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
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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

1. ^ Legal Matters: Collaboration in the Health Freedom Movement: A Source of Power and Healing. Diane M. Miller. Alternative and Complementary Therapies. 1 December 2008, 14(6): 315-320. doi:10.1089/act.2008.14610. Published 1 December 2008. Accessed 6 February 2009.
2. ^ ^{a b} 'Why do meddling Eurocrats want to ban your vitamin pills? (Could it be anything to do with the drug giants hoping for huge profits?)', by Geoffrey Lean. Published in the Daily Mail (Good Health section) on 25 January 2005. Accessed on the Alliance for Natural Health website 7 February 2009.
3. ^ 'Legal Matters: Impact of International Product Regulations on Consumer Access to, and the Manufacturing of, Dietary Supplements: The Need for Health Freedom Advocacy' Diane M. Miller. Alternative & Complementary Therapies. 1 February 2008, 14(1): 43-47. doi:10.1089/act.2008.14102. Published 1 February 2008. Accessed 25 May 2008.
4. ^ ^{a b} Eating Well New York Times. Published 15 December 1993. Accessed 7 February 2009.
5. ^ 'Do vitamin supplements do more harm than good?' Article on study published by the Cochrane Collaboration, quoting Patrick Holford. The Times. Published 27 April 2008. Accessed 10 September 2008.
6. ^ Critics find flaws with antioxidant study Natural Foods Merchandiser magazine. Published 21 January 2009. Accessed 8 February 2009.
7. ^ High dose vitamin E death warning BBC News, quoted from statement of Dr Rob Verkerk, Executive Director of the Alliance for Natural Health. Published 11 November 2004. Accessed 30 September 2007.
8. ^ Vitamin C campaigners support supplements Nursing in Practice. Published 19 July 2007. Accessed 30 September 2007.
9. ^ Counseling for Vitamin Supplementation to Prevent Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease [verification needed], from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Released June 2003; accessed 28 September 2007.
10. ^ 'Congress Inadvertently Legalizes Sharing of Genetic Information Without Patient Consent' Fox Business. Published 6 May 2008. Accessed 25 May 2008.
11. ^ 'State urges people to start gathering, storing medical records on the Web' Sacramento Bee. Published 20 May 2008. Accessed 25 May 2008
12. ^ Economic Stimulus Bill Mandates Electronic Health Records For Every Citizen Without Opt Out Or Patient Consent Provisions Medical News Today. Published 24 January 2009. Accessed 7 February 2009
13. ^ Rockland County Board of Health Facing Opposition on Fluoridation; Proposal Came Up in '75 Dental Society Supports Measure New York Times. Published 4 December 1978. Accessed 8 February 2009
14. ^ 'About New York; A Champion Of Marijuana On the Stump', by DAVID GONZALEZ. New York Times. Published 4 October 1997. Accessed 29 September 2007.
15. ^ How Medical Boards Nationalized Health Care – Henry Jones – Mises Institute
16. ^ Ron Paul candidate platform, The Boston Herald Published 27 December 2007. Accessed 5 December 2008.
17. ^ “Ron Paul 2008 Hope for America” Accessed 28 September 2007.
18. ^ Health Freedom Protection Act Introduced in US Congress
19. ^ Free Speech and Dietary Supplements
20. ^ “Charles defends holistic medicine”, The Daily Telegraph. Published 24 May 2006. Accessed 12 April 2005.
21. ^ “Blair opposes EU's directive to outlaw up to 5,000 vitamins”, The Independent. Published 30 June 2005. Accessed 12 April 2005.
22. ^ Vitamins & Minerals Under Threat
23. ^ 'Greens claim EU directive may limit access to vitamins' The Irish Times Published 13 June 2008. Accessed 14 June 2008.
24. ^ European Parlament, voting record 2002, Food Supplement Directive
25. ^ “Health food fans plan to copy alliance march”, Daily Telegraph Published 13 September 2002. Accessed 28 September 2007.
26. ^ “Billie makes a stand”, This is Wiltshire Published June 2003. Accessed 28 September 2007.
27. ^ ”Gallegly Is Key Foe of FDA's Vitamin Rules – Simi Valley: The GOP congressman has emerged as leader of effort to minimize new labeling requirements” Los Angeles Times, 2 January 1994
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. 
34. ^ “FDA Raids”, Life Extension Magazine. Published 15 November 1994. Accessed 12 April 2005.
35. ^ F.D.A. Steps Up Effort to Control Vitamin Claims New York Times. Published Augest 9, 1992. Accessed 8 February 2009.
36. ^ Jeff Elliot. Taking vitamins: the FDA's raids on promoters of dietary supplements seem designed to keep consumers in the dark – Food and Drug Administration. National Review. 21 November 1994.
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.
39. ^ Dietary Supplements and Older Consumers. From the AARP website. Published December 2001. Accessed 2 February 2007.
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.
43. ^ “Legal Matters: The Ins and Outs, Pros and Cons of Nonlicensed Practice: Report and Commentary on the Health Freedom Movement”, Alan Dumoff, J.D., M.S.W.. Alternative & Complementary Therapies, Jun 2006, Vol. 12, No. 3 : 136 -142. Published June 2006. Accessed 29 April 2007.
44. ^ Tenn. Senate votes to reject health care mandate. Business Week. Published 17 February 2010. Accessed 14 March 2010.
45. ^ Idaho Senate OKs bill to sue if insurance required. Business Week. Published 10 March 2010. Accessed 14 March 2010.
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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52. ^ 'Court victory for vitamin firms' BBC News Published 30 January 2004. Accessed 29 April 2007.
53. ^ 'EU health foods crackdown 'wrong BBC News. Published 5 April 2005. Accessed 29 April 2007.
54. ^ 'Vitamin controls backed by Europe' BBC News. Published 12 July 2005. Accessed 29 April 2007.
55. ^ 'EU court backs health supplements ban' The Guardian Published 12 July 2005. Accessed 30 September 2007.
56. ^ 'Should we swallow it?' The Independent. Published 26 June 2002. Accessed 22 April 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.
59. ^ “Natural health products confiscated.” North Shore Times.. Published 12 April 2007. Accessed 28 April 2007.
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
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64. ^ The Dr. Rath Health Foundation | Responsibility for a healthy world
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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
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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. 
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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

1. ^ ^{a b c} Pfizer (PFE) annual SEC income statement filing via Wikinvest
2. ^ ^{a b} Pfizer (PFE) annual SEC balance sheet filing via Wikinvest
3. ^ “Contact Us.” Pfizer. Retrieved on April 3, 2010.
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
10. ^ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_29/b4187021988297.htm
11. ^ “Johnson & Johnson to Buy Pfizer Unit”. MoneyNews.com. June 26, 2006. http://www.newsmax.com/money/archives/articles/2006/6/26/082230.cfm. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 
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. 
14. ^ Pfizer, 2000: Pfizer joins forces with Warner-Lambert, accessed 7 April 2010
15. ^ Pfizer (2003). Annual Review 2003. Annual Report.
16. ^ Schlessinger, Joseph (2005). “SU11248: Genesis of a New Cancer Drug”. The Scientist 19(7):17-24. (subscription required)
17. ^ Pfizer Agrees to Pay $68 Billion for Rival Drug Maker Wyeth By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and DUFF WILSON. January 26, 2009. The New York Times
18. ^ The Pfizer-Wyeth Deal Worst-Case Scenario By Jim Edwards | January 23rd, 2009 – BNET
19. ^ Matthew Karnitschnig, & Jonathan D. Rockoff. (2009, January 23). Pfizer in Talks to Buy Wyeth. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. A.1. Retrieved March 7, 2010, from Wall Street Journal. (Document ID: 1631280041).
20. ^ Pfizer Shares Plummet on Loss of a Promising Heart Drug By ALEX BERENSON and ANDREW POLLACK. December 5, 2006. The New York Times
21. ^ Berenson, Alex (December 3, 2006). “Pfizer Ends Studies on Drug for Heart Disease”. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/health/03pfizer.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2006-12-03. 
22. ^ Theresa Agovino (Associated Press) (December 3, 2006). “Pfizer ends cholesterol drug development”. Yahoo! News. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061203/ap_on_he_me/pfizer_cholesterol_drug_5&printer=1. Retrieved 2006-12-03.  Each study arm (torcetrapib + Lipitor vs. Lipitor alone) had 7500 patients enrolled; 51 deaths were observed in the Lipitor alone arm, while 82 deaths occurred in the torcetrapib + Lipitor arm.
23. ^ “Pfizer Prescription Products”. Pfizer Inc. http://www.pfizer.com/products/rx/prescription.jsp. Retrieved 2010-03-09. 
24. ^ ^{a b} “Pfizer agrees record fraud fine”. BBC. September 2, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8234533.stm. Retrieved May 22, 2010. 
25. ^ [www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-108.ZO.html] Kelo v. New London: Opinion of the Court
26. ^ [www.quigleyreorg.com] Quigley Company reorganization
27. ^ Blackstone, E.H., 2005. Could It Happen Again?: The Bjork-Shiley Convexo-Concave Heart Valve Story. Circulation, 111(21), 2717-2719.[1]
28. ^ Bloomfield, P. et al., 1991. Twelve-year comparison of a Bjork-Shiley mechanical heart valve with porcine bioprostheses. N Engl J Med, 324(9), 573-579.
29. ^ U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Global Trust members
30. ^ Steinbrook, R., 2009. Lobbying, Campaign Contributions, and Health Care Reform. New England Journal of Medicine, 361(23), e52-e52. [2]
31. ^ [3] Heavy Hitters Pfizer Inc
32. ^ [4] Justice, Texas-Style
33. ^ Steinman MA, Bero LA, Chren MM, Landefeld CS (August 2006). “Narrative review: the promotion of gabapentin: an analysis of internal industry documents”. Ann. Intern. Med. 145 (4): 284–93. PMID 16908919. http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/abstract/145/4/284. Retrieved 2009-12-02. 
34. ^ Henney JE (August 2006). “Safeguarding patient welfare: who's in charge?”. Ann. Intern. Med. 145 (4): 305–7. PMID 16908923. http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/145/4/305?etoc. Retrieved 2009-12-02. 
35. ^ US Department of Justice (May 13, 2004). “Warner-Lambert to pay $430 million to resolve criminal & civil health care liability relating to off-label promotion”. Press release. http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/May/04_civ_322.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-02. 
36. ^ Mathew NT, Rapoport A, Saper J, et al. (February 2001). “Efficacy of gabapentin in migraine prophylaxis”. Headache 41 (2): 119–28. doi:10.1046/j.1526-4610.2001.111006119.x. PMID 11251695. 
37. ^ http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ma/Press%20Office%20-%20Press%20Release%20Files/Sept2009/PharmaciaPlea.html
38. ^ http://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/cia/agreements/pfizer_inc.pdf
39. ^ http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ma/Press%20Office%20-%20Press%20Release%20Files/Mar2009/FarinaconvictionPR.html
40. ^ http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ma/Press%20Office%20-%20Press%20Release%20Files/June2009/HollowayMarySentencingPR.html
41. ^ http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel09/justice_090209.htm
42. ^ “Compliance Readiness – Law Firms The False Claims Act & The Anti-Kickback Act – A Potent Combination Against The Health Care Industry And Growing Even Stronger?” article by Shannon S. Quill, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, October 01, 2006 on metrocorpcounsel.com, accessed February 3, 2009
43. ^ http://www.phillipsandcohen.com/CM/NewsSettlements/NewsSettlements536.asp
44. ^ http://www.phillipsandcohen.com/CM/NewsSettlements/NewsSettlements531.asp
45. ^ Griffin, Drew; Andy Segal (2010-04-02). “Feds found Pfizer too big to nail”. CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/02/pfizer.bextra/index.html. 
46. ^ BBC NEWS | Africa | Anger at deadly Nigerian drug trials
47. ^ “Nigerians sue Pfizer over test deaths”. BBC News. August 30, 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1517171.stm. Retrieved May 22, 2010. 
48. ^ Panel Faults Pfizer in '96 Clinical Trial In Nigeria. The Washington Post. May 7, 2006
49. ^ TROVAN, KANO STATE CIVIL CASE – STATEMENT OF DEFENSE
50. ^ FXHistory – Historical Currency Exchange Rates
51. ^ Warning Letter to Pfizer Inc., Food and Drug Administration, Dec. 1998.
52. ^ [www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PublicHealthAdvisories/ucm052276.htm Trovan Information] U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
53. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10454982.stm
54. ^ Ex-Pfizer Worker Cites Genetically Engineered Virus In Lawsuit Over Firing
55. ^ http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/10008499/blue-cross-names-and-shames-pfizer-execs-linked-to-massages-for-prescriptions-push/?tag=shell;content
56. ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2010/06/07/daily52.html
57. ^ BCBS names Pfizer managers in kickback suit – FiercePharma
58. ^ http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-bcbs_11bus.ART0.State.Edition1.1aad2e1.html
59. ^ http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/05/wyeth-targeted-blacks-with-illegal-marketing-lawsuit/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Pharmalot+%28Pharmalot%29
60. ^ http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/congress-joins-probe-wyeths-rapamune-marketing/2010-06-14?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
61. ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1115857220100611
62. ^ http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-11/u-s-lawmakers-to-investigate-wyeth-illegal-marketing-update2-.html
63. ^ Pollack, Andrew (September 2, 2009). “For Profit, Industry Seeks Cancer Drugs”. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/health/research/02cancerdrug.html. Retrieved 2009-09-03. 
64. ^ http://www.pfizer.com/investors/financial_reports/financial_reports_annualreview_2007.jsp
65. ^ Pfizer's cuts blindside Ann Arbor workers, Kalamazoo Gazette, Sunday, January 23, 2007.
66. ^ Pfizer Reorganization Could Bring Jobs To Kalamazoo, WWMT.com, June 18, 2007
67. ^ What's Happening at KLD
68. ^ Find New England Sites – PFIZER, INC
69. ^ ^{a b} The tempest. The Washington Post. May 28, 2006
70. ^ “Reasons for Selection, 2007 Canada's Top 100 Employers”. http://www.eluta.ca/einfo?en=Pfizer+Canada+Inc.&ri=6a24852a7f1d493ca1615bbec1e4e6aa&rk=2530d7bedc69eed8a38cea9bbe668b30. 
71. ^ “Pfizer's American Workers Training Their Replacements”. http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2008/11/10/pfizers-american-workers-training-their-replacements. 
72. ^ Sithole, Emelia (2001-02-21). “S.Africa okays Pfizer AIDS drug distribution”. Reuters NewMedia. http://ww4.aegis.org/news/re/2001/RE010226.html. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
73. ^ “Global HIV/AIDS Partnerships: Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative”. Pfizer. http://www.pfizer.com/pfizer/subsites/philanthropy/caring/global.health.hiv.southern.jsp. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
74. ^ “European AIDS Treatment Group”. http://www.eatg.org/. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 
75. ^ Hirschler, Ben (2005-04-12). “Activists attack ethics of Pfizer AIDS drug trial”. AIDS Meds.com. http://www.aidsmeds.com/news/20050412ethc002.html. Retrieved 2006-05-15. 

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

Category:Regulators of biotechnology products

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pages in category “Regulators of biotechnology products”

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

A Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service C Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research E Environment Canada European Medicines Agency F Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products

F cont. Food and Drug Administration H Health Canada Health Products and Food Branch M Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan) N National Health Surveillance Agency

N cont. National Institute for Biological Standards and Control Natural Health Products Directorate New Zealand Food Safety Authority Norwegian Medicines Agency P Portable Emissions Measurement System U United States Environmental Protection Agency

Natural health product

The term natural health product is used in Canada to describe substances such as vitamins and minerals, herbal medicines, homeopathic preparations, energy drinks, probiotics, and many alternative and traditional medicines.

Regulation

Natural health products are currently regulated under the Natural Health Product Regulations, under the authority of the Food and Drugs Act. The regulations address the sale of natural health products, manufacture, packaging, labelling and importation for sale of natural health products, the distribution of natural health products, and the storage of natural health products. Under the regulations, all natural health products require a Natural Product Number (NPN), analogous to the Drug Identification Numbers (DINs) used to identify and monitor drugs in Canada.

References

1. ^ “FAQs, Natural Health Products, Health Canada”
2. ^ “Natural Health Product Regulations”

Reckitt Benckiser

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reckitt Benckiser plc (LSE: RB) is a British global consumer goods company, making and marketing home, health and personal care products. Headquartered in Slough, near London, UK, it has operations in over 60 countries, including 42 manufacturing facilities, and sales in nearly 200 countries. RB is ranked 6th in the 2008 European Business Week 50, the magazine's annual ranking of the best performing companies within the S&P European 350.

The company's strategy is to have a highly focused portfolio concentrating on its 17 most profitable brands, which were responsible for 62% of net revenues in 2008. 35% of net revenues come from products launched in the past three years, this focus on innovation was recognised by The Economist Corporate Use of Innovation Award in 2009.

In 2008, the BBC broadcast an investigaton into the methods RB used to maintain the market share of the Gaviscon powerbrand.

The company has held Platinum status in the Business In The Community CR Index, since 2005 and in 2009 entered the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Reckitt & Colman 1.2 Benckiser 1.3 Merger and subsequent developments 2 Operations 3 Corporate governance 4 Gaviscon controversy 5 Environmental record 5.1 Initiatives 5.1.1 Carbon 20 5.1.2 Trees for Change 5.2 Awards 6 Charitable partnership 7 Corporate branding 8 Brands 9 References 10 External links

History

Reckitt & Colman

Colman's was founded in 1814 when Jeremiah Colman began milling flour and mustard in Norwich, England. Reckitt & Sons started in 1840 when Isaac Reckitt rented a starch mill in Hull, England. He diversified into other household products and in due course passed on his business to his four sons. Reckitt & Sons was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1888. In 1938 Reckitt & Sons merged with J&J Colman to become Reckitt & Colman Ltd. Reckitt & Colman sold the Colman's food business in 1995 but still has some food brands.

Benckiser

Johann A. Benckiser founded a business in Germany in 1823. Its main products were industrial chemicals. Benckiser went public in 1997.

Merger and subsequent developments

The company was formed by a merger between Britain's Reckitt & Colman and the Dutch company Benckiser NV in December 1999. Bart Becht became CEO of this new company and has been credited for its transformation, focusing on core brands and improving efficiency in the supply chain . The new management team’s strategy of “innovation marketing”. – a combination of increased marketing spend and product innovation, focusing on consumer needs – has been linked to the company’s ongoing success. For example, in 2008, the company’s “rapid succession of well publicised new product variants” were credited for helping them “to capture shoppers' imagination” Business Week has also noted that “40% of Reckitt Benckiser's $10.5 billion in 2007 revenues came from products launched within the previous three years.”

In October 2005, Reckitt Benckiser agreed to purchase the over-the-counter drugs manufacturing business of Boots Group, Boots Healthcare International, for £1.926 billion. The three main brands acquired were Nurofen in analgesics; Strepsils sore throat lozenges; and Clearasil anti-acne treatments.

In January 2008, the company acquired Adams Respiratory Therapeutics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, for $2.3bn: one of the major brands acquired with this purchase was Mucinex.

In July 2010, the company agreed to buy SSL International, the makers of Durex condoms and Scholl's footcare products in a £2.5Bn deal.t

Operations

The company divides its brands into six categories: surface care, fabric care, dishwashing, home care, health and personal care, and food.

RB has a very fast-paced and challenging working culture and likes to portray a truly global outlook by placing management staff out of their 'comfort zones'. For example, a German manager wouldn't necessarily be left to work in Germany; they may be posted in Brazil for two years, followed by India for the next role. This allows employees to have an international focus.

The company runs a number of graduate programmes, in most of its markets, with over 200 graduates joining the schemes worldwide. Once hired, graduates tend to work for a couple of years as a trainee in the country in which they were originally employed, followed by a posting overseas for those who have excelled during initial training. Graduate trainees start off in one of the firm's business areas: Marketing & Sales; Supply Chain; Research & Development and Information Systems.

The European Graduate Programme, for example, starts with a placement on the sales team of a country where the candidate can speak the local language. After a year, the graduate is moved to another European country for their marketing assignment.

As part of its recruitment initiative, RB launched a blog, myRBopportunity, which features blog posts and commentary from graduates who have recently joined the company. The blog also features guest bloggers such as RB CEO Bart Becht and other senior management or industry experts.

Corporate governance

The current Chief Executive of Reckitt Benckiser is Bart Becht. His pay was £36,760,000 in 2008 to 2009 meaning he earned 1,374 times the wage of an average employee.

Current members of the board of directors are: Bart Becht, Adrian Bellamy, Colin Day, Dr Peter Harf, Kenneth Hydon, Graham Mackay, André Lacroix, Judith Sprieser and David Tyler.

Current members of the executive committee are: Colin Day, Rakesh Kapoor, Bart Becht, Rob de Groot, Amadeo Fasano, Freddy Caspers, Gareth Hill and Simon Nash.

Gaviscon controversy

In 2008, the BBC's Newsnight programme broadcast a report which accused Reckitt Benckiser of attempting to delay the introduction of a competitive, generic version of one of its most popular products, Gaviscon, a treatment for heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Introducing the report, reporter Martin Shankleman said, “Gaviscon is hailed as a power brand by its owners, Reckitt Benckiser.” He continued,

“Reckitt Benckiser like to claim that the profits flow from their expertise in marketing. But we know that there's another way in which they've been coining it in—by ripping-off the NHS; as a whistle-blower has told us.

The “whistle-blower” was shown in silhouette and his words were spoken by an actor: “Reckitt's cheated the National Health Service. It could have saved the NHS millions of pounds. But not just the NHS, patients, doctors—they've cheated health professionals. I felt it had to be exposed”.

Newsnight claimed that Reckitt Benckiser had a “secret plan to ensure that it kept its stranglehold” after the Gaviscon patent expired in 1999, and that Newsnight had seen the plan. The Department of Health asked Newsnight to hand its documents to the NHS counter-fraud service.

The investigation was widely reported in the British press. The Guardian quoted a leaked memo in which the product's manager explained that the company could use “the rationale of health and safety” to design a switched product to “muddy the waters.” The newspaper quoted Reckitt Benckiser as stating that the leaked memos were “inappropriate and did not reflect Reckitt's eventual actions”.

The Independent quoted Warwick Smith, director of the British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA): “The sort of evergreening alleged by Newsnight can cost the NHS tens of millions of pounds with no patient benefit.” It also quoted a statement issued by the company: “…Reckitt Benckiser is a responsible company and we have therefore instigated an immediate internal investigation and will take action. However, we do not accept much of what has been alleged.”

The Times noted that “Although Gaviscon has been out of patent for almost ten years, no other manufacturer has developed a cheap generic version. Such a drug could have saved the NHS up to £40 million.” It stated that the Office of Fair Trading was expected to examine whether Reckitt had acted illegally. It also printed verbatim extracts from several of the leaked memos. The Times’ report included an extract from the statement issued by the company (see below).

In response to the Newsnight report and the reports in the press, Reckitt Benckiser issued a statement which began:

We are shocked by the allegations made as Reckitt Benckiser is a responsible company in the way it conducts its business.

Nevertheless, we are deeply concerned by the inappropriate sentiment expressed in some of the historic internal correspondence reported. We take this very seriously and have instigated an immediate internal investigation, and will take action. We also refute much of what has been reported which implies a power and influence we simply do not possess.

The company has never objected to a monograph driven generic name being published. The timetable of which is not, and never has been, within our control a monograph/generic name could have been published at any time by the regulators without reference to any third party.

The company made appropriate challenges where it felt it was justified in order to ensure patients are prescribed the right treatment. These were within the law and relevant regulations. We stress that the regulators only take a comment into account when it is valid.

Environmental record

Initiatives

Carbon 20

Reckitt Benckiser has implemented an environmental initiative called Carbon 20. The initiative, which was announced in November 2007, aims to cut the total carbon footprint of its products – from creation to disposal – by 20% by 2020. As part of the initiative the company has reduced by 70% the amount of plastic in the packaging of its Vanish cleaner.

The Independent characterised the Carbon 20 initiative as “a typically savvy bit of marketing” on the part of Bart Becht, the company's CEO. It observed that Reckitt Benckiser's initiative seemed to go further than similar green initiatives by other companies, and that it would lead to increased profits.

The article quoted a city analyst who follows Reckitt Benckiser: “I was surprised by this. Reckitt has never been considered the most environmentally enlightened company, they are typical red-blooded capitalists”. The newspaper also spoke with Martin Deboo, an analyst at Investec: “They've done this because they have to, because they have these products that are seen as messy and full of lethal chemicals”.

In New York in February 2009, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against Reckitt Benckiser and others. The petition seeks to compel the companies to identify all of the ingredients used in their products. Earthjustice contacted several companies in September 2008 requesting that they comply with a 1971 law requiring them to disclose the ingredients in their products and make available any associated health or safety studies. Reckitt Benckiser and the other defendants ignored or refused the request.

Trees for Change

In June 2006, Reckitt Benckiser launched Trees for Change, a major forestation project designed to offset the greenhouse gasses created as a by-product of its manufacturing processes. The project aims to create over 25 square kilometres of forest by planting more than two million trees on previously deforested land in British Columbia, Canada. Over the next 80–100 years the forest will absorb over two million tonnes of CO₂, making the company carbon neutral for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Awards

In 2008, in the U.S., RB was one of 40 companies awarded Champion Status in the Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative (SDSI). The SDSI “recognizes environmental leaders who voluntarily commit to the use of safer surfactants”. In 2010, RB achieved Platinum ranking in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility (CR) Index, a status the company has consistently achieved since 2005. The index is an audited “voluntary, self-assessment survey, comprising 88 sets of questions on how companies are managing, measuring and reporting their social and environmental impacts”.

Charitable partnership

The company are Save The Children’s most valuable UK-based corporate supporter.” Their staff fundraises in many different ways, from football tournaments and silly hat wearing to payroll giving and marathon running. Members of staff in 2009 completed a global employee trek, facing the challenges of natural disaster and altitude sickness in order to raise almost £250,000 for the charity. In 2010, RB partnered with Save The Children to raise awareness of the plight suffered by India's brick kiln children.

Corporate branding

In 2009, Reckitt Benckiser revamped its corporate identity to reposition its brand as 'the power behind the Powerbrands'. This saw the launch of a new logo to replace the logo which had been introduced at the time of the Reckitt/Colman merger in 1999. The new logo is a pink kitemark containing the letters 'RB'. The logo is often used with the company's full name Reckitt Benckiser in grey alongside the kitemark logo, using a typeface designed especially for the company

The new logo, created by branding agency The Workroom, was inspired by a sports kite and is intended to reflect the 'loud, confident personalities of its Powerbrands'. The identity has been introduced on packaging, and is used on internal and external communications.

As part of the corporate brand review, the company relaunched its core values , the key values which drive their business:

Achievement

Don't just aim high, aim to outperform

Entrepreneurship

Encouraging bold thinking, initiative and commercial drive and allowing daring ideas to thrive

Ownership

Taking full responsibility for, and the initiative to do what's needed in business and in developing and engaging teams

Team spirit

Driving success by pulling together. Treating each other and our differences with a high degree of respect, sharing ideas, failures and successes

Brands

These 17 Powerbrands accounted for 62% of Reckitt Benckiser’s net revenues in 2008, and 61% in 2007.

Reckitt Benckiser’s most profitable and most recognised brands are:

• Vanish
• Calgon
• Woolite
• Lysol
• Dettol
• Cillit Bang
• Harpic
• Finish (previously Electrasol in North America)
• Air Wick
• Mortein
• Strepsils
• Mucinex
• Nurofen
• Gaviscon
• Veet
• Clearasil
• French’s foods.

This is a list of other brands owned by Reckitt Benckiser:

• Aerogard
• Amphyl
• Bonjela
• Brasso
• Brio
• Bryza
• Calgonit
• Cattlemen's
• Ceraclen
• Cherry Blossom
• Chore Boy
• Clean and Smooth
• Cling
• Cling Free
• Cobra Brilliant Shiner
• Colon
• d-Con
• Coral
• dip-it
• Disprin
• Dosia
• Easy-Off
• Easy On
• Elena
• Finish (previously Electrasol in North America)
• Frank's Red Hot
• French's Foods
• Glass Mates
• Glass Plus
• Glassex
• Hoffmann's
• Intima Liasan / Intima Bidex
• Kalia
• Kaltron
• Lanza
• Lemsip
• Lewis Red Devil
• Lime-A-Way
• Lovela
• Masterpiece Metalist
• Mop & Glo
• Mr. Sheen
• Mr. Min
• Nenuco
• Neutra-Air
• NoSalt
• Noxon
• Nurofen for children
• Old English
• Perk
• Poliflor Pratic
• Poliflor Maximo Brilho
• Precision Blend
• Quanto
• Resolve
• Rid-X
• Robin Blue
• Sagrotan
• Sani Flush
• Senokot
• Sipuro
• Spray 'n Starch
• Spray 'n Wash
• Suboxone
• Vani-Sol
• Vitroclen
• Vivid
• Wenol
• Windolene
• Wizard
• Yes
• Zud

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Annual Results 2009
2. ^ Reckitt Benckiser: Jobs
3. ^ European BusinessWeek 50 Scoreboard BusinessWeek Europe 50 Interactive Scoreboard, 2008.
4. ^ ^{a b} Reckitt Benckiser: Annual Report and Accounts 2008
5. ^ The Economist Corporate Innovation Award Economist Corporate Use of Innovation Award 2009.
6. ^ ^{a b} Business in the Community corporate responsibility index
7. ^ Dow Jones Sustainability Index
8. ^ Carbon Disclosure Project 2009 Reports launched at New York Climate Week
9. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Reckitt Benckiser History
10. ^ The case for US GAAP Global Finance, January 1998.
11. ^ Reckitt & Coleman announce further delay to Dutch merger Independent, 7 November 1999.
12. ^ Picking Winners at Reckitt Benckiser Accenture, October 2005.
13. ^ Reckitt Benckiser revenue up 20% The Guardian, 28 July 2008.
14. ^ Reckitt Benckiser Cleans Up Business Week, 23 April 2008.
15. ^ Reckitt Benckiser buys Boots unit BBC News, 2005.
16. ^ Reckitt completes Adams tender offer Biomedicine, 30 January 2008.
17. ^ “Durex maker SSL agrees £2.5bn bid from Cillit Bang firm”. July 21, 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10708737. Retrieved July 21, 2010. 
18. ^ [1] Reckitt Benckiser's graduate programmes.
19. ^ [2], RB's European Graduate Programme.
20. ^ Datablog, 'FTSE100 directors pay: the £1 billion in boardrooms' The Guardian; Another source, which is paid for by the company itself, leaves out significant bonuses and perks accruing through the year, “Bart Becht: Executive Profile & Biography”. BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=370149&ric=RB.L. Retrieved 2009-08-10. , total annual compensation is £4,336,000, this consists of a £949,000 salary and £3,387,000 bonus
21. ^ Reckitt Benckiser. Reckitt Benckiser: “Corporate Governance”. Reckitt Benckiser. http://www.reckittbenckiser.com/site/RKBR/Templates/InvestorCentreCorporateGovernance.aspx?pageid=237/ Reckitt Benckiser:. Retrieved 2009-06-22. 
22. ^ “Gaviscon maker 'cheated the NHS' (video report)”. BBC. 2008-03-08. http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7280000/newsid_7284600/7284696.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=2. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
23. ^ “Gaviscon maker 'cheated the NHS'”. BBC. 2008-03-07. Archived from the original on 2009-04-13. http://www.webcitation.org/5g0YX6RFr. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
24. ^ Leigh, David (2008-03-07). “Company accused of cheating NHS”. London: Guardian Media Group. Archived from the original on 2009-04-13. http://www.webcitation.org/5g0Xn0HZ7. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
25. ^ Laurance, Jeremy (2008-03-08). “Drug giants 'swindle NHS by blocking cheap medicines' extending patents”. Independent News & Media. Archived from the original on 2009-04-13. http://www.webcitation.org/5g0Z5iDIA. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
26. ^ Jameson, Angela (2008-03-07). “Reckitt Benckiser accused of ripping off NHS over Gaviscon”. Times Newspapers Limited. Archived from the original on 2009-04-13. http://www.webcitation.org/5g0jZjRMg. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
27. ^ Times Online (2007-03-07). “The Reckitt Benckiser memos in full”. Times Newspapers Limited. Archived from the original on 2009-04-13. http://www.webcitation.org/5g0hxnHKd. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
28. ^ Reckit Benckiser (2008-03-07). “Statement in response to media reports about Gaviscon”. Reckitt Benckiser Corporate Communications. Archived from the original on 2009-04-13. http://www.webcitation.org/5g0ilNBYE. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
29. ^ Reckitt Benckiser: Carbon20
30. ^ ^{a b c} Forston, Danny (2 November 2007). “The Independent”. Reckitt Benckiser boss commits to 20 per cent cut in group's carbon footprint within 13 years (Independent News & Media). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/reckitt-benckiser-boss-commits-to-20-per-cent-cut-in-groups-carbon-footprint-within-13-years-398689.html. Retrieved 2009-06-05. 
31. ^ Earthjustice (February 2009). “Cleansing Products Disclosure Petition”. Earthjustice inc.. http://www.earthjustice.org/library/legal_docs/cleaning-products-disclosure-petition.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-05. 
32. ^ Biello, David (February 18, 2009). “Scientific American”. Earthjustice Wants Companies to List Chemicals in Household Cleaners (Scientific American, Inc. (USA)). http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chemicals-in-household-cleaners. Retrieved 2009-06-05. 
33. ^ Reckitt Benckiser (June 2006). Reckitt Benckiser: Carbon20 “Trees For Change”. Reckitt Benckiser. http://www.reckittbenckiser.com/sites/carbon20/index.html Reckitt Benckiser: Carbon20. Retrieved 2009-06-05. 
34. ^ Tree Canada “Tree Canada”. Reckitt Benckiser Plants Trees for Change. Tree Canada. 28 Jun 2006. http://www.treecanada.ca/news/06-28-2006.htm Tree Canada. Retrieved 2009-06-05. 
35. ^ EPA. “Design for the Environment (DfE)”. Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative (SDSI). Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/formulat/sdsi.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-05. 
36. ^ Companies working with us Save The Children
37. ^ Reckitt Benckiser goes over the top for charity 23 June 2009 Save The Children.
38. ^ “Reckitt-Benckiser unveils new logo”. Marketing Magazine. http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/881502/Reckitt-Benckiser-unveils-new-logo. Retrieved 2009-06-18. 
39. ^ [3]
40. ^ Reckitt Benckiser. “Online Report 2008”. Reckitt Benckiser. http://annualreview2008.reckittbenckiser.com/site/AR08/Templates/Home.aspx?pageid=3&cc=G. Retrieved 2009-06-22. 

External links

• Official site
• Yahoo profile
• RB employees' blog
• RB on Facebook
• RB on Twitter

Leiner Health Products

Leiner Health Products is a company based in Carson, California, and is one of America's largest manufacturers of vitamins, minerals, herbal nutritional supplements, and generic medications. It was founded in 1973, and is owned by North Castle Partners, a private investment firm from Connecticut.

Contents 1 Business deals 2 Fort Mill accident 3 Complaints over business practices 4 Methamphetamine lawsuit 5 References 6 External links

Business deals

Leiner declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2002, blaming a sudden drop in the price of raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry, which in turn lowered industry prices for the products they manufacture. Surprised by the shift, Leiner was caught with a great deal of now-overpriced material on hand, and they elected to sell their products at a loss in order to maintain market position. They emerged from bankruptcy 42 days later, having paid 25 cents on the dollar for $80 million in debt, while deciding to re-focus their efforts on marketing to large chains. The price drop was later determined to have been caused by collusive price fixing by Hoffmann–La Roche and BASF, in what the United States Department of Justice termed the largest criminal antitrust conspiracy ever uncovered.

On March 10, 2003, Leiner entered into a business relationship with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, the third-largest drug company in India. Under the terms of the agreement, Dr. Reddy would provide generic medications and components, which would in return be packaged and marketed by Leiner.

Leiner filed for bankruptcy again on March 10, 2008, citing difficulties related to poor results on a FDA inspection of the company's Fort Mill plant during an inspection in 2007. Leiner indicated that it plans to explore debt restructuring and a sale of the company, and will continue normal operations while doing so.

Leiner was sold to NBTY (Nature's Bounty) in June 2008 for over $400MM.

Fort Mill accident

On April 26, 2006, a flash fire damaged a Leiner pharmaceutical plant in the Lakemont Business Park of Fort Mill, South Carolina. Fire chief David Jennings estimated damages to the plant at $1.1 million, and two of the plant's 600 workers were hospitalized with burns. The fire started in a mixing room, where the workers were blending components for a batch of ibuprofen, and evidence indicates that a spark from the mixing machine ignited a dust explosion.

Complaints over business practices

In November 2001, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Leiner for deceptive labeling practices in some of its products containing acetaminophen. It cited numerous examples of Leiner products of this nature labeled with “Made in the U.S.A.” statements and American flags, where the acetaminophen used in the manufacture was derived from foreign sources.

On several occasions, Leiner has been forced to recall vitamins or supplements containing iron, which were not packaged in child-proof containers as required by the Poison Prevention Packaging Act. On March 12, 2002, they recalled 14,000 bottles of “Nature's Valley Women's Formula Multivitamin”, and on January 28, 2005, they recalled 13,000 bottles of “Long’s Central-Vite Multivitamins”.

Methamphetamine lawsuit

Nikky Joe Green, a member of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, was murdered during a traffic stop in December 2003. The killer, Ricky Ray Malone, was allegedly in a drug-induced haze from methamphetamine use at the time he shot Green, and his car contained a mobile meth lab.

Green's widow, Linda Green, subsequently filed a lawsuit against several US drug manufacturers and retailers, including Leiner. In the suit, she claimed that the companies deliberately turned a blind eye toward the purchase of their products containing pseudoephedrine by criminals engaged in the manufacture of illegal drugs. She also claimed that the companies were negligent in deciding not to use a known manufacturing technique which would have rendered their drugs useless to meth cooks.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} “Local drug, supplement maker signs pact with Indian supplier”, Laurence Darmiento, Los Angeles Business Journal, published March 10, 2003, accessed June 4, 2006.
2. ^ ^{a b} Chang, Andrea. “Leiner Health Products files for bankruptcy protection”, The Los Angeles Times, published March 11, 2008, accessed March 11, 2008.
3. ^ “Two injured in fire”, Knight Ridder, published April 26, 2006, accessed June 4, 2006.
4. ^ “In the Matter of LEINER HEALTH PRODUCTS, INC., a corporation.”, accessed June 4, 2006.
5. ^ “CPSC, Leiner Health Products Announce Recall of Dietary Supplements Containing Iron”, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, published March 12, 2002, accessed June 4, 2006.
6. ^ “CPSC, Leiner Health Products Announce Recall of Multivitamins”, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, published January 28, 2005, accessed June 4, 2006.
7. ^ “Slain trooper's widow sues makers, sellers of cold drug”, Associated Press, published December 28, 2005, accessed June 4, 2006.

External links

• Leiner Health Products Web Site

Natural Health Products

Natural Health Products are defined (in Canada) as:

• Vitamins and minerals
• Herbal remedies
• Homeopathic medicines
• Traditional medicines such as traditional Chinese medicines
• Probiotics, and
• Other products like amino acids and essential fatty acids.

Similar definitions exist worldwide. Natural Health Products are closely related to drugs, and have begun to be regulated in order to control health claims being made by products not classified as drugs, but are taken for reasons above and beyond simple caloric intake.

Regulation

In Canada, regulation of Natural Health Products falls to Health Canada, specifically the Natural Health Products Directorate.

In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in charge of the regulation and safety of all natural health products.

Sources

• Natural Health Products on Health Canada

Health Products and Food Branch

The Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB) of Health Canada manages the health-related risks and benefits of health products and food by minimizing risk factors while maximizing the safety provided by the regulatory system. HPFB has seven operational Directorates with direct regulatory responsibilities: Therapeutic Products Directorate, Food Directorate; Biologics and Genetic Therapies Directorate; Natural Health Products Directorate; Marketed Health Products Directorate (with responsibility for post-market surveillance); and HPFB Inspectorate and the Veterinary Drugs Directorate.

See also

• List of food safety organisations

External links

• Health Products & Food Branch