Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools.
With the shock of the $20 million fraud scandal at Leo Burnett now 48 hours old, it's time to assess the sheer scale of the stupidity which led to the $15.5 million settlement the agency paid to avoid being sued by the feds. The agency itself said this to the...
Sales reps at Boeringer-Ingelheim have won a legal victory that may lead to them being awarded back-pay for all the unpaid overtime they have worked. The ruling, by a federal court in Connecticut, could also affect two related cases involving sales reps at Amgen and Serono. by Jim Edwards
Inspire has stopped co-promoting Restasis, the dry-eye drug launched by Allergan, according to the Triangle Business Journal. Inspire will still receive royalties on the drug at the same rate as before, but only as long as Allergan and Inspire continue work on a new dry-eye drug, Prolacria. That drug is...
British authorities have ordered a company advertising a nasal spray that promises longer-lasting sex to take down 196 billboards. The ads break U.K. law, according to the Guardian, because a medical prescription is required to obtain the spray. Drugs are banned from being advertised in Britain. The...
The faster a drug is approved the more likely it is to be withdrawn or have safety warnings added later, according to the author of a study in the British Medical Journal. In addition, the rapid rollout of mass marketing plans increases the risk that large numbers of patients will...
Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts spent five days in a luxury Thai resort -- priced $615 a night and up -- receiving massages every day while his employees' 401ks were decimated and his own agency struggled to collect bills from one bankrupt client. Roberts described his...
Alloy Marketing & Media generates more revenue from the cash it spends on salaries and general expenses than most other public agency networks, according to a comparison of Q3 earnings. By contrast, direct mail giant Valassis least-efficiently deploys its cash resources. Alloy makes back $1.74 for every dollar it spends...
Two prominent doctors accused of failing to be transparent about payments they took from drug companies have gone on the counter-attack. NPR host Dr. Fred Goodwin wrote a letter to the New York Times and an email to Daniel Carlat's psychiatry blog. And Dr. Joseph Biederman, the Boston psychiatrist who...
Grey has tapped Todd Tilford as ECD in its flagship office here. Tilford, 45, reports to Tor Myhren, evp, CCO of Grey New York. He was at Pyro. JWT's once-vibrant Chicago office now has only four clients, 50 staff. Only five years ago what was once the...
Johnson & Johnson units Janssen and ALZA have lost a third Duragesic patch death case. A jury in Chicago found J&J liable in the death of a Cicero, Ill., woman who had used a Duragesic to reduce the almost constant pain she experienced as a result of a neurological condition...
After noting a trend at Pfizer's Groton and New London, Conn., R&D campuses, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said he will call for a Congressional probe into whether American companies are abusing the H-1B visa process to bring foreign workers to the U.S. in an attempt to displace locally contracted...
Pfizer looks to be preparing another round of mass layoffs for January. This thread on Cafe Pharma indicates January 26 is the key date. Back in October, a Pfizer spokesperson said that the reorganization of the company into three new business units would result in "no layoffs." As BNET readers...
CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer suggested recently that Pfizer ought to acquire Allergan, maker of Botox and Juvederm. Cramer is usually not worth listening to but this idea has some merit: A tie-up of the two companies has advantages for both. However, mergers don't always go as planned, so...
PepsiCo has apologized via a Twitter message for an ad for Pepsi Max which features a "calorie" creature attempting to commit suicide. The ad, from BBDO Dusseldorf, features a blue, bean-shaped character simultaneously shooting himself in the head, with a noose round his neck, and poison in his other hand....
A small study has found a correlation between pregnant epileptic women who took the active ingredient in Depakote (Epilim in the U.K.) and autism in their children. The study will be published in the journal Neurology no link yet. Here's the meat of it: The study ... followed 632...
Every campaign needs a coupon -- that's the takeaway from the current holiday season's marketing blitz. Even upscale brands like Lucky Brands and Saks Fifth Avenue are joining Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart with coupon discount schemes. Procter & Gamble seems to have come up with the most original angle...
Decline of Western Civilization: Teacher whose photocopying budget was cut couldn't print his students' test papers. So he sold advertising on them. 75 clients interested. Lowe, Aegis, BBDO in India gear up anti-terror security measures in India following Mumbai attacks. Fitch Ratings warned Wednesday that a...
Twitter has revealed more about its plans to generate revenue based on advertising. An ad plan for Twitter has been revealed, but it apparently generates no revenue for Twitter itself. Client Sayso Mobile purchased a bunch of Twitter user profile homepages and sent an automated message to users following those...
Pfizer whistleblower and compulsive blogger Peter Rost has tossed his Panama hat into the ring for the post of FDA commissioner in the new Obama administration. He's got the "backing" -- or at least the paperwork -- of Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson. Rost...
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools.
