The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "drug patents" ...
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Unnecessary epidemic
This extensive investigation showed that Congress and the Drug Enforcement Administration could have stopped methamphetamine growth across the West during the 1990s and still can. The newspaper explained how the drug is able to be controlled because it relies on chemical ingredients produced by only a handful of factories worldwide. Two clampdowns on the legal trade of the chemicals caused meth shortages, prompting users to quit and meth-related property crime to fall. But the drug trade survived because of loopholes and lax enforcement. The scope of this story includes examinations of DEA drug seizures, DEA-registered sellers of the drug, ephedrine drug shipments, ephedrine seizures, congressional records, the federal budget, federal audits, property tax records, patents, academic studies and public policy.
Tags: drugs; meth; methamphetamine; Drug Enforcement Agency; DEA; drug control policy
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The Stalling Game
Consumer Report looks at how "sweetheart deals and patent extensions keep lower-cost generic drugs from consumers." The story lists several approaches that both generic manufacturers and brand-name companies have used to gain and keep market exclusivity. These include: "sneaking patent-existing riders into complex and unrelated legislative procedures; paying chemical supply houses not to sell needed ingredients to rival drug manufacturers; paying competitors to stay out of the market; filing unfounded "citizen petitions" and patents to delay the marketing of a generic drug." The reporter points to specific examples of how pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of loopholes in current law.
Tags: generic drugs; over-the-counter; Federal Trade Commission (FTC); drug patents; sales; research and development; FDA; health; medicine; Prescription Drug Competition Act
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Child Play: Pharmaceutical Firms Win Big on Plan to Test Adult Drugs on Kids
The Wall Street Journal reports on "a drug-industry financial bonanza," resulting from the additional marketing exclusivity that drug makers have won by starting pediatric trials of adult medicine. The story examines the loopholes that allow the pharmaceuticals giants to protect themselves from generic competition half-a-year and earn extra revenues. The reporter reveals that "makers of generic drugs ... could lose $10.7 billion in sales over 20 years as a result of the six-month extension" for the patents of the brand-name drugs. The story looks at a number of flaws in the regulatory process.
Tags: Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Eli Lilly; Bristol-Myers; Merck; Schering-Plough; public health; children; juveniles; law
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The Catalyst: Behind Cipla's Offer Of Cheap AIDS Drugs: Potent Mix of Motives
The Wall Street Journal looks at the role of Cipla Ltd., an Indian pharmaceuticals company, in the "extraordinary price war for supplying the lifesaving medicines to Africa and developing nations elsewhere." The story reveals that Cipla has offered "to sell a triple combination of "antiretroviral" AIDS drugs to the international aid group Doctors Without Borders at less than $1 a day per patient..." The reporter finds that even though "multinational pharmaceuticals companies dismiss Cipla and its peers as "patent" pirates," the smaller rivals are "transforming the debate over how to provide critical medicines to poor nations."
Tags: United Nations; World Health Organization; AIDS; HIV; drugs; pharmaceuticals; patents; Bombay; doctors; World Health Assembly; international trade
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Adverse Reaction: AIDS Gaffes in Africa Come Back to Haunt Drug Industry at Home
The Wall Street Journal examines the increasing risks to the pharmaceutical companies, if they continue "to conduct their business as usual - by finding and patenting a few new drugs, pricing them high and marketing them aggressively..." The story finds that AIDS-drug price cuts in poor nations have deepened U.S. pharmaceuticals industry domestic trouble, as the firms have revealed the 'true' cost of pills. The article points to evidence that some "medicines are priced - excluding research expenses - at eight to 10 times their cost of manufacturing and distribution. The reporter finds that even though drug makers "poured $80 million into last year's Congressional campaign... their credibility is weakening in the public eye." The story also looks at the possibility for government-mandated price-controls for prescription drugs.
Tags: politics; research; patenting; Medicare; Medicaid; AIDS; HIV; politics; legislation; United Nations; Pfizer Inc.; Glaxo; Merck; Bristol-Myers; Abbott Laboratories
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AIDS Epidemic Traps Drug Firms in a Vise: Treatment vs. Profits
Wall Street Journals examines the controversies involved in the protection of the patents rights of American pharmaceutical companies abroad. The story details the legal battle of drug manufacturers against a South African law, under which the country "can import cheap, generic versions of patented medicines - including powerful new drugs for treating AIDS - without permission from the patent owner." The report describes the desire of drug companies "to be seen as helping fight the global AIDS crisis" vs. their two main fears - "if the South Africa law is allowed to stand, other countries will be emboldened to pursue similar legislation," and if "poor countries are allowed to buy low-priced drugs, American consumers will demand the same." It also reveals that the "U.S. government is no longer standing firmly behind" the drug companies, although the industry has spent about $ 80 million "to help elect president Bush and a Republican Congress."
Tags: U.S. Trade Representative; health; medicine; HIV. AIDS; Medicines Act; patents; intellectual property; WTO
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Drug Spies
Fortune Magazine reports that "piracy is the pharmaceutical industry's dirty little secret. fighting back has become its dirty little war, With the stakes this high, there are no rules, no conventions. But that doesn't mean there haven't been prisoners. The $300-billion-a-year pharmaceutical industry is mired in a hidden war ... It is a war fought from behind mountains of litigation, one that pits the leading multinationals against a growing army of scoundrels who are either counterfeiting medicines outright (a criminal offense in which specific drugs are copied down to the form, color, and name brand) or peddled "bioequivalent" generics that infringe brand-name patents (a civil offense, but just as painful financially for the patent holders.)"
Tags: Pharmaceuticals; espionage; Bayer; prison; piracy
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No title (id: 10753)
The News and Observer investigated a Duke University Medical Center plastic surgeon who removed hundreds of women's breasts and replaced them with silicone breast implants; many of the women did not have breast cancer, but he told them they were at risk for the disease. The doctor had financial interest in the company that manufactured the implants. Many now claim they are sick from leaks in the implants, March 31, 1994.
Tags: NC Ready CHA Breast cancer Consumer affairs Food and Drug Administration U.S. patents 8 pages
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No title (id: 9895)
Providence (R.I.) Phoenix reveals how an influential doctor was forced to resign from a hospital and surrender a drug patent because of conflicts of interest; the doctor simultaneously ran the hospital, researched for a university and served on the board of directors for an Italian drug company, often acting for personal profit rather than for his public posts, Feb. 4, 1993.
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No title (id: 2146)
Willamette Week (Portland) publishes article on marketing of a new drug; article says the company introduced drug which is essentially the same as one it is to replace because its patent is running out; it has also doubled price of new version, February 1979.
Tags: None