One of my favorite pharma web sites is the company bulletin board on Café Pharma. Yes, I know it’s full of lies, unfounded rumors, and sexually offensive material. But isn’t poring through pharma’s id more fun than reading the press releases? A lot of the stuff is surprising because of how vicious it is—personal insults, gossip, and threats are common currency on the site. But occasionally there are some tidbits that make you scratch your head. Some recent items of questionable veracity:
• Dateline Undercover is investigating Amylin for off-label marketing of diabetes drug Byetta (the drug makes you lose weight even though it is not approved for weight loss).
• Folks at Celgene think Pfizer may buy the company.
• Pfizer’s launch of Exubera is making a lot of reps unhappy.
• Sanofi reps being asked to fudge their call numbers on Actonel to please joint venture partner P&G.
So—just to repeat before you all start emailing me—yes I know these are unfounded rumors. Still … only a monk would claim to be unamused.
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