The pharmaceutical industry's character—its products, messages, promo channels and even its audiences—have been determined by governmental regulation and trade conventions practiced by media and manufacturers.

It's become part of received wisdom that today's patient is an active partner in his or her medical care. Since we all accept this as fact, we don't think it's worth questioning.

To marketing people in the pharmaceutical industry, the Prescription Drug Marketing Act (PDMA) lists numerous government regulations related to prescription drug samples.

Success! When Congress was debating the new Medicare drug benefit, the pharmaceutical industry's top priority was to make sure the government could not negotiate prescription drug prices.

January has kicked off the 2008 election cycle, with the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries taking the lead.

Pardon my French, but there's no better cliché to describe a special issue of Harper's magazine dated October 1960, starting with the cover headline: "The Crisis in American Medicine."

No, not next summer's Olympic Games scheduled in Beijing from September 6 through the 17, but, the games that are beginning now, which will last until election day 2008, and possibly well beyond that.

In baseball, a pitch that was perfect in Abner Doubleday's era would still be pretty darn good today--the dimensions of the strike zone have stayed remarkably consistent through the history of the game.

When the members of the FDA advisory committee voted 22 to 1 to keep Avandia on the market, they had concluded that the epidemiologic data showed that the benefits of the drug outweighed the risks.

Some retired folks play golf all day; others travel. But there’s something about healthcare communication execs that makes them not want to quit. Instead of retiring, they start a new career.