Pharmablogger Promoted, Rozerem Demoted

Thumbing through The Pharma Blogosphere member list on the right, I decided to see if there were any activity over at Pharmablogger, which has been dormant since November, 2006.

Finally, we hear from this "employee in the Clinical Development area of a large pharmaceutical company" who has "witnessed [his/her] industry manipulate, distort, subvert, suppress, and otherwise mangle facts in pursuit of increasing their consumption of the nation's wealth."

So what's new with Pharmablogger? "Not much. What's new with you?", he/she says.

Thank you for asking. Since you ask, plenty of new things have been happening in the pharma blogosphere if you had been looking. That's why I started this "meta blog" to keep up with it all.

I am sorry to say, however, that Pharmablogger was not included in the first ever survey of the pharma blogosphere (see "Pharma Blogosphere Survey Results - Who and Why?" and "Industry Bias in the Pharma Blogosphere").

I hope you understand ... I thought you were dead or, worse, abandoned your blog! I couldn't ask someone to rate a blog that hadn't anything to say for over 3 months! Maybe next time.

Glad to see you back and up for a promotion!

Boycott Rozerem!
I am trying an experiment. Maybe you can help. I would like to start a grassroots boycott of Rozerem among physicians and have posted a "Dear Doctor" letter over on Pharma Marketing Blog (see "Call for a Rozerem Prescription Boycott!"). I have even created a logo for the boycott:

Here's what I need:

• Join the call for a boycott by posting the "Dear Doctor" letter on your blog. You can also use the logo if you want.
• Ask your doctor if a Rozerem prescribing boycott is right for him or her.

I don't think there's ever been a call for boycotting a prescription drug. Perhaps the drug industry will look upon this as a dangerous precedent. But here's how I look at it: never before have I witnessed a drug company so brazenly push the envelope while denying any responsibility whatsoever -- not once, but several times!

The FDA is powerless to stop Takeda -- NOV letters are mere slaps on the wrist. And PhRMA certainly isn't doing anything. But what may happen sooner rather than later is Congressional action against DTC and this will hurt all of us!

Demand accountability!

Thank you for your kind attention to this rant.

Do You Support a Rozerem Rx Boycott?

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