logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Nonprofit Newswire | Drug Companies Form Nonprofit

Ruth McCambridge and Bruce S Trachtenberg
February 25, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
Subscribe via E-Mail Get the newswire delivered to you – free! {source} [[form name=”ccoptin” action=”http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp” target=”_blank” method=”post”]] [[input type=”text” name=”ea” size=”20″ value=”” style=”font-family:Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:10px; border:1px solid #999999;”]] [[input type=”submit” name=”go” value=”GO” class=”submit” style=”font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:10px;”]] [[input type=”hidden” name=”m” value=”1101451017273″]] [[input type=”hidden” name=”p” value=”oi”]] [[/form]] {/source} Subscribe via RSS Subscribe via RSS Submit a News Item Submit a News Item

February 23, 2010; The Star-Ledger | Three of the biggest names in U.S. pharmaceuticals are joining together to create an Asian-based nonprofit that aims to develop new medicines to treat the growing incidence of gastric and lung cancers in that part of the world. The new company, to be called the Asian Cancer Research Group, is described as a unique partnership among competing drugmakers—Merck, Pfizer, Eli Lilly—designed to jump start the research and development process to combat deadly diseases. Much of the group’s effort will focus on the creation of an extensive database that will be available to researchers all over the world, consisting of information collected from analysis of some 2,000 tissue samples from patients worldwide suffering from lung and gastric cancer. Gary Gilliand, Merck Research Laboratories’ Senior Vice President and Franchise Head, Oncology, said the new nonprofit “hopes to empower empower researchers, foster innovation and improve the prognosis and treatment of patients with cancer. Call us cynical but we worry about the pure altruistic motives of the pharmaceuticals. While on the surface and with our limited knowledge, this effort appears laudable, some pharmaceutical companies have been appalling poster children for questionable practices that mask their true intentions. For instance, in a 2009 article in the New York Times “Merck Paid for Medical ‘Journal’ Without Disclosure” we read one example. Author Natasha Singer states that for three years ending in 2005, “the Australian affiliate of Merck paid the Australian office of Elsevier, an academic publisher, to publish eight compilations of scientific articles under the title Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine . . . The Merck marketing compilation was unusual in that it looked like an independent peer-reviewed medical journal. It even called itself a “journal,” without indicating in any of the issues that Merck had paid for it . . . The Merck-sponsored publication is among the evidence in the Australian trial in which the lead plaintiff in a class action suit alleges, among other things, that the company used misleading and deceptive marketing strategies in promoting Vioxx.” Vioxx is an arthritis drug that has been found to pose cardiovascular risks to those taking it—risks that were apparently not disclosed once discovered. The Lancet, a real live medical journal, concluded in 2004 after reviewing the research, that “the unacceptable cardiovascular risks of Vioxx (rofecoxib) were evident as early as 2000 . . .” Lancet editors faulted Merck for delaying the drug’s removal from the market and faulted regulators for lack of oversight. These kinds of shenanigans (call us jaded) leave us cautious.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

In any case, we wish them a very “sunny” future.—Bruce Trachtenberg and Ruth McCambridge

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

Bruce S Trachtenberg

More about: Nonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Measuring Healthcare Equity in North Carolina
Sonia Sarkar
The Nonprofit Sector and Social Change: A Conversation between Cyndi Suarez and Claire Dunning
Claire Dunning and Cyndi Suarez
Nonprofits as Battlegrounds for Democracy
Cyndi Suarez
Remaking the Economy: Caring for the Care Economy
Steve Dubb, Adria Powell and Jenn Stowe
Race, Class, and Climate: Organizing for a Better Future in Pueblo, Colorado
Jamie Valdez
Faith as a Pathway to Climate Action
Anmol Irfan

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.