Starting this week, drug companies aren’t getting their way on Facebook. They aren’t getting the cushy Facebook deal which had allowed them to block users’ ability to comment on their page “Walls.” Instead, they’re now open to criticism, and many are folding their tents instead of facing the music.

Facebook had given drug companies the privilege to block comments on their Walls in advance in order to get their business. But Facebook has changed its mind. Now drug companies, like anyone else, must have an open Wall where comments can appear when they’re made. (more…)

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When hundreds or even thousands of Americans are killed by a war, an accident or other violent means, the nation reacts with grief if not outrage. Yet 200,000 Americans are being killed each year by an entity that rarely rises on the nation’s outrage radar: the pharmaceutical industry.

You may wonder why. You may believe that new drugs are always pre-tested in pharmaceutical trials to ensure their safety. How can such drugs then kill thousands while earning billions in profits for their manufacturers?

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London-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has agreed to pay a $520 million fine exacted by the U.S. Department of Justice for illegally marketing antipsychotic drug Seroquel by overstating the drug’s purposes and failing to alert users of its health risks.

Does all this sound familiar? If so, it should. In just three years, that makes four enormous pharmaceutical companies which have paid large fines for illegally marketing antipsychotic drugs, which for them is a hugely profitable arena.

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