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The suicide video

Like many doctors, I didn't use to think that antidepressants was an issue in children.

After all, increased suicide risk was to be expected in this population and it didn't seem surprising that these kids had more suicides than regular kids.

Then I was retained to work on some legal matters and got a chance to review how certain drug makers had "reported" this "side effect." When I saw that data I changed my mind real fast.

Clearly the FDA did too:

In an FDA review, no completed suicides occurred among nearly 2,200 children treated with SSRI medications. However, about 4 percent of those taking SSRI medications experienced suicidal thinking or behavior, including actual suicide attempts—twice the rate of those taking placebo, or sugar pills.

In response, the FDA adopted a "black box" label warning indicating that antidepressants may increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in some children and adolescents with MDD. A black-box warning is the most serious type of warning in prescription drug labeling.

Watch the video, which Pharmalot helped me find.

Impress your boss.

We know people in the pharma world are very hard working. Some more than others. Here's how to really impress your boss . . .

So the cat began to catch the mouse . . .

Remember the old tale "The Grain of Corn"?

'So the cat began to catch the mouse, The mouse began to gnaw the rope, The rope began to bind the ox . . .

Here is a real live version of that one:

Pfizer Inc. has reported three data breaches in three months, with tens of thousands of Pfizer employees getting their personal information and social security numbers stolen. This caused CT state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to call for a criminal investigation of Pfizer.

And now Pfizer has contacted federal authorities asking that they will prosecute a former employee responsible for one of the three data breaches, that affected 34,000 people, according to information released Monday by the Connecticut attorney general's office.

Bernard Nash, a Pfizer attorney, said the company last month contacted “a management-level federal prosecutor” and now hopes the former employee will be prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law.”

And here's the really interesting twist: Nash also stated that Pfizer learned of the data breach after the employee had left Pfizer, when the former employee's new employer sent Pfizer a DVD containing the missing data that had been discovered on his new computer.

Makes you wonder how that came about . . . there seems to be a bigger story here.

“Pfizer has retained an independent forensic expert to examine the computer assigned to the individual at (the suspect's) subsequent place of employment,” Nash said. “Pfizer has also secured a forensic image of the laptop computer assigned to the individual during his time at Pfizer, and this computer is also being examined.”

More in The Day.

FBI joins search for missing Eli Lilly sales rep.

Chicago police say they have asked the FBI to join the investigation into the disappearance of 28-year-old Nailah Franklin, missing since last Tuesday. Ms. Franklin works as a sales rep for Eli Lilly.

Her car was found last Friday and a nearby pond was searched, without any results. In the car the police found certain personal belongings.

Pfizer's Genotropin growth hormone scandal spreads to athletes.

In April of 2007 Pfizer pled guilty on behalf of Pharmacia for offering kickbacks in connection with the sale of its human growth hormone Genotropin. You can read about that story in Corporate Crime Reporter: Pfizer Unit Pleads Guilty, Prosecutors Praise the Corporate Criminal, Not the Whistleblower

In the government’s sentencing memorandum (download here), the Department of Justice states that the violations took place . . . “with the knowledge and approval of Pharmacia’s senior business executives.” (Page 8.) Some of the senior execs at Pharmacia now run Schering-Plough, or so I've heard, including the guy who had the job as VP Endocrine Care at Pharmacia before me. But the government didn't name any names so we don't know if they referred to those senior executives.

And last week it was reported in the New York Times, that a company that illegally provided patients — in particular, athletes — with human growth hormone agreed to pay a $10.5 million fine, according to the United States attorney’s office in Boston. As part of a deferred prosecution agreement, the company, Specialty Distribution Services, Inc., agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation over the next 36 months. Specialty Distribution Services is a subsidiary pharmacy of Express Scripts, which manages pharmaceutical plans for corporations.

What the media missed, because the Justice Department didn't tell them, is which pharmaceutical company was involved in this scheme.

In fact, the deferred prosecution agreement from the Justice Department to Ropes & Gray, the lawyers for Express Scripts, (Download deferred prosecution agreement here.pdf) started out saying, "WHEREAS, in October 2000, SDS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Express Scripts, Inc.("ESI"), was awarded a contract, by a pharmaceutical company, to distribute that pharmaceutical company's human growth hormone product."

Funny thing is, I happen to know that Express Scripts was awarded the contract to distribute the growth hormone Genotropin from Pharmacia in 2000, and that Express Scripts managed a "pharmacy" for Pharmacia, selling Genotropin to patients. The Express Scripts pharmacy fulfilled 10% of Genotropin sales and had a team of 14 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians on staff.

So I guess in addition to the $34.7 million the government earned in April, thanks to my Genotropin qui tam suit, the information in my suit just netted them another cool $10.5 million.

Question is, what's next?

And, why didn't the Justice Department spell out Pharmacia and Genotropin in the deferred prosecution agreement?

Are more growth hormone distributors targeted?

By the way, you probably won't be surprised if the same two Assistant United States Attorneys in Boston who managed the Genotropin settlement and deferred prosecution agreement with Pfizer and Pharmacia also handled this settlement; Susan Winkler and Jeremy Sternberg. I guess that can't be a coincidence . . .

- Peter Rost, M.D. is a former VP of Pfizer and the author of Killer Drug and The Whistleblower.

Search for missing pharmaceutical sales rep moves to the Internet.

Nailah Franklin has disappeared and been gone since Tuesday night. She's attractive, articulate, and her disapperance would normally make headlines around the country.

If she just hadn't been African-American. White girls disappering on Aruba get round the clock coverage on Nancy Grace. Black girls, not so much.

A Google news search only finds 18 headlines. Most of them in Chicago.

So her family has taken their search to the Internet. They've created a Facebook support page. And written a note on Cafe Pharma. Pharmalot and PharmaGossip have also kindly covered this situation.

Here is more info.

By the way, she had received threats. From a former boyfriend. We'll hope for the best for Ms. Franklin.

Saline solution ripoff: $2,700 per gallon.

This video gives a good idea of how drug pricing works . . . with a very common product.

World's Biggest Ripoff Exposed! - The top video clips of the week are here

- Peter Rost, M.D. is a former VP of Pfizer and the author of Killer Drug and The Whistleblower.

Getting high on a can of Coke.

So why does a can of Coke make you feel so gooood?

They took the cocaine out almost a hundred years ago.

You know why? It was redundant:

First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.

20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)

40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.

45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.

>60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.

>60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.

>60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours and you'll be grabbing for the next Coke.

- Peter Rost, M.D. is a former VP of Pfizer and the author of Killer Drug and The Whistleblower.

Marketing 101: Posing topless for breast cancer.

Emma, 33, got breast cancer when she was 31, and she wants to increase awareness of this diseases. So she took a radical step and posed for this picture. And what does a rubber duck have to do with this? Find out here.

- Peter Rost, M.D. is a former VP of Pfizer and the author of Killer Drug and The Whistleblower.

New York running out of Swedish sperm

Two years ago the FDA banned sperm from Europe over concerns that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which can be found in mad cow cells, could be passed on via sperm.

Now New York sperm banks are running out of the desirable Swedish, Danish and Norwegian sperm.

The New York Post reported that "New Yorkers looking for a bouncy, blond, blue-eyed baby are in a panic as the city's largest sperm bank - and the only one with imported goods - is running dry."

You can find the names of the remaining Nordic donors here, with interesting names such as Aake, Agge, Birk, Olaf and Uffe. Personally, I think Aake should be Åke and some of the other names I haven't heard in decades. Maybe they're from Iceland?

In fact, after having studied the FDA list of banned countries, I note that Iceland does not appear to be on that list. So a tip to the New York sperm banks specializing in the Nordic types . . . get your butts over to Iceland and you may stay in business!

- Peter Rost, M.D. is a former VP of Pfizer and the author of Killer Drug and The Whistleblower.