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GlaxoSmithKline agrees $3 billion fraud payout
Rick Wilking/Reuters
UPFRONT
Fighting fire with fire SURELY all forest fires should be doused? Perhaps not. Eleven new large fires raced across the western US last week, adding to devastation that has left more than 30,000 people homeless and scorched nearly 400,000 hectares of forest. But previous success at fighting smaller fires has contributed to the disaster. “This hot, dry, windy weather is killing us,” says Jeff Jahnke of the Colorado State Forest Service in Fort Collins. “The wind spreads fire like you wouldn’t imagine. And our equipment and crews don’t work as well as they could when you have three-digit temperature and single-digit relative humidity.” An unusually hot June has led to fires across the US, although the
worst hit areas are Colorado and other states in the south-west. However, Wally Covington of the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff says that warmer weather is only part of the problem. “Since the beginning of the 20th century, we have had this propensity to fight small natural forest fires that [otherwise] kill off dense, young growth,” he says. Historically, small ground fires would burn through old growth forests every 20 to 30 years, torching the forest floor but leaving big trees mostly unaffected. Without these small, natural fires, the build-up of undergrowth on the forest floor acts as fuel for more massive fires like the ones that are causing such devastation this year.
-Let it burn? –
GSK coughs up IT’S a hefty pill to swallow. GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $3 billion for introducing “misbranded” drugs and failing to report safety data, following a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice. The settlement is the largest for healthcare fraud in US history. “This historic action is a clear warning to any company that chooses to break the law,” said James Cole, the US Deputy Attorney General, in a statement. The charges related mainly to three drugs. The investigators found that between 1998 and 2003, GSK unlawfully promoted an antidepressant, trade name Paxil, for treating depression
“This historic action is a clear warning to any company that chooses to break the law” in people under 18, despite no approval for this from the US Food and Drug Administration. Likewise, from 1999 to 2003, GSK promoted Wellbutrin, a drug 6 | NewScientist | 7 July 2012
approved at that time only for major depressive disorder, for a host of other conditions, including sexual dysfunction and addiction to drugs. Finally, the investigation found that between 2001 and 2007, GSK failed to send the FDA safety data which revealed that the diabetes drug Avandia carried risks of congestive heart failure and heart attacks. “I want to express our regret and reiterate that we have learnt from the mistakes that were made,” said Andrew Witty, chief executive officer of GSK, in a statement. He added that the offences were symptomatic of conduct that is no longer tolerated. “The company reached this settlement with the government to avoid the delay, expense, inconvenience and uncertainty of protracted litigation,” said Witty. The company’s annual report reveals that GSK posted an operating profit last year of more than quadruple the fine, at $12.4 billion, and turnover of $43 billion. The company is valued at $113 billion.
Pharmacy HIV tests WHAT you don’t know can hurt you. That is why the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is considering the value of having pharmacies offer HIV tests in the US, to identify people who are infected with the virus more quickly. Some 1.1 million people in the US carry HIV, but an estimated 200,000 of them don’t know it. The earlier they are identified, the sooner they can receive treatment to prevent their condition from
progressing to AIDS. “People knowing their HIV status is empowering,” says Paul Weidle of the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, head of a two-year pilot project to offer testing in pharmacies in 12 rural and 12 urban regions of the US. Currently, routine testing is done mainly through hospitals and family doctors. Making the tests available in pharmacies would massively broaden availability. “Our goal is to make HIV testing as routine as a blood pressure check,” says Weidle.
Protests greet nuclear switch-on NUCLEAR power is go again in Japan, although not everyone is happy. About 650 protesters gathered outside the Oi nuclear facility in western Japan’s Fukui prefecture on Monday. But as reactor 3 reached criticality – a self-sustaining nuclear reaction – the protesters began to disperse. Their unease about restarting nuclear power so soon after the Fukushima disaster echoed that of 180,000 protesters – according to
march organisers – who gathered outside the offices of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Tokyo on Friday. Noda says Japan can’t do without nuclear power, which supplied a third of the country’s electricity before the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March last year. The Oi plant, operated by the Kansai Electric Power Company, should help to avoid the predicted shortfall in supply of 15 per cent. The company plans to reboot reactor 4 at the same site on 17 July.
UPFRONT
Fighting fire with fire SURELY all forest fires should be doused? Perhaps not. Eleven new large fires raced across the western US last week, adding to devastation that has left more than 30,000 people homeless and scorched nearly 400,000 hectares of forest. But previous success at fighting smaller fires has contributed to the disaster. “This hot, dry, windy weather is killing us,” says Jeff Jahnke of the Colorado State Forest Service in Fort Collins. “The wind spreads fire like you wouldn’t imagine. And our equipment and crews don’t work as well as they could when you have three-digit temperature and single-digit relative humidity.” An unusually hot June has led to fires across the US, although the
worst hit areas are Colorado and other states in the south-west. However, Wally Covington of the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff says that warmer weather is only part of the problem. “Since the beginning of the 20th century, we have had this propensity to fight small natural forest fires that [otherwise] kill off dense, young growth,” he says. Historically, small ground fires would burn through old growth forests every 20 to 30 years, torching the forest floor but leaving big trees mostly unaffected. Without these small, natural fires, the build-up of undergrowth on the forest floor acts as fuel for more massive fires like the ones that are causing such devastation this year.
-Let it burn? –
GSK coughs up IT’S a hefty pill to swallow. GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $3 billion for introducing “misbranded” drugs and failing to report safety data, following a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice. The settlement is the largest for healthcare fraud in US history. “This historic action is a clear warning to any company that chooses to break the law,” said James Cole, the US Deputy Attorney General, in a statement. The charges related mainly to three drugs. The investigators found that between 1998 and 2003, GSK unlawfully promoted an antidepressant, trade name Paxil, for treating depression
“This historic action is a clear warning to any company that chooses to break the law” in people under 18, despite no approval for this from the US Food and Drug Administration. Likewise, from 1999 to 2003, GSK promoted Wellbutrin, a drug 6 | NewScientist | 7 July 2012
approved at that time only for major depressive disorder, for a host of other conditions, including sexual dysfunction and addiction to drugs. Finally, the investigation found that between 2001 and 2007, GSK failed to send the FDA safety data which revealed that the diabetes drug Avandia carried risks of congestive heart failure and heart attacks. “I want to express our regret and reiterate that we have learnt from the mistakes that were made,” said Andrew Witty, chief executive officer of GSK, in a statement. He added that the offences were symptomatic of conduct that is no longer tolerated. “The company reached this settlement with the government to avoid the delay, expense, inconvenience and uncertainty of protracted litigation,” said Witty. The company’s annual report reveals that GSK posted an operating profit last year of more than quadruple the fine, at $12.4 billion, and turnover of $43 billion. The company is valued at $113 billion.
Pharmacy HIV tests WHAT you don’t know can hurt you. That is why the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is considering the value of having pharmacies offer HIV tests in the US, to identify people who are infected with the virus more quickly. Some 1.1 million people in the US carry HIV, but an estimated 200,000 of them don’t know it. The earlier they are identified, the sooner they can receive treatment to prevent their condition from
progressing to AIDS. “People knowing their HIV status is empowering,” says Paul Weidle of the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, head of a two-year pilot project to offer testing in pharmacies in 12 rural and 12 urban regions of the US. Currently, routine testing is done mainly through hospitals and family doctors. Making the tests available in pharmacies would massively broaden availability. “Our goal is to make HIV testing as routine as a blood pressure check,” says Weidle.
Protests greet nuclear switch-on NUCLEAR power is go again in Japan, although not everyone is happy. About 650 protesters gathered outside the Oi nuclear facility in western Japan’s Fukui prefecture on Monday. But as reactor 3 reached criticality – a self-sustaining nuclear reaction – the protesters began to disperse. Their unease about restarting nuclear power so soon after the Fukushima disaster echoed that of 180,000 protesters – according to
march organisers – who gathered outside the offices of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Tokyo on Friday. Noda says Japan can’t do without nuclear power, which supplied a third of the country’s electricity before the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March last year. The Oi plant, operated by the Kansai Electric Power Company, should help to avoid the predicted shortfall in supply of 15 per cent. The company plans to reboot reactor 4 at the same site on 17 July.