STATE INVESTIGATING USE OF DRUG COMPANIES’ MONEY

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By: CHRISTOPHER SNOWBECK
The state is investigating how Pennsylvania officials used drug company payments while they were developing schizophrenia treatment guidelines that featured those companies’ medications.
The drug company money had been deposited in an unauthorized account that the state officials used for a variety of purposes, including trips to out-of-state professional meetings.
The treatment guidelines promote [...]

State account draws ethics scrutiny; Mental health officials used money from drugmakers for a variety of expenses.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
By John Sullivan INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Two pharmaceutical companies paid nearly $14,000 into an unauthorized state bank account that was used by state mental health officials for travel, meals and other expenses at a time when the drugmakers were courting state business, records show.
Janssen Pharmaceutica and Pfizer Inc., also paid at least $10,000 to [...]

Making Drugs, Shaping the Rules

The New York Times
By MELODY PETERSEN
THE drug industry has created vast markets for products like Viagra, Celebrex and Vioxx by spending billions of dollars on consumer advertising.
But to sell medicines that treat schizophrenia, the companies focus on a much smaller group of customers: state officials who oversee treatment for many people with serious mental illness. [...]