[Mainichi News] Two Keio University researchers took bone marrow from a total of 31 patients without permission, it was revealed at a March 19 press conference on the ongoing case of illicit marrow harvesting at the prestigious university.The two researchers, a professor and a lecturer of Keio University Hospital’s respiratory surgery section, harvested the marrow [...]

[Washington Post]  Some of the most widely used prescription drugs, including those to treat cholesterol and high blood pressure, could be available over the counter under a new proposal being weighed by government regulators.
Food and Drug Administration officials said Wednesday they are considering waiving prescription requirements for certain drugs used to treat ailments like diabetes, [...]

[PharmPro] People are relying on sleeping pills more than ever to get a good night’s rest, but a new study by Scripps Clinic researchers links the medications to a 4.6 times higher risk of death and a significant increase in cancer cases among regular pill users.
The results, published today by the open-access online journal BMJ [...]

[Sten Stovall, WSJ] The world drugs industry is tightening its code of practice in an attempt to clamp down on corruption and bribery, particularly in emerging markets.
The Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations said Thursday it has strengthened its code to ensure “that governments, health-care providers and patients are confident that interactions with [...]

[PharmPro] Drugmaker Glenmark Generics said Friday it is recalling seven lots of birth control pills because in some packages, the pills were in the wrong order.
The company, which is based in India, did not say how many pills or packages are being recalled. Glenmark said the pills were distributed between Sept. 21 and Dec. 30. [...]

[MSNBC, Thomson Reuters] According to a signal from the electronic tag around his ankle, Nenad Borojevic last left his apartment building at 6.25 p.m. on January 10. It was the festive season in Serbia; the capital was enjoying the lull between Orthodox Christmas and New Year.

Police said Borojevic, a doctor, headed to Kosutnjak park, a popular [...]

[NYT] Profits at pharmaceutical companies have been declining or showing little growth for the last year as austerity measures across Europe lead to cuts in health care spending. Some analysts say this trend could continue until at least 2014.
Budget cuts mean that many European governments are not willing to pay as much for pills. But [...]

[By Andrew Jack and Kerin Hope, FT.com] Antonis Karokis’ medicines business is being squeezed by price cuts and unpaid hospital debts. But he is stoical – after all, he enjoyed the years of excess when Greece was an unusually large market for drugs.
“There were no controls on spending in the past, the whole system favoured [...]

[Geoffrey Rogow, WSJ] —Marijn Dekkers, head of German drug-and-chemicals giant Bayer AG, says consumers don’t give pharmaceuticals enough credit.
The outspoken chairman of the board of management—the German equivalent of CEO—says patients often thank doctors and nurses but not the companies that made the medicines that helped cure them.

Bayer’s Marijn Dekkers, shown in Sydney last month, [...]

As a rule I doesn’t usually re-post blog entries, however this one by pharmamkting  is an interesting read. ——
[pharmamkting] That’s my takeaway from this comment by Marijn Dekkers, “outspoken” head of Bayer Pharmaceuticals, in which he not only disses patients but claims to have cured cancer!
“If you have cancer, you get a pharmaceutical product, and your cancer [...]