Earlier today we wrote about a letter from the House Energy & Commerce Committee to CafePharma, Schering-Plough and Merck, requesting information about several anonymous message posts in 2007 that foretold the disastrous Vytorin results in the ENHANCE study.
The committee wrote to Sarah Palmer at CafePharma, citing all the CafePharma posts that BrandweekNRX had posted, and requested all records, names and IP addresses for the posts in question.
Sarah Palmer from CafePharma has now responded--on CafePharma:
"As we have said before, per our policies, we do not collect any user information with anonymous posts (including IP addresses). Therefore, we do not believe we will have any information to provide regarding these posts."
Update: CafePharma has now posted a note visible on all company boards:
This response shouldn't be surprising. CafePharma has always maintained that they didn't collect IP addresses. If they were forced to turn over such information, their business model would essentially be dead, since people would stop posting. The exception seems to be people who have "registered" with CafePharma and those are virtually non-existent.
Hooray for CafePharma!!!
Never thought I'd write THAT...
Posted by: Pharma Giles | February 13, 2008 at 01:38 PM
I still don't get that the comments are a legit source of evidence in a lawsuit. The posters were just spreading rumors, correct? I understand - and even commend - CafePharma for not giving out IP addresses, but it seems like other similar cases (which center around negative online comments) aren't going anywhere: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/business/2009/feb/Internet-Comments-Play-Starring-Role-in-Vytorin-Lawsuit.html
Posted by: Maria | February 11, 2009 at 02:30 PM