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Health education

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Health education is the profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health. It can be defined as the principle by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health. However, as there are multiple definitions of health, there are also multiple definitions of health education. The Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion Terminology of 2001 defined Health Education as “any combination of planned learning experiences based on sound theories that provide individuals, groups, and communities the opportunity to acquire information and the skills needed to make quality health decisions.” The World Health Organization defined Health Education as “compris[ing] [of] consciously constructed opportunities for learning involving some form of communication designed to improve health literacy, including improving knowledge, and developing life skills which are conducive to individual and community health.”

Contents 1 The Role of the Health Educator 2 Motivation 3 Credentialing 4 Teaching 5 National Health Education Standards 6 Health Education Code of Ethics 7 Health Education Code of Ethics Full Text 8 National Organizations for Public Health/Health Education 9 Health Education Career Opportunities 10 Influential Individuals in Health Education: Past and Present 11 See also 12 References 13 External links

The Role of the Health Educator

From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, the aim of public health was controlling the harm from infectious diseases, which were largely under control by the 1950s. By the mid 1970s it was clear that reducing illness, death, and rising health care costs could best be achieved through a focus on health promotion and disease prevention. At the heart of the new approach was the role of a health educator A health educator is “a professionally prepared individual who serves in a variety of roles and is specifically trained to use appropriate educational strategies and methods to facilitate the development of policies, procedures, interventions, and systems conducive to the health of individuals ,groups, and communities” (Joint Committee on Terminology, 2001, p. 100). In January 1979 the Role Delineation Project was put into place, in order to define the basic roles and responsibilities for the health educator. The result was a Framework for the Development of Competency-Based Curricula for Entry Level Health Educators (NCHEC, 1985). A second result was a revised version of A Competency-Based Framework for the Professional Development of Certified Health Education Specialists (NCHEC,1996). These documents outlined the seven areas of responsibilities which are shown below .EDZ

Responsibility I: Assessing Individual and Community Needs for Health Education

     * Provides the foundation for program planning     * Determines what health problems might exist in any given group     * Includes determination of community resources available to address the problem     * Community Empowerment encourages the population to take ownership of their health problems     * Includes careful data collection and analysis

Responsibility II: Plan Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs

     * Actions are based on the needs assessment done for the community (see Responsibility I)     * Involves the development of goals and objectives which are specific and measurable     * Interventions are developed that will meet the goals and objectives     * According to Rule of Sufficiency, strategies are implemented which are sufficiently robust, effective enough, and have a reasonable chance of meeting stated objectives

Responsibility III: Implement Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs

     * Implementation is based on a thorough understanding of the priority population     * Utilize a wide range of educational methods and techniques

Responsibility IV: Conduct Evaluation and Research Related to Health Education

     * Depending on the setting, utilize tests, surveys, observations, tracking epidemiological data, or other methods of data collection     * Health Educators make use of research to improve their practice

Responsibility V: Administer Health Education Strategies, Interventions, and Programs

     * Administration is generally a function of the more experienced practitioner     * Involves facilitating cooperation among personnel, both within and between programs

Responsibility VI: Serve as a Health Education Resource Person

    * Involves skills to access needed resources, and establish effective consultive relationships

Responsibility VII: Communicate and Advocate for Health and Health Education

    * Translates scientific language into understandable information    * Address diverse audience in diverse settings    * Formulates and support rules, policies and legislation    * Advocate for the profession of health education

Motivation

Education for health begins with people. It hopes to motivate them with whatever interests they may have in improving their living conditions. Its aim is to develop in them a sense of responsibility for health conditions for themselves as individuals, as members of families, and as communities. In communicable disease control, health education commonly includes an appraisal of what is known by a population about a disease, an assessment of habits and attitudes of the people as they relate to spread and frequency of the disease, and the presentation of specific means to remedy observed deficiencies.

Health education is also an effective tool that helps improve health in developing nations. It not only teaches prevention and basic health knowledge but also conditions ideas that re-shape everyday habits of people with unhealthy lifestyles in developing countries. This type of conditioning not only affects the immediate recipients of such education but also future generations will benefit from an improved and properly cultivated ideas about health that will eventually be ingrained with widely spread health education. Moreover, besides physical health prevention, health education can also provide more aid and help people deal healthier with situations of extreme stress, anxiety, depression or other emotional disturbances to lessen the impact of these sorts of mental and emotional constituents, which can consequently lead to detrimental physical effects. ,

Credentialing

Credentialing is the process by which the qualifications of licensed professionals, organizational members or an organization are determined by assessing the individuals or group background and legitimacy through a standardized process. Accreditation, licensure, or certifications are all forms of credentialing.

In 1978, Helen Cleary, the president of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) started the process of certification of health educators. Prior to this, there was no certification for individual health educators, with exception to the licensing for school health educators. The only accreditation available in this field was for school health and public health professional preparation programs.

Her initial response was to incorporate experts in the field and to promote funding for the process. The director if the Division of Associated Health Professions in the Bureau of Health Manpower of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Thomas Hatch, became interested in the project. To ensure that the commonalities between health educators across the spectrum of professions would be sufficient enough to create a set of standards, Dr. Cleary spent a great amount of time to create the first conference called the Bethesda Conference. In attendance were interested professionals who covered the possibility of creating credentialing within the profession.

With the success of the conference and the consensus that the standardization of the profession was vital, those who organized the conference created the National Task Force in the Preparation and Practice of Health Educators. Funding for this endeavor became available in January 1979, and role delineation became a realistic vision for the future. They presented the framework for the system in 1981 and published entry-level criteria in 1983. Seven areas of responsibility, 29 areas of competency and 79 sub-competencies were required of health education professionals for approximately 20 years for entry-level educators.

In 1986 a second conference was held in Bethesda, Maryland to further the credentialing process. In June 1988, the National Task Force in the Preparation and Practice of Health Educators became the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. (NCHEC). Their mission was to improve development of the field by promoting, preparing and certifying health education specialists. The NCHEC has three division boards that included preparation, professional development and certification of health educator professionals. The third board, which is called the Division Board of Certification of Health Education Specialist (DBCHES), has the responsibility of developing and administering the CHES exam. An initial certification process allowed 1,558 individuals to be chartered into the program through a recommendation and application process. The first exam was given in 1990.

In order for a candidate to sit for a exam they must have either a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree from and accredited institution, and an official transcript that shows a major in health education, Community Health Education, Public Health Education, or School Health Education, etc. The transcript will be accepted if it reflects 25 semester hours or 37 quarter hours in health education preparation and covers the 7 responsibilities covered in the framework.

In 1998 a project called the Competencies Update Project (CUP) began. The purpose of the CUP project was to up-date entry-level requirements and to develop advanced-level competences. Through research the CUP project created the requirements for three levels, which included entry-level, Advanced I and Advanced II educators.

Recently the Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES) is in the process of being created. It is an exam that will measure the knowledge of the advanced levels and sub levels of the Seven Areas of Responsibilities. The first MCHES exam is expected to be given in October of 2011.

In order to be eligible to take the MCHES exam you must have at least a Master's degree in health education or related discipline along with a least 25 credit hours related to health education. In addition, five years of documented information of practice in health education and two recommendations of past/present supervisors must be provided. A vitae/resume must also be submitted.

The Competency Update Project (CUP), 1998-2004 revealed that there were higher levels of health education practitioners, which is the reasoning for the advancements for the MCHES. Many health educators felt that the current CHES credential was an entry-level exam.

There will be exceptions made for those who have the Certification of Health Education Specialist, that have been active for several consecutive years. They will be required to participate in the MCHES Experience Documentation Opportunity that will omit them from taking the exam.

Teaching

In the United States some forty states require the teaching of health education. A comprehensive health education curriculum consists of planned learning experiences which will help students achieve desirable attitudes and practices related to critical health issues. Some of these are: emotional health and a positive self image; appreciation, respect for, and care of the human body and its vital organs; physical fitness; health issues of alcohol, tobacco, drug use and abuse; health misconceptions and myths; effects of exercise on the body systems and on general well being; nutrition and weight control; sexual relationships and sexuality, the scientific, social, and economic aspects of community and ecological health; communicable and degenerative diseases including sexually transmitted diseases; disaster preparedness; safety and driver education; factors in the environment and how those factors affect an individual's or population's Environmental health (ex: air quality, water quality, food sanitation); life skills; choosing professional medical and health services; and choices of health careers.

National Health Education Standards

The National Health Education Standards (NHES) are written expectations for what students should know and be able to do by grades 2, 5, 8, and 12 to promote personal, family, and community health. The standards provide a framework for curriculum development and selection, instruction, and student assessment in health education. The performance indicators articulate specifically what students should know or be able to do in support of each standard by the conclusion of each of the following grade spans: Pre-K–Grade 2; Grade 3–Grade 5; Grade 6–Grade 8; and Grade 9–Grade 12. The performance indicators serve as a blueprint for organizing student assessment.

Standard 1	Standard 2	Standard 3	Standard 4	Standard 5	Standard 6	Standard 7	Standard 8
Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.	Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology, and other factors on health behaviors.	Students will demonstrate the ability to access valid information, products, and services to enhance health.	Students will demonstrate the ability to use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health and avoid or reduce health risks.	Students will demonstrate the ability to use decision-making skills to enhance health.	Students will demonstrate the ability to use goal-setting skills to enhance health.	Students will demonstrate the ability to practice health-enhancing behaviors and avoid or reduce health risks.	Students will demonstrate the ability to advocate for personal, family, and community health.
Performance Indicators for Pre-K-Grade 2	Performance Indicators for Pre-K-Grade 2	Performance Indicators for Pre-K-Grade 2	Performance Indicators for Pre-K-Grade 2	Performance Indicators for Pre-K-Grade 2	Performance Indicators for Pre-K-Grade 2	Performance Indicators for Pre-K-Grade 2	Performance Indicators for Pre-K-Grade 2
1.2.1 Identify that healthy behaviors impact personal health. 1.2.2 Recognize that there are multiple dimensions of health. 1.2.3 Describe ways to prevent communicable diseases. 1.2.4 List ways to prevent comes. 1.2.5 Describe why it is important to seek health care.	2.2.1 Identify how the family influences personal health practices and behaviors. 2.2.2 Identify what the school can do to support personal health practices and behaviors. 2.2.3 Describe how the media can influence health behaviors.	3.2.1 Identify trusted adults and professionals who can help promote health. 3.2.2 Identify ways to locate school and community health helpers.	4.2.1 Demonstrate healthy ways to express needs, wants, and feelings. 4.2.2 Demonstrate listening skills to enhance health. 4.2.3 Demonstrate ways to respond in an unwanted, threatening, or dangerous situation. 4.2.4 Demonstrate ways to tell a trusted adult if threatened or harmed.	5.2.1 Identify situations when a health-related decision is needed. 5.2.2 Differentiate between situations when a health-related decision can be made individually or when assistance is needed.	6.2.1 Identify a short-term personal health goal and take action toward achieving the goal. 6.2.2 Identify who can help when assistance is needed to achieve a personal health goal.	7.2.1 Demonstrate healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal health. 7.2.2 Demonstrate behaviors that avoid or reduce health risks.	8.2.1 Make requests to promote personal health. 8.2.2 Encourage peers to make positive health choices.
Performance Indicators for Grades 3-5	Performance Indicators for Grades 3-5	Performance Indicators for Grades 3-5	Performance Indicators for Grades 3-5	Performance Indicators for Grades 3-5	Performance Indicators for Grades 3-5	Performance Indicators for Grades 3-5	Performance Indicators for Grades 3-5
1.5.1 Describe the relationship between healthy behaviors and personal health. 1.5.2 Identify examples of emotional, intellectual, physical, and social health. 1.5.3 Describe ways in which safe and healthy school and community environments can promote personal health. 1.5.4 Describe ways to prevent common childhood injuries and health problems. 1.5.5 Describe when it is important to seek health care.	2.5.1 Describe how family influences personal health practices and behaviors. 2.5.2 Identify the influence of culture on health practices and behaviors. 2.5.3 Identify how peers can influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors 2.5.4 Describe how the school and community can support personal health practices and behaviors. 2.5.5 Explain how media influences thoughts, feelings, and health behaviors. 2.5.6 Describe ways that technology can influence personal health.	3.5.1 Identify characteristics of valid health information, products, and services. 3.5.2 Locate resources from home, school, and community that provide valid health information.	4.5.1 Demonstrate effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills to enhance health. 4.5.2 Demonstrate refusal skills that avoid or reduce health risks. 4.5.3 Demonstrate nonviolent strategies to manage or resolve conflict. 4.5.4 Demonstrate how to ask for assistance to enhance personal health.	5.5.1 Identify health-related situations that might require a thoughtful decision. 5.5.2 Analyze when assistance is needed in making a health-related decision. 5.5.3 List healthy options to health-related issues or problems. 5.5.4 Predict the potential outcomes of each option when making a health-related decision. 5.5.5 Choose a healthy option when making a decision. 5.5.6 Describe the outcomes of a health-related decision.	6.5.1 Set a personal health goal and track progress toward its achievement. 6.5.2 Identify resources to assist in achieving a personal health goal.	7.5.1 Identify responsible personal health behaviors. 7.5.2 Demonstrate a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal health. 7.5.3 Demonstrate a variety of behaviors to avoid or reduce health risks.	8.5.1 Express opinions and give accurate information about health issues. 8.5.2 Encourage others to make positive health choices.
Performance Indicators for Grades 6-8	Performance Indicators for Grades 6-8	Performance Indicators for Grades 6-8	Performance Indicators for Grades 6-8	Performance Indicators for Grades 6-8	Performance Indicators for Grades 6-8	Performance Indicators for Grades 6-8	Performance Indicators for Grades 6-8
1.8.1 Analyze the relationship between healthy behaviors and personal health. 1.8.2 Describe the interrelationships of emotional, intellectual, physical, and social health in adolescence. 1.8.3 Analyze how the environment affects personal health. 1.8.4 Describe how family history can affect personal health. 1.8.5 Describe ways to reduce or prevent injuries and other adolescent health problems. 1.8.6 Explain how appropriate health care can promote personal health. 1.8.7 Describe the benefits of and barriers to practicing healthy behaviors. 1.8.8 Examine the likelihood of injury or illness if engaging in unhealthy behaviors. 1.8.9 Examine the potential seriousness of injury or illness if engaging in unhealthy behaviors.	2.8.1 Examine how the family influences the health of adolescents. 2.8.2 Describe the influence of culture on health beliefs, practices, and behaviors. 2.8.3 Describe how peers influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors. 2.8.4 Analyze how the school and community can affect personal health practices and behaviors. 2.8.5 Analyze how messages from media influence health behaviors. 2.8.6 Analyze the influence of technology on personal and family health. 2.8.7 Explain how the perceptions of norms influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors. 2.8.8 Explain the influence of personal values and beliefs on individual health practices and behaviors. 2.8.9 Describe how some health risk behaviors can influence the likelihood of engaging in unhealthy behaviors. 2.8.10 Explain how school and public health policies can influence health promotion and disease prevention.	3.8.1 Analyze the validity of health information, products, and services. 3.8.2 Access valid health information from home, school, and community. 3.8.3 Determine the accessibility of products that enhance health. 3.8.4 Describe situations that may require professional health services. 3.8.5 Locate valid and reliable health products and services.	4.8.1 Apply effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills to enhance health. 4.8.2 Demonstrate refusal and negotiation skills that avoid or reduce health risks. 4.8.3 Demonstrate effective conflict management or resolution strategies. 4.8.4 Demonstrate how to ask for assistance to enhance the health of self and others.	5.8.1 Identify circumstances that can help or hinder healthy decision making. 5.8.2 Determine when health-related situations require the application of a thoughtful decision-making process. 5.8.3 Distinguish when individual or collaborative decision making is appropriate. 5.8.4 Distinguish between healthy and unhealthy alternatives to health-related issues or problems. 5.8.5 Predict the potential short-term impact of each alternative on self and others. 5.8.6 Choose healthy alternatives over unhealthy alternatives when making a decision. 5.8.7 Analyze the outcomes of a health-related decision.	6.8.1 Assess personal health practices. 6.8.2 Develop a goal to adopt, maintain, or improve a personal health practice. 6.8.3 Apply strategies and skills needed to attain a personal health goal. 6.8.4 Describe how personal health goals can vary with changing abilities, priorities, and responsibilities.	7.8.1 Explain the importance of assuming responsibility for personal health behaviors. 7.8.2 Demonstrate healthy practices and behaviors that will maintain or improve the health of self and others. 7.8.3 Demonstrate behaviors to avoid or reduce health risks to self and others.	8.8.1 State a health-enhancing position on a topic and support it with accurate information. 8.8.2 Demonstrate how to influence and support others to make positive health choices. 8.8.3 Work cooperatively to advocate for healthy individuals, families, and schools. 8.8.4 Identify ways in which health messages and communication techniques can be altered for different audiences.
Performance Indicators for Grades 9-12	Performance Indicators for Grades 9-12	Performance Indicators for Grades 9-12	Performance Indicators for Grades 9-12	Performance Indicators for Grades 9-12	Performance Indicators for Grades 9-12	Performance Indicators for Grades 9-12	Performance Indicators for Grades 9-12
1.12.1 Predict how healthy behaviors can affect health status. 1.12.2 Describe the interrelationships of emotional, intellectual, physical, and social health. 1.12.3 Analyze how environment and personal health are interrelated. 1.12.4 Analyze how genetics and family history can impact personal health. 1.12.5 Propose ways to reduce or prevent injuries and health problems. 1.12.6 Analyze the relationship between access to health care and health status. 1.12.7 Compare and contrast the benefits of and barriers to practicing a variety of healthy behaviors. 1.12.8 Analyze personal susceptibility to injury, illness, or death if engaging in unhealthy behaviors. 1.12.9 Analyze the potential severity of injury or illness if engaging in unhealthy behaviors.	2.12.1 Analyze how the family influences the health of individuals. 2.12.2 Analyze how the culture supports and challenges health beliefs, practices, and behaviors. 2.12.3 Analyze how peers influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors. 2.12.4 Evaluate how the school and community can affect personal health practice and behaviors. 2.12.5 Evaluate the effect of media on personal and family health. 2.12.6 Evaluate the impact of technology on personal, family, and community health. 2.12.7 Analyze how the perceptions of norms influence healthy and unhealthy behaviors. 2.12.8 Analyze the influence of personal values and beliefs on individual health practices and behaviors. 2.12.9 Analyze how some health risk behaviors can influence the likelihood of engaging in unhealthy behaviors. 2.12.10 Analyze how public health policies and government regulations can influence health promotion and disease prevention.	3.12.1 Evaluate the validity of health information, products, and services. 3.12.2 Use resources from home, school, and community that provide valid health information. 3.12.3 Determine the accessibility of products and services that enhance health. 3.12.4 Determine when professional health services may be required. 3.12.5 Access valid and reliable health products and services.	4.2.1 Demonstrate healthy ways to express needs, wants, and feelings. 4.12.1 Use skills for communicating effectively with family, peers, and others to enhance health. 4.12.2 Demonstrate refusal, negotiation, and collaboration skills to enhance health and avoid or reduce health risks. 4.12.3 Demonstrate strategies to prevent, manage, or resolve interpersonal conflicts without harming self or others. 4.12.4 Demonstrate how to ask for and offer assistance to enhance the health of self and others.	5.12.1 Examine barriers that can hinder healthy decision making. 5.12.2 Determine the value of applying a thoughtful decision-making process in health-related situations. 5.12.3 Justify when individual or collaborative decision making is appropriate. 5.12.4 Generate alternatives to health-related issues or problems. 5.12.5 Predict the potential short-term and long-term impact of each alternative on self and others. 5.12.6 Defend the healthy choice when making decisions. 5.12.7 Evaluate the effectiveness of health-related decisions.	6.12.1 Assess personal health practices and overall health status. 6.12.2 Develop a plan to attain a personal health goal that addresses strengths, needs, and risks. 6.12.3 Implement strategies and monitor progress in achieving a personal health goal. 6.12.4 Formulate an effective long-term personal health plan.	7.12.1 Analyze the role of individual responsibility for enhancing health. 7.12.2 Demonstrate a variety of healthy practices and behaviors that will maintain or improve the health of self and others. 7.12.3 Demonstrate a variety of behaviors to avoid or reduce health risks to self and others.	8.12.1 Utilize accurate peer and societal norms to formulate a health-enhancing message. 8.12.2 Demonstrate how to influence and support others to make positive health choices. 8.12.3 Work cooperatively as an advocate for improving personal, family, and community health. 8.12.4 Adapt health messages and communication techniques to a specific target audience.

Health Education Code of Ethics

The Health Education Code of Ethics has been a work in progress since approximately 1976, begun by the Society of Public Health Education (SOPHE). Various Public Health and Health Education organizations such as the American Association of Health Education (AAHE), the Coalition of National Health Education Organizations (CNHEO), SOPHE, and others collaborated year after year to devise a unified standard of ethics that health educators would be held accountable to professionally. In 1995, the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. (NCHEC) proposed a profession-wide standard at the conference: Health Education Profession in the Twenty-First Century: Setting the Stage. Post-conference, an ethics task force was developed with the purpose of solidifying and unifying proposed ethical standards. The document was eventually unanimously approved and ratified by all involved organizations in November 1999 and has since then been used as the standard for practicing health educators.

“The Code of Ethics that has evolved from this long and arduous process is not seen as a completed project. Rather, it is envisioned as a living document that will continue to evolve as the practice of Health Education changes to meet the challenges of the new millennium.”

Health Education Code of Ethics Full Text

PREAMBLE The Health Education profession is dedicated to excellence in the practice of promoting individual, family, organizational, and community health. The Code of Ethics provides a framework of shared values within which Health Education is practiced. The responsibility of each Health Educator is to aspire to the highest possible standards of conduct and to encourage the ethical behavior of all those with whom they work.

Article I: Responsibility to the Public A Health Educator’s ultimate responsibility is to educate people for the purpose of promoting, maintaining, and improving individual, family, and community health. When a conflict of issues arises among individuals, groups, organizations, agencies, or institutions, health educators must consider all issues and give priority to those that promote wellness and quality of living through principles of self-determination and freedom of choice for the individual.

Article II: Responsibility to the Profession Health Educators are responsible for their professional behavior, for the reputation of their profession, and for promoting ethical conduct among their colleagues.

Article III: Responsibility to Employers Health Educators recognize the boundaries of their professional competence and are accountable for their professional activities and actions.

Article IV: Responsibility in the Delivery of Health Education Health Educators promote integrity in the delivery of health education. They respect the rights, dignity, confidentiality, and worth of all people by adapting strategies and methods to the needs of diverse populations and communities.

Article V: Responsibility in Research and Evaluation Health Educators contribute to the health of the population and to the profession through research and evaluation activities. When planning and conducting research or evaluation, health educators do so in accordance with federal and state laws and regulations, organizational and institutional policies, and professional standards.

Article VI: Responsibility in Professional Preparation Those involved in the preparation and training of Health Educators have an obligation to accord learners the same respect and treatment given other groups by providing quality education that benefits the profession and the public.

All versions of the document are available on the Coalition of National Health Education's site: http://www.cnheo.org/. The National Health Education Code of Ethics is the property of the Coalition of National Health Education.

National Organizations for Public Health/Health Education

American Public Health Association (APHA) APHA is the main voice for public health advocacy that is the oldest organization of public health sine 1872. The American Public Health Association aims to “protect all Americans and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure community-based health promotion and disease preventions.” Any individual can become a member and benefit in online access and monthly printed issues of The Nation’s Health and the American Journal of Public Health

Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) The mission of SOPHE is to provide global leadership to the profession of health education and health promotion and to promote the health of society through advances in health education theory and research, excellence in professional preparation and practice, and advocacy for public policies conducive to health, and the achievement of health equity for all. Membership is open to all who have an interest in health education and or work in health education in schools, medical care settings, worksites, community based organizations, state/local government, and international agencies. Founded in 1950, SOPHE publishes 2 indexed, peer-reviewed journals, Health Education & Behavior and Health Promotion Practice.

American School Health Association (ASHA) The American School Health Association was founded in 1972 by a group of physicians that already belonged to the American Public Health Association. This group specializes in school-aged health specifically. Over the years it has snowballed and now includes any person that can be a part of a child’s life, from dentists, to counselors and school nurses. The American School Health Association mission “is to protect and promote the health of children and youth by supporting coordinated school health programs as a foundation for school success.”

American Association of Health Education/American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHE/AAHPERD) The AAHE/AAHPERD is said to be the largest organization of professionals that supports physical education; which includes leisure, fitness, dance, and health promotion. That is only a few; this incorporates all that is physical movement. This organization is an alliance with five national associations and six districts and is there to provide a comprehensive and coordinated array of resources to help support practitioners to improve their skills and always be learning new things. This organization was first stated in November 1885. William Gilbert Anderson had been out of medical school for two years and was working with many other people that were in the gymnastic field. He wanted them to get together to discuss their field and this organization was created. Today AAHPERD serves 25,000 members and has its headquarters in Reston, Virginia.

Eta Sigma Gamma (ESG) The Eta Sigma Gamma is a national health education organization founded in 1967 by three professor from Ball tate University. The mission of the ESG to promote public health education by improving the standards, ideals, capability, and ethics of public health education professionals. The three key points of the organization are to teach, research, and provide service to the members of the public health professionals. Some of the goals that the Eta Stigma Gamma targets are support planning and evaluation of future and existing health education programs, support and promote scientific research, support advocacy of health education issues, and promote professional ethics.

American College Health Association (ACHA) The American College Health Association originally began as a student health association in 1920, but then in 1948 the association changed the name to what its known today. The principal interest of the ACHA is to promote advocacy and leadership to colleges and universities around the country. Other part of the mission's association is to encourage education, communication, and services to students and campus community in general. The association also promotes advocacy and research. The American College Health Association has three types of membership: institutions of higher education, individual members who are interested in the public health profession, and susbtain members which are profitable and non-profitable organization. The ACHA is connected to 11 organizations located in six regions around the country. Currently, the American College Health Association serves 900 educative institutions and about 2400 individual members in the United States.

Directors of Health Promotion and Education (DHPE) Founded in 1946 as one of the professional groups of the Health Education Profession. The main goal of the HEPE is to improve the health education standards in any public health agency. As well, build networking opportunities among all public health professionals as a media to communicate ideas for implementing health programs, and to keep accurate information about the latest health news. The DHPE also focus to increase public awareness of health education and promotion by creating and expanding methods of existing health programs that will improve the quality of health. The Directors of Health Promotion and Education is linked to the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) to “work on health promotion and disease prevention”.

Health Education Career Opportunities

The terms Public Health Educator, Community Health Educator or Health Educator are all used interchangeable to describe an individual who plans implements and evaluates health education and promotion programs. These individuals play a crucial role in many organizations in various settings to improve our nations health. Just as a Community health educator works work toward population health, a school Health educator generally teaches in our Schools. A community health educator is typically focused on their immediate community striving to serve the public.

Health Care Settings: these include hospitals (for-profit and public), medical care clinics, home health agencies, HMOs and PPOs. Here, a health educator teaches employees how to be healthy. Patient education positions are far and few between because insurance companies do not cover the costs. [1]

Public Health Agencies: are official, tax funded, government agencies. They provide police protection, educational systems, as well as clean air and water. Public health departments provide health services and are organized by a city, county, state, or federal government. [2]

School Health Education: involves all strategies, activities, and services offered by, in, or in association with schools that are designed to promote students' physical, emotional, and social development. School health involves teaching students about health and health related behaviors. Curriculum and programs are based on the school's expectations and health. [3]

Non Profit Voluntary Health Agencies: are created by concerned citizens to deal with health needs not met by governmental agencies. Missions include public education, professional education, patient education, research, direct services and support to or for people directly affected by a specific health or medical problem. Usually funded by such means as private donations, grants, and fund-raisers.[4]

Higher Education: typically two types of positions health educators hold including academic, or faculty or health educator in a student health service or wellness center. As a faculty member, the health educator typically has three major responsibilities: teaching, community and professional service, and scholarly research. As a health educator in a university health service or wellness center, the major responsibility is to plan, implement, and evaluate health promotion and education programs for program participants. [5]

Work site Health Promotion: is a combination of educational, organizational and environmental activities designed to improve the health and safety of employees and their families. These work site wellness programs offer an additional setting for health educators and allow them to reach segments of the population that are not easily reached through traditional community health programs. Some work site health promotion Some work site health promotion activities include; smoking cessation, stress management, bulletin boards, newsletters, and much more. [6]

Independent Consulting and Government Contracting: international, national, regional, sate, and local organizations contract with independent consultants for many reasons. They may be hired to assess individual and community needs for health education; plan, implement, administer and evaluate health education strategies; conduct research; serve as health education resource person; and or communicate about and advocate for health and health education. Government contractors are often behind national health education programs, government reports, public information web sites and telephone lines, media campaigns, conferences, and health education materials. [7]

Influential Individuals in Health Education: Past and Present

Dorothy Bird Nyswander

Dr. Nyswander was born on Sept. 29, 1894. She earned her Bachelor's and Master's degree at the University of Nevada and received her Doctorate in educational psychology at Berkeley. She is a founder of the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Nysawnder pursued her interest in public health at the Works Progress Administration during the depression. She served with the Federal Works Agency contributing to the establishment of nursery schools and child care centers to accommodate young mothers working in defense plants. She set up these centers in 15 northeastern states. This did not happen quickly so she advocated all over the nation to train people to act as foster parents for the children of working women. Dr. Nyswander became the director of the City health Center in Astoria Queens in 1939. She spent her time as director promoting the idea of New York City keeping an eye on the health of children. They would do this by keeping records that would follow them to whatever school they might move to. She wrote “Solving School Health Problems” which is an analysis of the health issues in New York children. This is still used in public health education courses today.

Mayhew Derryberry

Dr. Derryberry was born December 25, 1902 and earned his Bachelor's degree in chemistry and mathematics at the University of Tennessee. He began his career in 1926 with the American Child Health Association as the director of one of the first large-scale studies of the health status of the nation’s schoolchildren. A year after his work with the American Child Health Association he earned his Master's degree in education and psychology at Columbia University. He then went on to earn his doctorate and moved to the New York City Health Department as the secretary to the sanitary superintendent. He finally moved to Washington DC and joined the US Public Health Service as a senior public health analyst. He became chief of the Public Health Service and began assembling a team of behavioral scientists. They studied the nexus of behavior, social factors, and disease. Two scientists and Derryberry conducted the study of the role of health beliefs in explaining utilization of public health screening services. This work contributed to the development of the Health Belief Model. This provided an important theoretical foundation for modern health education. His legacy was very important because he engaged behavioral and social scientists in the problems of public health and gave importance to the role of that health education plays on human health.

Elena Sliepcevich

Elena Sliepcevich was a leading figure in the development of health education both as an academic discipline and a profession. She graduated from the University of Ireland in 1939 and received her Master's degree from the University of Michigan in 1949. She received her doctorate in physical education from Springfield College in 1955. After completing her schooling, Elena Sliepcevich worked at Ohio State University in 1961 as a professor of health education. There she helped direct the School Health Education Study from 1961-1969, and most health education curricula used in schools today are based on the ten conceptual areas identified by the School Health Education Study. These ten areas of focus include community health, consumer health, environmental health, family life, mental and emotional health, injury prevention and safety, nutrition, personal health, prevention and control of disease, and drug use and abuse.

Helen Agnes Cleary

Helen Cleary was born March 28, 1914 at Petersburg, South Australia. She trained as a nurse at the Broken Hill and District Hospital in New South Wales. She became a general nurse in 1941, and an obstetric nurse in 1942. She joined the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service as a sister on November 15, 1943. Along with other RAAF nurses, she would partake in evacuations throughout New Guinea and Borneo, which earned the nurses the nickname “the flying angels”, and were also known as the “glamor girls” of the air force. In April 1945, she was ranked No. 2 Medical Air Evacuation Transport Unit, and began bringing thousands of Australian and British servicemen from prisoner-of-war camps after Japan had surrendered. She and other nurses cared for many patients who suffered from malnutrition and dysentery. During the Korean War, Cleary was charge sister on the RAAF, where she organized medical evacuations of Australians from Korea, fought for better treatment and conditions of the critically wounded, and nursed recently exchanged Prisoners of War. On August 18, 1967, Ms. Cleary was made honorary nursing sister to Queen Elizabeth II. She had been appointed an associate of the Royal Red Cross in 1960, and became a leading member in 1968 for her contributions to the training of medical staff, and for maintaining “the high ideals of the nursing profession”. She retired on March 28, 1969, and later died on August 26, 1987.

Delbert Oberteuffer

A long time health educator, Delbert Oberteuffer definitely made his mark on the physical education and health education world. He was born in Portland, Oregon in 1902 where he remained through college, attending the University of Oregon receiving his Bachelors Degree. His next step took him to the prestigious Columbia University where he obtained his Masters of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy Degree. He furthered his education by becoming a professor at Ohio State University where he taught from 1932 until 1966. During his time there, he was head of the Men's Physical Education Department for 25 years. After years of hard work, he was rewarded with numerous jobs including the President of the American School Health Association and The College of Physical Education Association. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1981 at the age of 79. He is Survived by his wife, Katherine, and his son, Theodore K. Oberteuffer.

Howard Hoyman

Howard Hoyman is mainly recognized for his work in sex education and introductions of ecology concepts. He is credited for developing the original sex education program for students in grades 1 through 12. The model Hoyman created heavily influenced the thinking of many health educators. Hoyman received his Bachelors Degree from Ohio State University in 1931. He then went on to earn his Masters degree in 1932 and Doctorate in 1945 from the University of Colombia. Throughout his career he wrote over 200 articles and was honored many times by multiple organizations such as Phi Beta Kappa and the American Public Health Association. Dr. Hoyman retired in 1970 as A Professor Emeritus.

Lloyd Kolbe

Lloyd Kolbe received his B.S. form Towson University and then received his Ph.D. and M.Ed. from the University of Toledo during the 1970’s. Dr. Kolbe played a huge role in the development of many health programs applied to the daily life of different age groups. He received the award for Excellence in Prevention and Control of Chronic Disease, which is the highest recognition in his department of work, for his work forming the Division of Adolescent and School Health. Dr. Kolbe was the Director of this program for 15 years. He has also taken time to write and publish numerous books such as Food marketing to Children and Youth and School as well as Terrorism Related to Advancing and Improving the Nation’s Health.

Robert Morgan Pigg

University of Florida professor, Robert Morgan Pigg, started his health career in 1969 when he received his Bachelors Degree in Health, Physical Education, and Recreation from Middle Tennessee State University. A year later he received his M.Ed; also from Middle Tennessee University before moving on to Indian University where he obtained his H.S.D. in 1974 and his M.P.H. in 1980. He held many jobs at numerous Universities including Western Kentucky University, University of Georgia, Indiana University, and the University of Florida where he currently resides today. Pigg's main focus of interest is the promotion of health towards children and adolescents. After spending 20 years as Editor for the Journal of Health, he was given the job as Department Chair in 2007 for The University of Florida.

Linda Rae Murray

Linda Rae Murray holds her MD, and MPH. Currently she is the Chief Officer for the Ambulatory & Community Health Network. She was elected president November 2009. Dr. Murray has served in a number of Medical settings her most recent being Medical Director of the federally funded health center, Winfield Moody, serving the Cabrini Green public housing project in Chicago. She has also been an active member of the board of national organizations. Along with this she served as Chief Medical Officer in primary care for the twenty three primary care and community health centers. Today Murray serves as the Chief Medical Officer for the Cook County Health & Hospital system. Dr. Murray has also been a voice for social justice and health care as a basic human right for over forty years.

Mark J. Kittleson

Mark J. Kittleson is a professor at Southern Illinois University for Public Health Education. His interests include Educational Technology and Behaviorism; he attended the University of Akron and received his PhD in Health Education. Dr. Kittleson has experience as owner and founder of the HEDIR a place where people can hold discussions related to health and health education. His honors and awards consist of Scholar of the Year, American Association of Health Education 2008 and he is a member of the American Association of Health Education.

Elaine Auld

Elaine Auld has been a leading figure for over more than 30 years in the health education field. She attended the University of Michigan, MPH, and Health Behavior/Health Education, from 1976 – 1978 Elaine is the chief executive officer for the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and has had many contributions in health promotion and health communications. She has been a certified health specialist since 1989 and in 1996 was an adviser to the first Health Education Graduate Standards. Elaine was involved with the Competency Update Project (CUP), which provided standards for the health education profession. Elaine’s interest and work are related to health education credentialing and standards, workforce development, public policy, and health equity. For the last decade Elaine has been a site visitor for the Council on Education for Public Health, and also strengthened the accreditation and preparation of future health specialists, which is key to an overall healthy well-being. Elaine has received two awards U of MI SPH Alumni of the Year Award in 2010 and SOPHE Distinguished Fellow in 2008.

Susan Wooley

Susan Wooley received her bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University, a master’s degree in health education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a Ph.D. in health education from Temple University. Susan is the executive director of the American School Health Association and has been a member to ASHA for 31 years. She co-edited Health Is Academic: A Guide to Coordinated School Health Programs and co-authored Give It a Shot, a Toolkit for Nurses and Other Immunization Champions Working with Secondary Schools. Susan has had many previous jobs such as CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, Delaware State College, American Association for Health Education and Delaware Department of Public Instruction and is also a certified health specialist. Wooley spent four years on a curriculum development project for elementary schools, Science for Life and Living: Integrating Science, Technology and Health. Now Susan oversees the day-to-day operations of a national professional association and provides consultation and technical assistance to others working toward health education.

See also

• Dairy Council of California
• Dorothy Nyswander
• Environmental Health
• Health Literacy
• Health Promotion
• Health Teacher
• Healthy People 2010
• Life skills
• Online health communities
• Personal, Social and Health Education
• Physical Education
• Public Health
• School Health Education Study
• AAHPERD

References

1. ^ McKenzie, J., Neiger, B., Thackeray, R. (2009). Health Education and Health Promotion. Planning, Implementing, & Evaluating Health Promotion Programs. (pp. 3-4). 5th edition. San Francisco, CA: Pearson Education, Inc.
2. ^ Donatelle, R. (2009). Promoting Healthy Behavior Change. Health: The basics. (pp. 4). 8th edition. San Francisco, CA: Pearson Education, Inc.
3. ^ Joint Committee on Terminology. (2001). Report of the 2000 Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion Terminology. American Journal of Health Education, 32(2), 89-103.
4. ^ World Health Organization. (1998). List of Basic Terms. Health Promotion Glossary. (pp. 4). Retrieved May 1, 2009 from http://www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/hp_glossary_en.pdf.
5. ^ Cottrell,Girvan,and McKenzie, 2009.
6. ^ Washington State Department of Health
7. ^ Bundy, D., Guya, H.L. (1996). Schools for health, education and the school-age child. Parasitology Today, 12(8), 1-16.
8. ^ Kann, L., Brener, N.D., Allensworth, D.D. (2001). Health education: Results from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000. Journal of School Health, 71(7), 266-278.
9. ^ Cottrell, R. R., Girvan, J. T., & McKenzie, J. F. (2009). Principles and Foundations of Health Promotion and Education. New York: Benjamin Cummings.
10. ^ Patterson, S. M., & Vitello, E. M. (2006). Key Influences Shaping Health Education: Progress Toward Accreditaion. The Health Education Monograph Series, 23(1), 14- 19.
11. ^ [1]
12. ^ Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. (2007). National Health Education Standards. Retrieved May 1, 2009 from http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/SHER/standards/index.htm
13. ^ Coalition of National Health Education Organizations. Introduction. Health Education Code of Ethics. November 8, 1999, Chicago, IL. Retrieved May 1, 2009 from http://www.cnheo.org/code1.pdf
14. ^ Coalition of National Health Education Organizations. Introduction. Health Education Code of Ethics. November 8, 1999, Chicago, IL. Retrieved May 1, 2009 from http://www.cnheo.org/code3.pdf
15. ^ [2]
16. ^ [3]
17. ^ [4]
18. ^ [5]
19. ^ [6]
20. ^ [7]
21. ^ [8]
22. ^ [9]
23. ^ [10]
24. ^ [11]
25. ^ [12]
26. ^ [13]
27. ^ [14]
28. ^ [15]
29. ^ [16]
30. ^ [17]
31. ^ [18]
32. ^ [19]
33. ^ [20]
34. ^ [21]

• Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. (2007). National Health Education Standards. Retrieved May 1, 2009 from http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/SHER/standards/index.htm
• Coalition of National Health Education Organizations. Health Education Code of Ethics. November 8, 1999, Chicago, IL. Retrieved May 1, 2009 from http://www.cnheo.org
• Donatelle, R. (2009). Health: The basics. 8th edition. San Francisco, CA: Pearson Education, Inc.
• Joint Committee on Terminology. (2001). Report of the 2000 Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion Terminology. American Journal of Health Education.
• McKenzie, J., Neiger, B., Thackeray, R. (2009). Planning, Implementing, & Evaluating Health Promotion Programs. 5th edition. San Francisco, CA: Pearson Education, Inc.
• Simons-Morton, B. G. , Greene, W. H., & Gottlieb, N. H.. (2005). Introduction to Health Education and Health Promotion. 2nd edition. Waveland Press.
• World Health Organization. (1998). Health Promotion Glossary. Retrieved May 1, 2009 from http://www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/hp_glossary_en.pdf.

External links

• Health Education through Animation Video
• Association of Academic Health Centers (USA)
• Association of Canadian Academic Healthcare Organizations (Canada)
• British Columbia Academic Health Council (Canada)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA)
• American Association for Health Education (United States)
• National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. (USA)
• Association of Schools of Public Health (USA)
• US Department of Health & Human Services (USA)
• American Public Health Association (USA)
• National Institutes of Health (USA)
• World Health Organization (USA)
• Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (USA)
• Environmental Protection Agency (USA)
• American School Health Association (USA)
• Society of State Directors of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (USA)
• National Health Education Standards (USA)

Category:Health Canada

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pages in category “Health Canada”

The following 18 pages are in this category, out of 18 total. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).

Health Canada Marketed health products directorate A Assisted Human Reproduction Canada C Canada's Food Guide Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse Act Canadian health claims

C cont. Canadian Health Network Canadian Institutes of Health Research Canadian National Calibration Reference Centre Chiropractic in Canada Controlled Drugs and Substances Act H Health Products and Food Branch

M Mental Health Commission of Canada N National Microbiology Laboratory Natural Health Products Directorate P Pest Management Regulatory Agency Public Health Agency of Canada T Therapeutic Products Directorate

Health Sciences Authority

The Health Sciences Authority headquarters at Outram Road, Singapore.

The Health Sciences Authority (Abbreviation: HSA; Chinese: 卫生科学局); Malay: Penguasa Sains Kesihatan) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Health of the Singapore Government.

HSA is a multi-disciplinary agency. It applies medical, pharmaceutical and scientific expertise to protect and advance public health and safety. The organisation serves three key functions: It is the national regulator for health products; it secures the national blood supply through its operation of the national blood bank – Bloodbank@HSA; and it represents the national expertise in forensic medicine, forensic science and analytical chemistry testing capabilities. These support other regulatory and compliance agencies in the administration of justice and in safeguarding public health. The current CEO is Dr. John Lim.

Contents 1 Background 2 Role 2.1 Health Products Regulation 2.2 National Blood Service 2.3 Forensic and Analytical Sciences Expertise 3 International Alliances, Affiliations and Collaborative Efforts 4 External links

Background

The HSA was formed on 1 April 2001 with the integration of five specialised agencies under the Ministry of Health: the Centre for Drug Evaluation; Institute of Science and Forensic Medicine; National Pharmaceutical Administration; Product Regulation Department; and Singapore Blood Transfusion Service.

Today, the agency’s professional knowledge, skills and competencies are housed in three professional groups: the Health Products Regulation Group; Blood Services Group, and Applied Sciences Group. Each group functions as Divisions comprising branches, units and laboratories. The three professional groups work with the corporate HQ that provides strategic direction and corporate support for advancing the organisation.

Role

Health Products Regulation

The HSA’s Health Products Regulation Group ensures that medicines, medical devices and other health products available in Singapore meet appropriate and acceptable standards in quality, safety and efficacy. The agency also contributes to the formulation of national drug policies.

HSA’s risk management system takes into account pre-and-post market precautionary options. On the pre-market front, HSA administers clinical trials for new drugs and grants approvals for these products before they are marketed in Singapore. Audits on good manufacturing and distribution practices are also conducted.

On the post-market front, HSA monitors health products in the market through regulatory surveillance activities. The agency also carries out investigations and takes enforcement action against illegal activities related to unregistered, counterfeit and adulterated health products. HSA has an established and active pharmacovigilance monitoring programme that draws on its network of healthcare professionals and overseas regulators. This allows HSA to initiate targeted and prompt alert action in response to reported adverse drug events. This allows the agency to expedite the isolation of such problems and minimise harm to public health and safety.

In support of the national objective to reduce smoking, HSA enforces the laws that prohibit tobacco advertisements, smoking by youths under 18 years old as well as the sale of tobacco products to youths in this age group.

National Blood Service

The Blood Services Group is the national blood service of Singapore and is responsible for the adequacy and safety of the country’s blood supply. It runs the Bloodbank@HSA, which collects, processes, tests and distributes blood and blood components to all hospitals in Singapore. The agency has established a framework to ensure that there is a steady supply of safe blood for day-to-day needs at hospitals and during emergencies. The framework covers the recruitment of voluntary non-remunerated blood donors, stringent blood donation screening criteria, a reliable battery of tests that is conducted on all collected blood, and a strong quality system.

The HSA has maintained a strategic partnership with the Singapore Red Cross since 2001 in managing the National Blood Donor Recruitment and Retention Programme. In 2007, about 55,000 individuals came forward to make blood donations.

The agency is the reference centre for immunohaematology, tissue typing and transfusion medicine in the country. It offers immunohaematology services and tissue typing services to healthcare institutions in Singapore and the region. It also provides clinical consultative services in the speciality of transfusion medicine. In recent years, it has embarked on the development of a Cell Processing Laboratory to support the new area of clinical cell therapy.

Forensic and Analytical Sciences Expertise

HSA’s Applied Sciences Group represents Singapore’s national expertise in forensic medicine, forensic sciences, analytical scientific capabilities as well as the new developing area of metrology in chemistry. This Group supports other regulatory and compliance agencies in the administration of justice and safeguarding public health. The Group comprises: Forensic Medicine Division, Forensic Science Division, Illicit Drugs and Toxicology Division, Pharmaceutical Division, Food Safety Division and Chemical Metrology Division.

The range of services cover forensic medical consultancy services in support of death investigation in Singapore; forensic science services such as criminalistics and DNA profiling in support of criminal investigations and illicit drugs control; analytical testing in support of health products regulation, cigarette and tobacco product control; water testing; and food safety regulation. Toxicological services are also provided to hospitals.

In collaboration with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), HSA has been a designated institute for chemical metrology in Singapore since 2008.

International Alliances, Affiliations and Collaborative Efforts

HSA has established strong collaborations through Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with international partners. This is part of its commitment to enhance inter-agency regulatory efforts on the global front. Its international partners include agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada, Swiss Medic, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration.

HSA’s competencies have been recognised by international bodies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO). Its professional groups have being identified as WHO Collaborating Centres in three core areas of expertise – Transfusion Medicine, Drug Quality Assurance and Food Contaminants Monitoring.

HSA has been internationally accredited by the AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks), and also the American Society of Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics. It is a founding member of the Asian Pacific Blood Network. As a WHO Collaborating Centre, the agency is an appointed Regional Quality Management Training Centre for Blood Transfusion Services.

For its forensic medicine and forensic sciences capabilities, HSA has received endorsements from various established global agencies. It is the first agency outside of the United States of America to be accredited by the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME), and it also accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board, and the Singapore Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (SINGLAS).

The agency is also a United Nations International Drug Control Programme Reference Laboratory for Biological Specimens and Seized Materials.

External links

• Official site

HIRU Corporation (HIRU)'s Jiangxi Shaungshi AHP Wins Trustworthy Enterprise Certificate – Yahoo! Finance

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{“s” : “hiru.pk”,”k” : “a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00″,”o” : “”,”j” : “”} Press Release Source: Hiru Corporation On Tuesday July 27, 2010, 12:20 pm EDT

NANCHANG, CHINA–(Marketwire – 07/27/10) – Hiru Corporation (PINK SHEETS:HIRU – News) (http://www.hirucorporation.com) is very pleased to announce that main subsidiary Jiangxi Shuangshi Animal Health Products (AHP) has been awarded the 2009 Trustworthy AA Grade Enterprise Certificate.

This great honor, presented by the Nanchang City Industry and Commerce Administration, confirms Shuangshi AHP's status as a rising star in the field of animal health products.

The Nanchang City Industry and Commerce Administration is a government body that oversees the planning, development, implementation and inspection of all industrial and technological enterprises in the province of Jiangxi. Based in Nanchang's Xiaolan Industrial Park, Shuangshi AHP provides the Chinese agricultural market with veterinary and animal nutrition solutions which include large volume injections, liquid disinfectants and feed additives.

Shuangshi AHP expects that this Certificate, along with the awarded 2009 Annual Growth Honor Award (Press release July 6, 2010) will help the company's efforts in marketing and branding its products on the Chinese market for animal health products. This recognition on the local level should enhance the company name on the national market for animal health products and raise the potential for landing new contracts and customers.

About Hiru Corporation:

Hiru Corporation's subsidiary Shuangshi Animal Health Products (AHP) Co.(http://www.jxssyy.com/index.asp) focuses on delivering veterinary and animal nutrition solutions for the Chinese agricultural market. The company operates in the Nanchang (Xiaolan) Economic Development Zone, and produces products that foster livestock health such as injections, volume injections, large volume injections, oral liquids, liquid disinfectants, feed additives, loose powders and feed premixes. Shuangshi AHP Co. distributes its products across 20 provinces in China. The company established a solid reputation, and currently partners with more than 500 loyal customers in China. The company also operates a RD lab in Belgrade Serbia MindUp Bioresearch focusing on cancer therapy and alternative medicine.

About Mina Mar Group:

Mina Mar Group (MMG) is a corporate consultancy firm that specializes in small cap or OTC market business services, including public markets in Frankfurt, Germany, and the UK. We provide our clients with comprehensive advisory and consulting services regarding mergers and acquisitions, including reverse mergers of private companies into publicly traded entities, and special purpose companies (SPC) offshore. MMG also offers a full suite of related ancillary services subsequent to the successful completion of a reverse merger, including private placements, Pink Sheets Adequate Disclosure documentation, various SEC regulatory filings and a broad range of other corporate governance matters. Mina Mar Marketing Group, MMMG (www.minamargroup.net), offers publicly traded companies full array of services such as Investor Relations and maintenance investor awareness. Mina Mar Group pioneered the “Go Public Free” program, the first firm to challenge the short sellers, stock bashers and repeal of the “Communication Decency Act”. Visit http://www.minamargroup.com/ice to learn more.

Filings for this event are currently being reviewed and will be filed with Pink Sheets and Client Support section in due course. To be included in company's email database for press releases, “Friday Tips” industry updates, and non-weekly activity in the company that may or may not be news released, please subscribe for opt in mailer at http://www.minamargroup.com/updates.

Safe Harbor Statement

Information in this news release may contain statements about future expectations, plans, prospects or performance of Hiru Corporation that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor Provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words or phrases “can be,” “expects,” “may affect,” “believed,” “estimate,” “project” and similar words and phrases are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Hiru Corporation cautions you that any forward-looking information provided by or on behalf Hiru Corporation is not a guarantee of future performance. None of the information in this press release constitutes or is intended as an offer to sell securities or investment advice of any kind. Hiru Corporation's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, some of which are beyond Hiru Corporation's control. In addition to those discussed in Hiru Corporation's press releases, public filings, and statements by Hiru Corporation's management, including, but not limited to, Hiru Corporation's estimate of the sufficiency of its existing capital resources, Hiru Corporation's ability to raise additional capital to fund future operations, Hiru Corporation's ability to repay its existing indebtedness, the uncertainties involved in estimating market opportunities, and in identifying contracts which match Hiru Corporation's capability to be awarded contracts. All such forward-looking statements are current only as of the date on which such statements were made. Hiru Corporation does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which any such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

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Acai Berry – The Health Benefits in Weight Loss Products

There is a lot of talk about acai on the web and news raving over the benefits in ones health and weight loss this product can deliver. When I first looked at the acai berry juice on TV a few years ago I paid no mind to it. I just thought its another weight loss supplement on the health and fitness market.

Then acai berry supreme and a lot of spin-off started to pop up and then I started to get interested.

Then one day my brother mentioned that he was taking it for 2-3 months and had lost weight and felt healthy and vibrant on the acai berry diet. I said no way and he said he felt great.

It was at that moment I decided to research this weight loss food.

So what is acai? Have you ever heard of a Acai Palm or Aqai ( Euterpe Oleracea) No well neither had I, but it turns out to be Palm Tree where this Acai Fruit berry grows from in the Rain Forest of the Amazons In Brazil.

This acai Berry and its pure juices looks like a purple grape, but don't be fooled this Fruit packs a punch. It is loaded with rich nutrients and a lot of Antioxidants.

Acai berries are also loaded with fiber, omega fatty acids, vitamins and amino acids. Wow I had to say it this Weight loss supplement so far had a lot of great packed in benefits to our health. Just like a grape it has skin pulp and a seed. Around 10 % of the acai berry is Pulp and skin is where the rich nutrients come from which is edible the rest is the pit(seed). I tried the acai berry select which is the bottle that my brother was using to lose weight and maintain it off. I have to say that it has a pretty good rich taste.

Now so far I was starting to see what the buzz over this product was, but I had to know how it helped with ones desired weight loss diet. So I continued to look for answers and proof I had my brother who had lost an excess of 20 pounds in 3 weeks, but I needed more.

Now acai Berry comes in many shapes and forms now you have the acai capsules, acai liquid or juice acai berries dried or frozen you can take.

What I found to be key to the Acai berry supplement is the Antioxidants it possess.

Antioxidants in our body fight to remove the radicals in our system they good natural chemicals. Now these bad guys the free radicals get into our system through the air we breath and the food one eats. The free radicals are absorbed into ones tissues, where they can badly damage our cell structure.

With time these free radical can lead up to premature aging or even heart disease and cancer. The Antioxidants In fruits like acai berries will naturally remove these radical stopping them from harming our bodies. These acai berries posses a very high concentration of antioxidants

The Antioxidant are known to help regulate cholesterol levels and help with vascular and cardiac function.

Acai Berry Product Uses: Colon Cleansing and detoxing, Weight loss diet, hearth conditions, high cholesterol just name some

Acai Health Properties:

Anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory support immune system and weight loss.

There are a lot of positive testimonials as well as hard facts from people that have used the products of this acai fruit. You can go online and see a lot of the testimonials and read their stories. I know that there is also a lot of misinformation

I will say this fruit be it powder capsules natural or pure organic how ever you find them are not the magic pill to weight loss.

However they will be a huge boost to your weight loss diet regimen by making your body healthy and well balanced and in return you will see that your weight goals can be obtained.

Here is a list of what Fruit Berry Users Claim to promote:

* Energy Level Increase

* Improved digestive function

* Cleansed the body and intestines

* A stronger immune system

* Good Healthy Skin

* Improved circulation

* Improved mental clarity and focus

* Improved sexual desire and performance

* Good Night Rest

* Enhanced Sight

You can start to see the acai berry benefits some users have noted to be exceptional.

As you can see this Fruit Acai Berry has a very good resume and people taking it for weight loss diet,top fitness in general. I am starting to believe that this is pretty close to a super fruit if I may say.

Now you may ask is there any acai berry side effects to using this fruit. That is a topic for a whole new article that I will share with in in the future.

I have as well recently started to use the acai juice the help in my cleansing of my body help improve my digestion to try to live healthier I will keep you posted. I personally love getting my health products from GNC for their knowledge of these supplements they sell

While a neighbor of mine is using acai berry power 500.I am very curious to see his results. I will have to follow him to share with you his results.

There are some unscrupulous people on the web you have to be careful with some acai berry scam, just like every product in the market, you have people trying to scam. You just have to do a little homework to screen through these people

So there are plenty of uses and facts on Acai Berry that have convinced me. I will leave it up to you to see if this fruit is right for you

I have to run now I hope you stay healthy and fit till next time keep exercising

My name is Maria Avalos and since 1992 I have been helping people just like you lose weight and create a wonderful revolution in their lives. I hope that this article helps you on understanding weight loss. For more information on weight loss diet,weight loss plans and programs feel free to weight loss diet.
Now if you more detailed reviews and keep updated with what is happening with acai fruit visit us @ Acai Berry.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Maria_Avalos
http://EzineArticles.com/?Acai-Berry—The-Health-Benefits-in-Weight-Loss-Products&id=4227275

Cardinal Health

Cardinal Health, Inc., is a health care services company based in Dublin, Ohio. It is currently ranked 17th on the Fortune 500. Cardinal Health specializes in health care supply chain services, providing pharmaceuticals and medical products to more than 40,000 locations each day. The company is also a manufacturer of medical and surgical products, including gloves, surgical apparel and fluid management products. In addition, the company supports the growing diagnostic industry by supplying medical products to clinical laboratories and operating the nation’s largest network of radiopharmacies that dispense products to aid in the early diagnosis and treatment of disease.

History

Founded in 1971 as Cardinal Foods by Robert D. Walter, it was initially a food wholesaler. Acquiring the Bailey Drug Company in 1979, it began wholesaling drugs as Cardinal Distribution, Incorporated. Following the introduction of the company on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1983 it commenced on a long string of acquisitions and mergers. It is now traded on the NYSE under symbol (CAH [1]). As of April, 2010, it was ranked 17th on the Fortune 500 list with 2009 annual revenue of over $99 billion. Cardinal employs more than 30,000 people worldwide.

In 1995, Medicine Shoppe International (St. Louis, est. 1970), the country’s largest franchise of retail pharmacies, was acquired. The merger represents the first non-distribution acquisition by Cardinal Health.

In 1999, Cardinal acquired the Chicago-based medical products manufacturer and distributor, Allegiance Healthcare–formerly a division of Baxter Healthcare. Among its proprietary products, Allegiance made surgical drapes, gloves, and gowns; Allegiance also distributed customized arrangements of medical supplies (called “custom sterile packs” and “procedure-based delivery systems”) as a means of offering end-user health care personnel a means of making their supply chain more efficient.

In April 2005, Jeffrey W. Henderson joined Cardinal Health as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). R. Kerry Clark was appointed as President and CEO on April 17, 2006, with Robert D. Walter retaining the Chairmanship. On June 28, 2007, Cardinal Health announced the completion of the tender offer for VIASYS Healthcare. On September 29, 2008 the company announced Kerry Clark would retire and George Barrett would become the Chairman and CEO. The company also announced plans to spin off the Clinical and Medical Products business as a separate publicly traded company under the name, CareFusion Corporation, with David Schlotterbeck as CEO. The spin-off was completed on September 1, 2009. CareFusion's anticipated annual revenue will be approximately $4 billion.

In June 2010, the company announced that it is planning to expand its presence in specialty pharmaceutical services with a definitive agreement to purchase Healthcare Solutions Holding in an upfront $517 million all-cash transaction.

External links

• Cardinal Health Official Web Site
• CareFusion Official Web Site
• USA Today Q&A with former CEO Kerry Clark
• Center For Safety Clinical Excellence

References

1. ^ About Cardinal Health.
2. ^ Annual rankings of America's largest corporations. Fortune 500
3. ^ Medicine Shoppe Company Discription Hoover's, Inc. 2009
4. ^ Cardinal Health history @ Cardinal.com
5. ^ Learning the business from the ground up: an interview with Steve Inacker DC Velocity Q & A
6. ^ VIASYS
7. ^ ^{a b} Cardinal Health to name spinoff after CareFusion line Healthcare IT News. February 18, 2009
8. ^ Securities and Exchange Commission, Form 10 registration
9. ^ Cardinal Health to Purchase Healthcare Solutions HoldingNews article from InfoGrok

Health freedom movement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term health freedom movement is used to describe the loose coalition of organizations, consumers, activists, alternative medicine practitioners and producers of products around the world who are campaigning for unhindered freedom of choice in healthcare. The movement is critical of the pharmaceutical industry and medical regulators, and uses the term “health freedom” as a catch phrase to convey its message.

Contents 1 Structure, ideology and objectives 2 Political roots and support base 3 Legislation 3.1 United States 3.2 Europe 3.3 Australia & New Zealand 4 Criticism of the pharmaceutical industry 5 Criticism of the Codex Alimentarius Commission 5.1 Criticism of regional trade blocs 6 Organizations and campaigners 7 Health freedom films 7.1 Documentary 7.2 Feature films 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

Structure, ideology and objectives

There is no formal structure to the health freedom movement, but cooperation and coordination among some of the various organizations and individuals involved in it does occur. Collaborative efforts in the movement are often spontaneous and its leaders have found that these can act as a test to see to see whether or not community members can work together for a common goal. At other times, organizations and individuals opt for “going it alone” to preserve autonomy, renown, or a competitive edge on issues or fundraising efforts.

The concept of health freedom does not preclude the practice of conventional medicine, but campaigners generally tend to have strong preferences for orthomolecular, naturopathic, or alternative medicine and an overall distrust of the pharmaceutical industry. The removal from consumers of access to healthcare products that they had formerly been able to obtain and which had helped their needs for health and survival is viewed by many people in the movement as being leveraged by multinational corporations.

A key objective in the movement is for people to have unrestricted access to vitamins, minerals, herbals, botanicals, amino acids and other food supplements. The dietary supplement industry wants to see less stringent regulations than those applied to food. Campaigners believe that many chronic diseases can be largely prevented or even cured using micronutrients and that the optimal level for ingestion of these is significantly above the RDA levels. The movement has close links to the Life-extension movement.

The movement's supporters and organizations believe that there is a conspiracy by the medical establishment to undermine the advance of the nutritional route to better health and that studies showing supplements have no effect in preventing disease are designed to fail. Some of the movement's spokespeople, such as the Alliance for Natural Health, take a more moderate stance on this issue, saying that negative media publicity about nutrients such as vitamin E are a result of misinterpretations over the science. These campaigners also criticise the latest research indicating that vitamin C supplements do not protect against the common cold as having a number of fundamental flaws.

The belief that supplements and vitamins can demonstrably improve health or longevity is not backed by evidence-based medicine, nor is it widely accepted in the medical community, because there is felt to be insufficient evidence to support such beliefs. Large doses of some vitamins can lead to vitamin poisoning (hypervitaminosis).

Other issues promoted by the movement include its opposition to the sharing of genetic information without patient consent, its belief that citizens should have greater privacy and control over their health information, its belief that people should be free to choose not to participate in a national electronic health-records system. and its opposition to fluoridation of the water supply.

Some health freedom campaigners would like adults to be free to choose marijuana for personal or medical use without criminal penalty. The money currently spent on arresting people for possessing pot, they say, could be better used to go after more serious criminals or funding alternative health-care programs.

Political roots and support base

Health freedom activists come from a variety of political backgrounds. The right-wing libertarian Ludwig von Mises Institute argues in favor of deregulation of the medical profession and health care sector. The British activist Martin J. Walker is politically left-wing, whilst the Republican congressman and 2008 U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul, who supports health freedom, calls himself a free market libertarian. A leading supporter of the movement, Paul introduced the Health Freedom Protection Act in the U.S. Congress in 2005. Other examples of people with polar opposite political views whose healthcare ideology at times appears to bear some comparison to that of the health freedom movement include Prince Charles, who has defended alternative therapies in an address to the World Health Assembly, and Cherie Blair (the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair) who is believed to have influenced her husband's reported opposition to the EU Food Supplements Directive. The British right wing Conservative Party (UK) has supported the Save Our Supplements campaign as part of its campaign against the EU Food Supplements Directive, whilst the Green Party in Ireland has expressed concern that changes to this Directive will limit consumers' access to off-the-shelf vitamins and mineral supplements. The Swedish conservative Moderate Party is also opposed to the EU imposed vitamin restrictions.

Prominent celebrity supporters of the movement include the musician Sir Paul McCartney, who says that people “have a right to buy legitimate health food supplements” and that “this right is now clearly under threat,” and the pop star/actress Billie Piper, who joined a march in London in 2003 to protest planned EU legislation to ban high dosage vitamin supplements.

The term “Health freedom movement” has been used in the United States since the 1990s. Around 2003 to 2005, a campaign organization founded by the British author Lynne McTaggart and called the Health Freedom Movement existed in the United Kingdom.

Legislation

United States

The enactment into law of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in the United States (US) in 1994 is an example of a piece of pro-health-freedom legislation. DSHEA defines supplements as foods, and puts the onus on the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prove that a supplement poses significant or unreasonable risk of harm rather than on the manufacturer to prove the supplement’s safety. The act was passed by Congress after extensive lobbying by the manufacturers of dietary supplements, and received strong support from non-medically-oriented politicians such as Senator Tom Harkin and Senator Orrin Hatch, whose state of Utah is a hub for herbal manufacturers.^{[citation needed]} The act allows natural supplements to be marketed without any proof of their purity, safety or efficacy.^{[citation needed]} Producers of these supplements are largely exempt from regulation by the Food and Drug Administration, which can take action against them only if they make medical claims about their products or if consumers of the products become seriously ill.

Following concerns about numerous raids, censorship issues, pharmaceutical conflicts of interest, product bans, and more proposed FDA restrictions, what became the DSHEA in 1994 was the subject of a lobbying campaign that produced Congressional mail equal to that generated by the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement. The current level of popular support for the deregulation of the supplement industry can at times seem unclear.^{[citation needed]} A large survey by the AARP, for example, found that 77% of respondents (including both users and non-users of supplements) believed that the federal government should review the safety of dietary supplements and approve them before they can be marketed to consumers.

Similar confusion about the implications of DSHEA was found in an October 2002 nationwide Harris poll. Here, 59% of respondents believed that supplements had to be approved by a government agency before they could be marketed; 68% believed that supplements had to list potential side effects on their labels; and 55% believed that supplement labels could not make claims of safety without scientific evidence. All of these beliefs are incorrect as a result of provisions of the DSHEA.

President Bill Clinton, on signing DSHEA into law, stated that “After several years of intense efforts, manufacturers, experts in nutrition, and legislators, acting in a conscientious alliance with consumers at the grassroots level, have moved successfully to bring common sense to the treatment of dietary supplements under regulation and law.” He also stated that the passage of DSHEA “speaks to the diligence with which an unofficial army of nutritionally conscious people worked democratically to change the laws in an area deeply important to them” and that “In an era of greater consciousness among people about the impact of what they eat on how they live, indeed, how long they live, it is appropriate that we have finally reformed the way Government treats consumers and these supplements in a way that encourages good health.”

Another example of the passing of pro-health freedom legislation occurred in March 2007, when Governor Timothy M. Kaine signed a bill into law in the U.S. State of Virginia allowing teenagers 14 or older and their parents the right to refuse medical treatments for ailments such as cancer, and to seek alternative treatments so long as they have considered all other medical options. Kaine described the bill as being “significant for health freedom in Virginia.”

In addition, some U.S. states have proven willing to allow nonlicensed practitioners to diagnose and treat patients, and forms of nonlicensed practice have been approved in California, Rhode Island, Idaho, Louisiana and Oklahoma. As a result, between 2000 and 2006, 15 percent of the U.S. population gained some access to nonlicensed practitioners.

In early 2010, two U.S. states, Tennessee and Idaho, passed health freedom legislation that would result in legal challenges if the U.S. Congress passes federal health-care reforms that require their residents to buy health insurance.

Europe

In Europe, health freedom movement writers and campaigners believe that European Union (EU) laws such as the Food Supplements Directive, the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive, and the Human Medicinal Products (Pharmaceuticals) Directive, will reduce their access to food supplements and herbal medicines. European health food producers, retailers and consumers have been vocal in protesting against this legislation, with the health freedom movement inviting supporters to “Stop Brussels from killing natural medicine”. On the day that Members of the European Parliament voted for a clampdown on vitamin sales, the parliament's computer system crashed under the strain of thousands of speed-dial emails, wildly claiming that the new directive would ban 300 popular supplements and drive British health stores out of business. In Strasbourg, meanwhile, Euro-MPs were accosted by activists handing out a propaganda video accusing five European commissioners of corruptly colluding with big pharmaceutical firms in an attempt to destroy the alternative network of homoeopathic and natural medicines.

In 2004, the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) and two British trade associations had a legal challenge to the Food Supplements Directive referred to the European Court of Justice by the High Court in London. The European Court of Justice's Advocate General subsequently said that the EU's plan to tighten rules on the sale of vitamins and food supplements should be scrapped, but was overruled by the European Court, which decided that the measures in question were necessary and appropriate for the purpose of protecting public health. ANH interpreted the ban as applying only to synthetically produced supplements – and not to vitamins and minerals normally found in or consumed as part of the diet. Nevertheless, the European judges did acknowledge the Advocate General's concerns, stating that there must be clear procedures to allow substances to be added to the permitted list based on scientific evidence. They also said that any refusal to add a product to the list must be open to challenge in the courts. Some media observers believe that, as a result of this legislation, a black market will emerge, and that controls over ingredients and quality will vanish.

Australia & New Zealand

In New Zealand, health freedom campaigners have been concerned that many supplements would be removed from the shelves under the Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill that was introduced to the NZ Parliament in 2006 by Food Safety Minister Annette King. If passed, the Bill would have created a joint agency with Australia to regulate therapeutic products. In July 2007, King announced that the Bill would be postponed until there was more support in the New Zealand parliament for the scheme. She subsequently passed responsibility for the issue to New Zealand Health Minister Pete Hodgson, who said that “the status quo of an unregulated market for medical devices and complementary medicines cannot remain”. It is understood that officials are now planning to look at using ministerial powers to create domestic regulations to apply to such products sold in New Zealand.

More recently, in response to thousands of dollars worth of stock being confiscated by the regulatory body MedSafe, natural health practices in New Zealand have banded together under the Health Freedom banner to protest against what they claim is a Medsafe “witch hunt”, arguing that the crackdown is a response to the stalling of the Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill. Subsequently, a petition was presented to New Zealand MPs calling for Medsafe to stop harassing natural health manufacturers and practitioners. The health freedom campaigners who organised the petition say that 7000 signatures were gathered over a three-week period.

Following the Australian Federal Government's decision to pay a record $A50 million (NZ$62.3 million) compensation to Jim Selim, the founder of complementary medicine manufacturer, Pan Pharmaceuticals, as a result of the Australian Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) recalling all of Pan's products in 2003, Health Freedom spokeswoman Nicola Grace said that a class action suit against the TGA involving some 100 businesses that closed because of the recall was likely to ensue and that “the ticket may just include Minister Annette King”.

Criticism of the pharmaceutical industry

Health freedom-orientated writers and campaigners tend to see restrictive legislation on supplements as being designed to protect the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. If herbal medicines and supplements are removed from sale, they argue, patients will have no alternative but to use conventional pharmaceutical medicines. Matthias Rath believes that the pharmaceutical industry has a vested interest in the continuation and expansion of diseases, rather than their cure, in that without the current widespread existence of diseases the industry would cease to exist in its current form.

In addition to criticising the pharmaceutical industry, the health freedom movement is also critical of the actions of individual pharmaceutical companies. As reported in the British Medical Journal, for example, health freedom organisations have condemned Merck & Co.’s marketing methods, claiming the company hopes to use profits from Gardasil to fund the litigation costs it has had to pay over rofecoxib (Vioxx). Health freedom-orientated campaigners in the UK, meanwhile, have publicly criticised Boots, Britain's largest chemist, for “watering down” its vitamin and mineral supplements to ensure that its products complied with the European Union's Food Supplements Directive.

Criticism of the Codex Alimentarius Commission

A key focus of the health-freedom movement in recent years has been the activities of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which it perceives to be acting in the interests of the pharmaceutical industry.

The Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements were adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission as a voluntary standard at its meeting in Rome in July 2005. The scope of the guidelines includes requirements for the packaging and labelling of vitamin and mineral supplements. The text also specifies that “supplements should contain vitamins/provitamins and minerals whose nutritional value for human beings has been proven by scientific data and whose status as vitamins and minerals is recognised by FAO and WHO.” In addition, it states that the “sources of vitamins and minerals may be either natural or synthetic” and that “their selection should be based on considerations such as safety and bioavailability.” The National Health Federation, by virtue of its official observer status at Codex, was the only delegation present at the meeting to oppose the adoption. Drafted using the EU Food Supplements Directive as a blueprint, health-freedom orientated protagonists argue that the eventual effect of these Guidelines will be to remove large numbers of what they regard as the most effective forms of nutrients from the global market, set restrictive upper limits on the dosages of all permitted nutrients, and prevent the sale of all supplements for curative, preventative or therapeutic purposes without a doctor’s prescription.

For its part, the Commission asserts that products listed on the Codex have been accepted by the signatories as proven to be safe and thus that there is no case for any member state of the WTO to deny importation on safety grounds.^{[citation needed]} Conversely, member states may refuse entry to products that have not achieved a listing on the Codex, without breaking their free trade agreemnents made under the World Trade Organisation Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.^{[citation needed]}

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) have stated that the guidelines are “to stop consumers overdosing on vitamin and mineral food supplements.” The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) has said that the guidelines call “for labelling that contains information on maximum consumption levels of vitamin and mineral food supplements.” The WHO has also said that the Guidelines “ensure that consumers receive beneficial health effects from vitamins and minerals.”

The health freedom movement is concerned about similarities between the EU's Food Supplements Directive and the Codex Alimentarius Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Supplements.

Criticism of regional trade blocs

A number of health-freedom organizations and their political supporters believe that the increasing tendency for countries to form free trade areas and trade blocs threatens their freedom of choice in healthcare, on the grounds that they believe these further increase the pressure upon countries to harmonize their food and supplement laws to the voluntary reference standard set by Codex. Campaigners argue that such trade agreements are about business and money and are put before the welfare of countries. Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul has said that the Central American Free Trade Agreement “increases the possibility that Codex regulations will be imposed on the American public.”

Organizations and campaigners

The core of the health freedom movement consists of a loose coalition of organizations, consumers, activists, alternative medicine practitioners, producers of products, bloggers and newsfeeds.

USA and the Americas

The Institute for Health Freedom (IHF) is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit think tank. It monitors and reports on national policies that affect citizens' freedom to choose their health-care treatments and providers, and to maintain their health privacy. The president of the IHF is Sue A. Blevins.

The Life Extension Foundation (LEF) is a non-profit research-based organization headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Established in 1980 by co-founders Saul Kent and William Faloon, its primary purpose is to fund research and disseminate information on anti-aging and optimal health.

The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine is a non-profit alternative medicine organization headquartered in Chicago. It promotes the ideas of “anti-aging medicine” and health freedom.

The National Health Federation (NHF) is an international non-profit organization which describes its mission as protecting individuals' rights to use dietary supplements and alternative therapies without government restriction. The NHF also opposes interventions such as water fluoridation and childhood vaccines. The Federation has official observer status at meetings of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the highest international body on food standards. Based in California, the Federation's board members include medical doctors, scientists, therapists and consumer advocates of natural health.

Europe

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is an advocacy group founded in 2002 by Robert Verkerk and based in the United Kingdom. The ANH was initially founded to raise funds to finance a legal challenge of the EU Food Supplement Directive. The ANH lobbies against regulation of dietary supplements and in favor of alternative medical approaches such as homeopathy, and also advocates a healthy diet, exercise, and other lifestyle approaches to health. The Alliance also criticizes scientific research showing that megadoses of vitamins lack any health benefit.

The Dr. Rath Health Foundation was founded by a German doctor, Matthias Rath. The foundation is financed by the profits from a supplement manufacturer owned by Dr Rath.

Individual campaigners

The health freedom movement also includes a number of individual campaigners, newsfeeds, opinion makers and talk radio stations. Examples include Gary Null, Dr Joseph Mercola, Joyce Riley's talk radio show The Power Hour and Kevin Trudeau.

Health freedom films

The film medium has also been used to convey the message of the health freedom movement to a broader audience. The two documentaries “We Become Silent” and “Prescription For Disaster” are produced by core activists in the movement; the other films convey messages that are similar to the positions held by the movement but are produced by people who don’t identify themselves directly with it.

Documentary

• We Become Silent: A film by Kevin P. Miller
• Prescription For Disaster: A film by Gary Null, winner of: Best Documentary Feature, at the Red Bank International Film Festival 2006
• Money Talks: Profits before Patient Safety from 2006. A documentary made by the same team that made the feature film Side Effects.

Feature films

• Side Effects from 2005, directed by Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau. A satire about a woman making a career in the US pharmaceutical industry.

See also

• Codex Alimentarius
• Megavitamin therapy
• Naturopathic Medicine
• Orthomolecular medicine

References

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18. ^ Health Freedom Protection Act Introduced in US Congress
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22. ^ Vitamins & Minerals Under Threat
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24. ^ European Parlament, voting record 2002, Food Supplement Directive
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28. ^ ”Doctor's supporters go to bat for him – Followers of alternative medicine organize to defend physicians they see as under attack” The Orange County Register, 7 February 1999
29. ^ ”And then pop go the pills – Today a new law on supplements comes into force which has split the world of natural healthcare” The Herald, 1 August 2005
30. ^ Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994
31. ^ Nutritional Supplements: Your Questions Answered. From Consumer Reports magazine, published 14 June 2006. Accessed 2 February 2007.
32. ^ “Beyond Ephedra”, by Leon Jaroff. Published in Time magazine 10 February 2004. Accessed 2 February 2007.
33. ^ Dan Hurley (2006). Natural causes: death, lies, and politics in America's vitamin and herbal supplement industry. New York: Broadway Books. ISBN 0-7679-2042-2. 
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37. ^ January 1996 Report: The Threat To Melatonin. Life Extension Foundation. January 1996. reflects several years ongoing concerns with melatonin and l-tryptophan
38. ^ Manders DW. The FDA Ban of L-Tryptophan: Politics, Profits and Prozac. “Social Policy”, Vol. 26, No. 2 Winter 1995.
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40. ^ “Dangerous Supplements: Still at Large, from Consumer Reports magazine. Published May 2004, accessed 7 February 2007.
41. ^ The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara. William J. Clinton: Statement on Signing the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994; 25 October 1994. From the website of The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara. Accessed 9 February 2007.
42. ^ “Kaine Signs Tax Cut for Poor, Medical Rights for Sick Teens”. Washington Post. Published 27 March 2007. Accessed 16 April 2007.
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46. ^ http://eur-lex.europa.eu/pri/en/oj/dat/2002/l_183/l_18320020712en00510057.pdf
47. ^ Directive 2004/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004
48. ^ Directive 2004/27/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 amending Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use
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53. ^ 'EU health foods crackdown 'wrong BBC News. Published 5 April 2005. Accessed 29 April 2007.
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55. ^ 'EU court backs health supplements ban' The Guardian Published 12 July 2005. Accessed 30 September 2007.
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58. ^ “Government defeat on medicines spurs 'lame-duck' jibes.” New Zealand Herald. Published 17 July 2007. Accessed 29 July 2007.
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60. ^ “Witch hunt” by Medsafe claimed by petitioners. Radio New Zealand News. Published 29 May 2008. Accessed 30 May 2008.
61. ^ Successful lawsuit doesn't affect NZ, says Dalziel. Otago Daily Times, New Zealand. Published 27 August 2008. Accessed 20 September 2008.
62. ^ Medical schools, journals start to fight drug industry influence USA today
63. ^ “Euro MPs back herbal crackdown”. BBC News, quoted from statement of Dr Rob Verkerk, Executive Director of the Alliance for Natural Health. Published 22 November 2002. Accessed 29 September 2007.
64. ^ The Dr. Rath Health Foundation | Responsibility for a healthy world
65. ^ 'Life saving treatment or giant experiment?' by Rebecca Coombes British Medical Journal. Published 7 April 2007. Accessed 2 May 2007.
66. ^ 'Consumers attack Boots over lower doses in its supplements' Daily Telegraph. Published 10 February 2007. Accessed 18 October 2007.
67. ^ Codex Alimentarius
68. ^ http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/standards/10206/cxg_055e.pdf
69. ^ Codex Alimentarius Commission. Report of the Twenty-Eighth Session. FAO Headquarters, Italy, 4 July-9 July 2005 Accessed 26 April 2008.
70. ^ The Dr. Rath Health Foundation | Responsibility for a healthy world
71. ^ UN commission adopts safety guidelines for vitamin and food supplements United Nations News Centre. Published 11 July 2005. Accessed 26 March 2009
72. ^ Nil by mouth. The Observer newspaper, UK. Published 29 February 2004. Accessed 1 January 2009
73. ^ 'Is cure for apple moth worse than the disease?' The Register Pajaronian. Published 19 June 2008. Accessed 21 June 2008.
74. ^ 'The vitamin police', by ALAN BOCK, Sr. editorial writer, The Orange County Register. Published 14 August 2005. Accessed 29 April 2007.
75. ^ Heard, Alex (28 September 1997). “Technology Makes Us Optimistic; They Want To Live”. New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E5D7123BF93BA1575AC0A961958260. Retrieved 2008-02-07. 
76. ^ Rose, Steve (23 January 2004). “Stephen Valentine talks about the battle to conquer death”. London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1129295,00.html. Retrieved 2008-02-07. 
77. ^ “House approves mail-order purchase of drugs”. USATODAY.com. 11 July 2001. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2001-07-11-house-drugs.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-07. 
78. ^ Kuczynski, Alex (12 April 1998). “Anti-Aging Potion or Poison?”. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/12/style/anti-aging-potion-or-poison.html. 
79. ^ We Become Silent: The Last Days of Health Freedom (2005) New York Times. Accessed 8 February 2009

External links

• A Bibliographic History of the Health Freedom Movement by Martin J. Walker.
• Institute for Health Freedom Washington-based “think tank.”
• United States Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994
• European Union Food Supplements Directive, 2002
• Codex Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements, 2005
• “Health Freedom”, from Quackwatch.

Pfizer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Fizer” redirects here. For the American professional basketball player, see Marcus Fizer.

Pfizer Incorporated (NYSE: PFE) is a pharmaceutical company, ranking number one in sales in the world. The company is based in New York City, with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut. It produces Lipitor (atorvastatin, used to lower blood cholesterol); the neuropathic pain/fibromyalgia drug Lyrica (pregabalin); the oral antifungal medication Diflucan (fluconazole), the antibiotic Zithromax (azithromycin), Viagra (sildenafil) for erectile dysfunction, and the anti-inflammatory Celebrex (celecoxib) (also known as Celebra in some countries outside the USA and Canada, mainly in South America). Its headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Pfizer's shares were made a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on April 8, 2004.

Pfizer pleaded guilty in 2009 to the largest health care fraud in U.S. history and received the largest criminal penalty ever levied for illegal marketing of four of its drugs. Called a repeat offender, this was Pfizer's fourth such settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in the previous ten years.

On January 26, 2009, Pfizer agreed to buy pharmaceutical giant Wyeth for US$68 billion, a deal financed with cash, shares and loans. The deal was completed on October 15, 2009.

Contents 1 History 2 Corporate structure 3 Mergers 3.1 Warner-Lambert / Parke-Davis / Agouron 3.2 Pharmacia / Upjohn / Searle 3.3 SUGEN 3.4 Wyeth 3.4.1 Critics of the merger 3.5 Development of torcetrapib 4 Pharmaceuticals 5 Animal health brands 6 Legislation and litigation 6.1 Kelo case 6.2 Quigley Co. 6.3 Bjork-Shiley heart valve 6.4 Political lobbying 6.5 Off-label promotional practices 6.5.1 Bextra Settlement of Off-Label Marketing Investigation 6.6 Nigeria 6.7 Lawsuit over GMO virus 6.8 Blue Cross Blue Shield lawsuit 6.9 Wyeth's Rapamune 7 Research and development 8 Environmental record 9 Employment and diversity 10 AIDS involvement 10.1 AIDS drugs manufactured by Pfizer 11 See also 12 Notes and references 13 External links

History

Pfizer is named after German-American cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhardt (they were originally from Ludwigsburg, Germany) who launched a fine chemicals business, Charles Pfizer and Company, from a building at the intersection of Harrison Avenue and Bartlett Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1849. There, they produced an antiparasitic called santonin. This was an immediate success, although it was the production of citric acid that really kick-started Pfizer's growth in the 1880s. Pfizer continued to buy property to expand its lab and factory on the block bounded by Bartlett Street; Harrison Avenue; Gerry Street; and Flushing Avenue. That facility was used by Pfizer until 2005, when Pfizer closed its original plant along with several others. Pfizer established its original administrative headquarters at 81 Maiden Lane in Manhattan. By 1906, sales totaled nearly $3 million.

World War I caused a shortage of calcium citrate that Pfizer imported from Italy for the manufacture of citric acid, and the company began a search for an alternative supply. Pfizer chemists learned of a fungus that ferments sugar to citric acid and were able to commercialize production of citric acid from this source in 1919. As a result Pfizer developed expertise in fermentation technology. These skills were applied to the mass production of penicillin during World War II, in response to a need from the U.S. government. The antibiotic was needed to treat injured Allied soldiers. In fact, most of the penicillin that went ashore with the troops on D-Day was made by Pfizer.

Following the success of penicillin production in the 1940s, penicillin became very inexpensive and Pfizer made very little profit for its efforts. As a result, in the late 1940s Pfizer decided to search for new antibiotics with greater profit potential. The discovery and commercialization of Terramycin (oxytetracycline) by Pfizer in 1950 moved the company on the path of change from a manufacturer of fine chemicals to a research-based pharmaceutical company. To augment its research in fermentation technology, Pfizer began a program to discover drugs through chemical synthesis. Pfizer also established an animal health division in 1959 with an 700-acre farm and research facility in Terre Haute, Indiana.

By the 1950s, Pfizer was established in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Iran, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Turkey and the United Kingdom. In 1960, the Company moved its medical research laboratory operations to a new facility in Groton, Connecticut. In 1980 Pfizer launched Feldene (piroxicam), a prescription anti-inflammatory medication that became Pfizer's first product to reach a total of a billion United States dollars in sales.

During the 1980s and 1990s Pfizer underwent a period of growth sustained by the discovery and marketing of Zoloft, Lipitor, Norvasc, Zithromax, Aricept, Diflucan, and Viagra. Pfizer has recently grown by mergers, including those with Warner-Lambert (2000), with Pharmacia (2003), and with Wyeth (2009).

A July 2010 article in BusinessWeek reported that Pfizer was seeing more success in its battle against makers of counterfeit prescription drugs by pursuing civil lawsuits rather than criminal prosecution. Pfizer has hired customs and narcotics experts from all over the globe to track down fakes and assemble evidence that can be used to pursue civil suits for trademark infringement. Since 2007, Pfizer has spent $3.3 million on investigations and legal fees and recovered about $5.1 million, with another $5 million tied up in ongoing cases.

Corporate structure

Pfizer world headquarters

Current members of the board of directors of Pfizer are: Michael S. Brown, M. Anthony Burns, Robert Burt, Don Cornwell, William H. Gray, Frances D. Fergusson, Constance Horner, William R. Howell, Stanley Ikenberry, Jeff Kindler (chairman), George Lorch, John P. Mascotte, Dana Mead, Ruth J. Simmons, and William Steere.

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of the Board: Jeff Kindler
• Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Senior Vice President: Frank A. D'Amelio
• Vice Chairman: David L. Shedlarz
• Strategy and Business Development and Senior Vice President: William R. Ringo Jr.
• General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Senior Vice President: Amy W. Schulman
• Chief Communications Officer (CCO) and Senior Vice President: Sally Susman
• President of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Operations and Senior Vice President: Ian Read
• President of Global R&D and Senior Vice President: Martin Mackay
• Senior Vice President and President – Pfizer Global Manufacturing: Natale S. Ricciardi
• Senior Vice President – Worldwide Human Resources: Mary S. McLeod
• Regional President of U.S., Oncology Business Unit: Elizabeth Barrett

Pfizer has four divisions: Human Health ($44.28B in 2005 sales), Consumer Healthcare ($3.87B in 2005 sales), Animal Health ($2.2B in 2005 sales), and Corporate Groups (which includes legal, finance, and HR).^{[citation needed]} On June 26, 2006, Pfizer announced that it would sell its Consumer Healthcare unit (manufacturer of Listerine, Nicorette, Visine, Sudafed and Neosporin) to Johnson & Johnson for $16.6 billion.

Mergers

Warner-Lambert / Parke-Davis / Agouron

Warner-Lambert was founded as a drug store in 1856 in Philadelphia by William R. Warner. Inventing a tablet-coating process gained Warner a place in the Smithsonian Institution. Parke-Davis was founded in Detroit in 1866, by Hervey Parke and George Davis. Warner-Lambert took over Parke-Davis in 1976, and acquired Wilkinson Sword in 1993 and Agouron in 1999. In 2000 Pfizer took over Warner-Lambert.

Pharmacia / Upjohn / Searle

Searle was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1888. The founder was Gideon Daniel Searle. In 1908, the company was incorporated in Chicago. In 1941, the company established headquarters in Skokie, Illinois. It was acquired by the Monsanto Company, headquartered in St. Louis, in 1985.

The Upjohn Company was a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm founded in 1886 in Kalamazoo, Michigan by Dr. William E. Upjohn, an 1875 graduate of the University of Michigan medical school. The company was originally formed to make friable pills, which were specifically designed to be easily digested.

In 1995, Upjohn merged with Pharmacia, to form Pharmacia & Upjohn. Pharmacia was created in April 2000 through the merger of Pharmacia & Upjohn with the Monsanto Company and its G.D. Searle unit. The merged company was based in Peapack, New Jersey. The agricultural division was spun off from Pharmacia, as Monsanto, in preparation for the close of the acquisition by Pfizer.

In 2002, Pfizer merged with Pharmacia. The merger was again driven in part by the desire to acquire full rights to a product, this time Celebrex (celecoxib), the COX-2 selective inhibitor previously jointly marketed by Searle (acquired by Pharmacia) and Pfizer. In the ensuing years, Pfizer commenced with a massive restructuring resulting in numerous site closures and loss of jobs including: Terre Haute, IN; Holland, MI; Groton, CT; Brooklyn, NY; Sandwich, UK and Puerto Rico.

In 2008, Pfizer announced 275 job cuts at the Kalamazoo manufacturing facility. Kalamazoo was previously the world headquarters for the Upjohn Company.

SUGEN

SUGEN, customarily written with capital letters, was founded in 1991 in Redwood City, California, as a partnership between the laboratories of Joseph Schlessinger at New York University Medical School and Axel Ullrich at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, with Steven Evans-Freke as a third co-founder. The name, SUGEN, is derived from combining the first “S” in Schlessinger followed by the “U” in Ullrich with “GEN” – a commonly used suffix by biotech companies (short for “GENetics” or “GENesis”). The focus of the enterprise was to develop drugs targeting intracellular signaling pathways to treat cancer. Specifically, the company sought to discover competitive ATP small-molecule kinase inhibitors which block common cancer pathways. Pharmacia acquired SUGEN in 1999, which merged with the pharmaceutical division of Monsanto Company in 2000 and was purchased by Pfizer in 2003. In 1999, Pharmacia advanced two of SUGEN's lead compounds into clinical trials for colon cancer: SU5416 (Semaxanib) and SU6668; the trials were discontinued but a third and closely related compound named SU11248 was pursued. SUGEN's laboratories were closed in 2003 as part of the reorganization following Pfizer's purchase of Pharmacia. From the acquisition, SUGEN compounds SU11248 and SU14813 entered Pfizer's pipeline. In January 2006, SU11248 was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of GIST and RCC, and it is now marketed as Sutent (sunitinib). Sutent is packed by Plant in Ascoli Piceno, Italy.

Wyeth

On 26 January 2009, after more than a year of talks between the two companies, Pfizer agreed to buy pharmaceuticals rival Wyeth for a combined US$68 billion in cash, shares and loans, including some US$22.5 billion lent by five major Wall Street banks. The deal would cement Pfizer's place as the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, with the merged company generating over US$20 billion in cash each year, and represents the largest corporate merger since AT&T and BellSouth's US$70 billion deal in March 2006. Wyeth's management team is expected to depart following the merger. The combined company could save US$4 billion annually through the streamlining of operations; however, as part of the deal, both companies must repatriate billions of dollars in revenue from foreign sources to the United States, which will result in higher tax costs. The acquisition was completed on October 15, 2009 making Wyeth a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pfizer.

Critics of the merger

The merger received a vast array of criticism. Harvard Business School’s Gary Pisano told The Wall Street Journal:

The record of big mergers and acquisitions in Big Pharma has just not been good. There’s just been an enormous amount of shareholder wealth destroyed.

The Warner-Lambert and Pharmacia mergers do not appear to have achieved gains for shareholders so it is unclear who will benefit from the Wyeth-Pfizer merger to many critics.

Development of torcetrapib

Development of torcetrapib, a drug that increases production of HDL, or “good cholesterol”, which reduces LDL thought to be correlated to heart disease, was cancelled in December 2006. During a Phase III clinical trial involving 15,000 patients there were more deaths than expected in the group that took the medicine, and a 60% increase in deaths was seen among patients taking torcetrapib plus Lipitor versus Lipitor alone. There was no suggestion these results called into question the safety of Lipitor. Pfizer lost nearly $1 billion invested developing the failed drug, and the market value of the company plummeted in the aftermath.

Pharmaceuticals

The following is a list of key prescription pharmaceutical products. The names shown are all registered trademarks of Pfizer Inc.

• Accupril (quinapril) for hypertension treatment.
• Aricept (donepezil) for Alzheimer's disease.
• Aromasin (exemestane) for the prevention of breast cancer and the prevention of osteoporosis and menopause for women.
• Bextra (Valdecoxib) for arthritis.
• Caduet (amlodipine) and (atorvastatin) for cholesterol and hypertension.
• Camptosar (irinotecan) for cancer and Chemotherapeutic agents.
• Celebrex (celecoxib) for arthritis.
• Chantix/Champix (Varenicline) for Nicotinic agonists, and anti nicotine drugs.
• Cefobid a cephalosporin antibiotic.
• Depo-Medrol (methylprednisolone) for asthma.
• Solu-Medrol (methylprednisolone) for asthma.
• Depo Provera for birth control.
• Detrol, and Detrol LA (tolterodine), for bladder control problems.
• Diflucan (fluconazole) for antifungal drug.
• Ellence (epirubicin) for cancer and chemotherapy drug.
• Eraxis (anidulafungin) for antifungal drug.
• Exubera (inhalable insulin) for diabetes, and insulin therapies.
• Flagyl (metronidazole) for bacterial and protozoal infections.
• Genotropin (Growth hormone) for N/A.
• Geodon (ziprasidone) for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
• Inspra (eplerenone) for diuretics.
• Lipitor, Sortis (atorvastatin) for cholesterol.
• Lyrica (pregabalin) for neuropathic pain.
• Macugen (pegaptanib) for N/A
• Norvasc (amlodipine) for hypertension
• Neurontin (gabapentin) for neuropathic pain.
• Rebif (interferon beta-1a) for Multiple Sclerosis
• Relpax (eletriptan) for including the sulfonamide group of migrane .
• Rescriptor (delavirdine) for HIV.
• Selzentry (maraviroc) for HIV.
• Somavert (pegvisomant) for Acromegaly.
• Sutent (sunitinib) for cancer and chemotherapy drug.
• Tikosyn (dofetilide) for atrial fibrillation and flutter.
• Vfend (voriconazole) for antifungal drug.
• Viagra (sildenafil) for erectile dysfunction.
• Viracept (nelfinavir) for AIDS.
• Xalatan (latanoprost) for glaucoma
• Xalacom latanoprost and timolol Medication for glaucoma.
• Xanax and Xanax XR (alprazolam) for anxiety and panic disorders.
• Zoloft (sertraline) for an antidepressant.
• Zyvox (linezolid) for antibiotics.

Animal health brands

The following is a partial list of Animal Health brands manufactured by Pfizer:

• Bovi-Shield Gold
• Cerenia
• Convenia
• Dectomax
• Draxxin
• Excede
• Excenel
• Inovocox
• Mycitracin
• Palladia
• Pirsue
• A180
• Revolution Pet Medicine
• Rimadyl
• Simplicef
• Slentrol
• Solitude IGR
• Spectramast
• Stellamune
• Stronghold

Legislation and litigation

Pfizer is party to a number of suits stemming from its pharmaceutical products as well as practices of various companies it has acquired or merged with .

Kelo case

Pfizer's interest in obtaining property in New London, Connecticut, for expanded facilities led to the Kelo v. New London case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London handed local governments the right to seize private property for economic development, i. e., offices, a hotel to enhance Pfizer Inc.'s nearby corporate facility. However, following the completion of the aforementioned Wyeth merger, Pfizer announced it will close its research and development headquarters in New London, Connecticut, moving employees to nearby Groton.

Quigley Co.

Pfizer acquired Quigley in 1968, and the division sold asbestos-containing insulation products until the early 1970s. Asbestos victims and Pfizer have been negotiating a settlement deal which calls for Pfizer to pay $430 million to 80 percent of existing plaintiffs. It will also place an additional $535 million into an asbestos settlement trust that will compensate future plaintiffs as well as the remaining 20 percent of current plaintiffs with claims against Pfizer and Quigley. The compensation deal is worth $965 million all up. Of that $535 million, $405 million is in a 40-year note from Pfizer, while $100 million will come from insurance policies.

Bjork-Shiley heart valve

Pfizer purchased Shiley in 1979 at the onset of its Convexo-Concave valve ordeal, involving the Bjork-Shiley heart valve. Approximately 500 people died when defective valves failed and, in 1994, the United States ruled against Pfizer for ~$200 million.

Political lobbying

Pfizer is a leading member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a Washington D.C.-based coalition of over 400 major companies and NGOs that advocates for a larger International Affairs Budget, which funds American diplomatic, humanitarian, and development efforts abroad.

Pfizer is one of the single largest lobbying interests in United States politics. For example in the first 9 months of 2009 Pfizer spent over $16.3 million on lobbying US congressional lawmakers, making them the sixth largest lobbying interest in the US (following Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which ranked fourth but also represents many of their interests). A spokeswoman for Pfizer said the company “wanted to make sure our voice is heard in this conversation” in regards to the companies expenditure of $25 million in 2010 to lobby health care reform.

Pfizer's primary interests are opposition of Congressional efforts to attach a prescription drug benefit to Medicare and opposition to generic drugs entering US markets. Pfizer also purportedly proposed a ban on all lawsuits against manufacturers of body implant parts which was proposed in the United States Congress as part of tort reform legislation .

Off-label promotional practices

Access to pharmaceutical industry documents has revealed marketing strategies used to promote Neurontin for off-label use. In 1993, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved gabapentin (Neurontin, Pfizer) only for treatment of seizures. Warner-Lambert, which merged with Pfizer in 2000, used activities not usually associated with sales promotion, including continuing medical education and research, sponsored articles about the drug for the medical literature, and alleged suppression of unfavorable study results, to promote gabapentin. Within 5 years the drug was being widely used for the off-label treatment of pain and psychiatric conditions. In 2004, Warner-Lambert admitted to charges that it violated FDA regulations by promoting the drug for pain, psychiatric conditions, migraine, and other unapproved uses, and paid $430 million to resolve criminal and civil health care liability charges. Today it is a mainstay drug for migraines, even though it was not approved for such use in 2004.

Bextra Settlement of Off-Label Marketing Investigation

In September 2009, the United States Department of Justice announced that Pfizer had agreed to pay $2.3 billion to settle civil and criminal allegations that it had illegally marketed four drugs: Bextra, Geodon, Zyvox, and Lyrica “with the intent to defraud or mislead” by promoting the drugs for non-approved uses; this marks Pfizer's fourth such settlement in a decade. Pharmacia & Upjohn Company, Inc., a Pfizer subsidiary, agreed to plead guilty to mis-branded promotion of Bextra, a felony violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The criminal fine accounts for $1.3 billion of the settlement, and is the largest criminal penalty ever imposed in American history. Pfizer has entered an extensive corporate integrity agreement (CIA) with the Office of Inspector General and will be required to make substantial structural reforms within the company, and maintain the Pfizer website (www.pfizer.com/pmc) to track the company's post marketing commitments. Pfizer must also put a searchable database of all payments to physicians the company has made on the Pfizer website by March 31, 2010. In addition, two former employees were separately indicted and sentenced for their role in marketing of Bextra. A former District Sales manager was found guilty of obstruction of justice for destroying documents pertinent to the investigation, and a Regional Sales Manager pled guilty to the distribution of a mis-branded product.

The case is the largest civil settlement against a pharmaceutical company as well. Pfizer paid a $1 billion civil fine to settle allegations it had illegally promoted the drugs for uses that were not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and caused false claims to be submitted to Federal and State programs including but not limited to Medicare and Medicaid. Under the False Claims Act, damages can be assessed for violations of the federal Anti-Kickback statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b(b) and the off-label marketing provision within the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”), 21 U.S.C. §§301-97. Six whistle-blowers will receive $102 million for their participation in the civil investigation, and John Kopchinski, a former sales representative, will receive $51.5 million for his allegations involving the marketing of Bextra.

CNN reported that Pharmacia & Upjohn, not Pfizer itself, pleaded guilty because prosecutors thought Pfizer was “too big to nail.” Companies convicted of major health care fraud are automatically barred from billing Medicare and Medicaid for their products. Prosecutors feared that Pfizer would collapse if it pleaded guilty, and felt that the risk of harm to patients was too great. A CNN investigation revealed that Pharmacia & Upjohn Company is little more than a shell corporation Pfizer uses to plead guilty; it was first created in 2007 as the defendant in a kickback case.

Nigeria

In 1996, an outbreak of measles, cholera, and bacterial meningitis occurred in Nigeria. Pfizer representatives traveled to Kano, Nigeria to administer an experimental antibiotic, trovafloxacin, to approximately 200 children. Local Kano officials report that more than 50 children died in the experiment, while many others developed mental and physical deformities. In 2001, families of the children, as well as the governments of Kano and Nigeria, filed lawsuits regarding the treatment. Representing the government is Babatunde Irukera. According to the lawsuits, Pfizer administered the trovafloxacin (now marketed as Trovan) without parental consent. The lawsuits also accuse Pfizer of using the outbreak to perform unapproved human testing, as well as allegedly under-dosing a control group being treated with traditional antibiotics in order to skew the results of the trial in favor of Trovan. Pfizer denied these claims, and subsequently produced an approval letter for testing from the Nigerian Ethics Committee. The Nigerian government insisted that it was a fake and a panel of Nigerian medical experts agreed that the letter had been concocted and backdated by the company's lead researcher in Kano. They went on to conclude that Pfizer never obtained authorization from the Nigerian government to give the unproven drug to children and infants.

In 2007, Pfizer published a Statement of Defense letter. The letter makes several claims, including that Pfizer donated 18 million in Nigerian Naira (NGN) (about $216,000 in 1996 US dollars (USD)) , that the drug's oral form was presented as safer and easier to administer, that the administration of Trovan saved lives, and that no unusual side effects, unrelated to meningitis, were observed after 4 weeks.

A more likely reason for Pfizer's insistence on the oral form is the result of testing trovafloxacin intravenously in 1995, which found that the drug precipitated in saline, making it ineffective in patients receiving IV fluids. This is inferred from an FDA Warning Letter to ex-CEO William C. Steere, regarding Trovan's compatibility with saline etc., which was omitted from Trovan's labeling until January 1999, shortly after Pfizer received the letter.

In June 1999, the FDA released a public health statement warning against the use of Trovan except in life-or-death situations, due to high risk of liver failure. In some cases, liver damage occurred after only two days of treatment.

In June 2010 the US Supreme Court rejected Pfizer's appeal against a ruling allowing lawsuits by the Nigerian families to proceed.

Lawsuit over GMO virus

A scientist claims she was infected by a genetically modified virus while working for Pfizer. In her federal lawsuit she says she has been intermittantly paralyzed by the Pfizer designed virus. “McClain, of Deep River, suspects she was inadvertently exposed, through work by a former Pfizer colleague in 2002 or 2003, to an engineered form of the lentivirus, a virus similar to the one that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.”

Blue Cross Blue Shield lawsuit

Health insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) filed a lawsuit against Pfizer for reportedly illegaly marketing theirdrugs Bextra, Geodon and Lyrica. BCBS is reporting that Pfizer used “kickbacks” and wrongly persuaded doctors to prescribe the drugs. FiercePharma reported that “According to the suit, the drugmaker not only handed out those “misleading” materials on off-label uses, but sent doctors on Caribbean junkets and paid them $2,000 honoraria in return for their listening to lectures about Bextra. More than 5,000 healthcare professionals were entertained at meetings in Bahamas, Virgin Islands and across the U.S., the suit alleges.” Pfizer has had similar cases brought against it which it has settled with the US federal government and with more than 40 US states. Pfizer denies the allegations.

Wyeth's Rapamune

A “whistleblower suit” was filed in 2005 against Wyeth, which was aqcuired by Pfizer, alleging that the company illegally marketed their drug Rapamune. Wyeth is targeted in the suit for off-label marketing, targeting specific doctors and medical facilities to increased sales of Rapamune, trying to get current transplant patients to change from their current transplant drugs to Rapamune and for specifically targeting African-Americans. According to the whistleblowers, Wyeth also provided doctors and hospitals with kickbacks to prescribe the drug in the form of grants, donations and other money. A US House of Representatives committee, led by Rep. Edolphus Towns is currently investigating Pfizer for these abuses.

Research and development

Pfizer's human research and development organization is headquartered in New London, CT while their animal health research and development organization is headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The company has R&D labs in the following locations: Groton, Connecticut; Sandwich, England; La Jolla, California; South San Francisco, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Kalamazoo, Michigan; St. Louis, Missouri. In La Jolla, Pfizer has 1,000 people with plans to create cancer drugs, a departure from the company's cardiovascular specialties.

Spending $8.1 billion in research & development (R&D) in 2007, Pfizer has the industry's largest pharmaceutical R&D organization: Pfizer Global Research and Development.

In 2007, Pfizer announced plans to close or sell on the Loughbeg API facility, located at Loughbeg, Ringaskiddy Co.Cork Ireland by mid to end of 2008

In 2007, Pfizer announced plans to completely close the Ann Arbor, Nagoya and Amboise Research facilities by the end of 2008, eliminating 2,160 jobs and idling the $300-million dollar Michigan facility, which had seen millions of dollars of expansion in recent years.

On June 18, 2007 Pfizer announced it will move the Sandwich, England Animal Health Research (VMRD) division to Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Pipeline:

• dimebon
• tanezumab

Environmental record

According to the EPA, Pfizer is among the top ten companies in America with the most numerous emissions sources. A landfill and two wastewater lagoons in Ledyard, CT near the Pfizer plant in Groton, Connecticut, are a source of groundwater pollution in the area. According to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CT DEP), the Pfizer site is active under the CT DEP Site Remediation program. In June 2002, a chemical explosion at the Groton plant injured seven people and caused the evacuation of over 100 homes in the surrounding area.
Pfizer has provided funding to the Competitive Enterprise Institute

Employment and diversity

Pfizer received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third year of the report. In 2007, Pfizer's Canadian division was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean's magazine, the only research-based pharmaceutical company to receive this honor. In 2008, there was controversy, including inquiries from members of Congress, around Pfizer's practice of replacing US workers with H-1b guest workers

AIDS involvement

Pfizer has been involved in controversies over the medicine Diflucan (generic name fluconazole). In 1998, a campaign by Thai public health groups led to the elimination of the Pfizer monopoly on selling fluconazole in Thailand, and the price of the antifungal drug decreased from 200 baht to 6.5 baht in nine months, vastly expanding access to the medicine for AIDS patients. Faced with pressure for compulsory licenses to the Pfizer patent on this drug, Pfizer later established a program for limited access to the medicine in Africa.

“In the United States, 46 percent of all new HIV/AIDS cases occur in the South. From 2003–2006 the Pfizer Foundation has funded 23 innovative HIV/AIDS prevention programs and strengthened the capacity of community-based organizations to reach and serve their communities.” Since 2003, Pfizer has committed a $3 Million grant toward supporting the Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative.

However, there are criticisms of the way Pfizer is testing its AIDS drug. “The European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG), collection of activists from 31 European Countries, said the design of the trial for Pfizer's CCR5 inhibitor Maraviroc (previously known as UK-427,857) is putting people with HIV infection at unnecessary risk of developing AIDS.”

On June 20, 2007, Maraviroc received an approvable letter from the FDA advisory board. The letter was a product of expedited review of the novel HIV compound.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, Pfizer asked the U.S. government to pressure the Brazilian government against issuing compulsory licenses for the patents on the AIDS drug nelfinavir.^{[citation needed]}

AIDS drugs manufactured by Pfizer

• Viracept (nelfinavir mesylate)
• Selzentry/Celsentri (maraviroc)
• Rescriptor (delavirdine mesylate)

See also

• Peter Rost
• Viking Bjork

Notes and references

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2. ^ ^{a b} Pfizer (PFE) annual SEC balance sheet filing via Wikinvest
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4. ^ [http://www.djindexes.com/mdsidx/downloads/DJIA_Hist_Comp.pdf Dow Jones Industrial Average Historical Components]
5. ^ ^{a b c} Harris, Gardiner (September 3, 2009). “Pfizer Pays $2.3 Billion to Settle Marketing Case”. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/business/03health.html. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} Johnson, Carrie (3 September 2009). “In Settlement, A Warning To Drugmakers: Pfizer to Pay Record Penalty In Improper-Marketing Case”. The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/02/AR2009090201449_pf.html. 
7. ^ Andrew Ross Sorkin and Duff Wilson (January 26, 2009). “Pfizer Agrees to Pay $68 Billion for Rival Drug Maker Wyeth”. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/business/26drug.html. 
8. ^ ^{a b} “Pfizer: Wyeth Transaction”. Pfizer. http://www.pfizer.com/investors/shareholder_services/wyeth_transaction.jsp. Retrieved October 25, 2009. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Kenneth T. Jackson. [yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn= 9780300055368 The Encyclopedia of New York City]. The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; September 1995. P. 895. ISBN 978-0300055368
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12. ^ Johnson & Johnson (December 20, 2006). “Johnson & Johnson Completes Acquisition Of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare”. Press release. http://www.investor.jnj.com/releaseDetail.cfm?releaseid=223093. 
13. ^ STEPHANIE SAUL (June 27, 2006). “Johnson & Johnson Buys Pfizer Unit for $16.6 Billion”. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/business/27johnson.html. 
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Notes

• “Nigeria: Court Adjourns Killer Drug Case Against Pfizer”. All Africa Global Media. 3 October 2007.
• “Value of Black Bodies”. BlackWomb: History, Culture, and Power. 6 June 2007.
• “Double Standards in Nigerian Health”. The American. 26 June 2007.
• “Nigeria Sues Pfizer Over Child Drug Trial”. West Africa Review. 10 June 2007.
• “Pfizer Faces $8.5 Billion Suit Over Nigeria Drug Trial”. Yahoo News. 24 October 207.
• “Pfizer Statement Concerning 1996 Nigerian Clinical Study” Pfizer.

External links

• Pfizer UK Corporate Website
• Pfizer US Corporate Website
  • Company history
  • Full product list
  • Investor relations
  • Corporate governance
  • Philanthropy info.
• Yahoo! – Pfizer Inc Company Profile
• Boston Globe “Pfizer Offers Discounts for the Uninsured”
• Pfizer Settlement Clears Asbestos Litigation Law.com
• Pfizer's savings program for people without prescription drug coverage Pfizer Helpful Answers
• Pfizer 4Q06 Earnings Press Release
• Barry Yeoman, Putting Science in the Dock, The Nation
• GlaxoSmithKline will overtake Pfizer to become world's largest pharmaceutical company by 2012 URCH Publishing (Press Release)
• Feds found Pfizer too big to nail CNN.com