adriane fugh berman

First, a woman named Christie Christensen filed a lawsuit against Michaels and the product's manufacturers, Thin Care, Basic Research and Walgreens , claiming that the product made false allegations. "Telling people you take two magic pills and then eat chocolate cake all day [and lose weight] is a deception," said Christensen's lawyer, Melissa Hartnett. Jillian's legal team fired back with a statement indicating that they stand by the product.  

Jillian Michaels bills herself as " America 's toughest trainer" and promotes "kick-ass exercises." And now she's come out with a line of weight-loss supplements like Maximum Strength Fat Burner and Triple Process Total Body Detox & Cleanse. Better think twice before you start popping these pills, nutrition experts say.

Supplements like this are laxatives and diuretics, and they don’t have any place in a rational weight loss regimen because they can dehydrate people and leave them short of electrolytes   -Adriane Fugh Berman

 

Stanford University is expected to unveil plans today to develop new, bias-free programs of continuing medical education for doctors, The New York Times reports. The work is being made possible by a $3-million grant from the drug maker Pfizer. The university announced in 2008 that it would severely restrict industry support for medical education in order to avoid conflicts of interest.  

Some herbal supplements may boost the levels of lead in the blood of women, new research shows. Among 12,807 men and women age 20 and older, Dr. Catherine Buettner, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues found blood lead levels about 10 percent higher in women, but not men, who used specific herbal supplements. When they examined herbal supplement use among women of reproductive age (age 16 to 45 years old), "the relationship with lead levels was even stronger

let us not use too broad a brush to tar all herbal products.   -Adriane Fugh Berman

 

If a judge in Pinellas County determines that it is, hundreds of thousands of documents now under seal in lawsuits against the drug's manufacturer nationwide could be released for the public to inspect. The key to the confidential company records has ended up in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Anthony Rondolino's hands because of a clerical misstep and a unique Florida statute. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Monday, though attorneys were negotiating a possible resolution late Thursday.  

I was among 100 researchers, clinicians and ethicists who this week signed and sent a letter (pdf file) to the National Institutes of Health asking them to fund research on medical ethics, conflicts of interest and industry influence on prescribing behavior. The effort was led by Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, who leads the PharmedOut (http://pharmedout.org) project at Georgetown University Medical Center to educate physicians about industry influence on prescribing. The letter states:  

Pharmaceutical companies need a bridge between their products and their consumers: a doctor's prescription. So it stands to reason that drug makers would focus much of their marketing resources on physicians. Those efforts include tens of millions in payments to doctors for speaking engagements, consulting services and other activities.

Disclosure is good, but disclosure isn't sufficient. There are many physicians who are being used to transmit marketing messages from industry to fellow physicians.   -Adriane Fugh Berman

 

Halloween allows even society's most sophisticated members to slip into sinister roles while dabbing fake blood from the corners of their mouths. It's only a little over a month a way, so I am dedicating my next three columns to the bone-chilling side of botanicals. Plants aren't known for making people pee in their pants with fright, but a growing number of gardeners are celebrating the fact that they can do much worse.  

Pfizer Inc. was slapped this week with a record $2.3 billion in fines for illegally marketing some drugs, but critics say even that eye-popping total is unlikely to end the sometimes-dangerous practice of promoting drugs for unapproved uses. The penalty pales compared to the billion dollars or more in annual revenue that blockbuster drugs generate, and new government guidelines stir worry that the marketing of medicines for unapproved uses will become easier. "Drug companies will continue to market of

$2.3 billion looks like a lot of money   -Adriane Fugh Berman

 

Pfizer Inc. was slapped last week with a record $2.3 billion in fines for illegally marketing some drugs, but critics say even that is unlikely to end the sometimes-dangerous practice of promoting drugs for unapproved uses. The penalty pales compared with the billion dollars or more in annual revenue that blockbuster drugs generate, and new government guidelines stir worry that the marketing of medicines for unapproved uses will become easier. "Drug companies will continue to market off-label unless t

$2.3 billion looks like a lot of money   -Adriane Fugh Berman