A report by West Virginia's Pharmaceutical Cost Management Council said pharmas spent $16 million on DTC advertising in the state from July 2007 through December 2007.

Reps. John Dingell and Bart Stupak, who chair the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee thereof, respectively, praised Merck, Schering-Plough, Pfizer and J&J for agreeing to follow AMA guidelines regarding the use of docs in ads and to not advertise off-label uses of drugs.

Pfizer gathered capabilities info from its US consumer and professional advertising and PR agencies while issuing RFIs to some non-roster agencies, AdWeek reported.

Williams-Labadie, a division of the Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, has announced the appointment of Frank Bartco to senior account supervisor

Direct marketing agency Wunderman has acquired Designkitchen, a digital and interactive agency in Chicago.

ID Media has launched M.O.R.E., a local direct marketing system.

In a scathing rebuke to its assessment of conflicts of interest in CME, a trio of accrediting agencies said the Macy Foundation's assertions "reflect concerns that we, as CE accreditors, had 5-10 years ago."

Coalition for Healthcare Communications responds to IMS vs. Vermont with amicus brief.

CBS Evening News and BusinessWeek collaborated on a series titled "Doctors under the influence?," looking at whether speaking and consulting fees paid by pharmas to docs bias their decision-making.

A group of 12 publishers, including Elsevier, the American Society of Neuroradiology, JAMA and the Nature Publishing Group, have elected to use new plagiarism detection software called CrossCheck.