of those really good doctors you only see in old movies and dream of when you're dying of the flu. He also made house calls, just in case you think I'm exaggerating.

No longer will Merck furnish doctors with purplish adhesive bandages advertising Gardasil, a vaccine against the human papillomavirus. Banished, too, are black T-shirts from Allergan adorned with rhinestones that spell out B-O-T-O-X. So are pens advertising the Sepracor sleep drug Lunesta, in whose barrel floats the brand’s mascot, a somnolent moth.

Some skeptics deride the voluntary ban as a superficial measure that does nothing to curb the far larger amounts drug companies spend each year on various other efforts to influence physicians. But proponents welcome it as a step toward ending the barrage of drug brands and logos that surround, and may subliminally influence, doctors and patients.

I still have my old Pfizer ruler. I'm sure of it.

The new voluntary industry guidelines [...] bar drug companies from giving doctors branded pens, staplers, flash drives, paperweights, calculators and the like.

Nooo! Not "the like"! Anything but "the like"!

The guidelines also reiterate the group’s 2002 code, which prohibited more expensive goods and services like tickets to professional sports games and junkets to resorts. And it asks companies that finance medical courses, conferences or scholarships to leave the selection of study material and scholarship recipients to outside program coordinators.

I can promise you right here and now that my dad was never influenced by a paper weight. A stapler, maybe.... but a paper weight? Don't be ridiculous.

The guidelines, for example, still permit drug makers to underwrite free lunches for doctors and their staffs or to sponsor dinners for doctors at restaurants, as long as the meals are accompanied by educational presentations. [...]

The industry code also permits drug makers to pay doctors as consultants “based on fair market value” — which critics say means that companies can continue to pay individual doctors tens of thousands of dollars or more a year. [...]

About 40 drug makers, including Eli Lily & Company, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, have signed on to the code. [...]

The restrictions come as a blow to the makers and distributors of promotional products, an industry with an annual turnover of about $19 billion, according to Promotional Products Association International, a trade group. Such companies, accustomed to orders of up to a million pens a drug, stand to lose around $1 billion a year in sales as a result of the drug industry’s voluntary ban, the group said.

Of course, there's always that one doctor who goes overboard:

Dr. Jeffrey F. Caren, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, has collected more than 1,200 pens and mounted them on a pillar in his office.

Some doctors are a little offended by the guidelines. After all, would you ever let a vaginal-med-pen get the better of you?

Dr. Hurson said she paid no attention to the logos on the pens she carries around in her doctor’s coat. Prompted by a reporter’s question, she pulled out a handful of pens from her pocket and read off the drugs advertised: Clindesse, a cream for vaginal infection; Halo, a system for detecting breast cancer, and Evamist, an estrogen spray. “It’s hard for me to believe it influences what you prescribe.”

She can't fool me. I bet many a pharma-sales rep has gotten a rise in sales because of her Viagra roller balls.

Bristol Palin's Baby Daddy's Mommy's drug bust nugget

By GottaLaff

From the Celtic Diva, a juicy detail that slipped right by me:

It turns out that the "controlled substance" Grandma number two was busted for is Oxycontin.

This tidbit was in the article:

Kalytiak said the standard protocol for drug arrests is that law enforcement officials observe one drug buy, then get a warrant that permits them to record conversations and document more buys.

"I'd imagine standard protocol was followed," the district attorney said.

How badly do you imagine the Palins are sweating right now?

Well, now, what do we have here? On the BlagoMeter of Taped Convos, this could rate a bleeping 10.

Dazed and confused: Big Pharma delaying cheaper drugs

By GottaLaff

Via CLG:

Pharmaceutical companies "delaying cheaper drugs"
The European Commission has accused leading pharmaceutical companies of delaying and impeding the entry of generic drugs to the market, denying the public access to cheaper medicines. Neelie Kroes [European Commissioner for Competition] - whose inquiry began in January with raids at some of Europe's largest drugs companies, including GlaxoSmithKline in the UK – warned that the EC may now launch anti-trust proceedings against individual companies.

Like meds are even relevant. Everyone knows that laughter is the best medicine. Unless you're diabetic, or have heart problems, or TB, or hyperthyroidism, or osteoporosis, or depression, or erectile dysfunction, or high blood pressure, or.... make Big-Pharma-Bucks.