The Medicare prescription drug benefit has goosed pharma industry profits to the tune of $3.7 billion, said a report from Rep. Henry Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Massachusetts lawmakers trashed a proposed gift ban hotly contested by biotechs, a key industry in the state, and put off the effective date of a provision banning commercial use of prescriber data.

Pfizer med ed head Mike Saxton dismissed the notion that the company was bowing to pressure in its decision to eliminate direct support for CME programs sponsored by medical education and communication companies (MECCs).

PhRMA revised its Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals to sharply limit gifts to physicians.

The FDA will change the way it responds to drug applications, eliminating "approvable" and "not approvable" letters.

New legislation in the Senate would reverse a Supreme Court pre-emption ruling on medical devices.

Merck may have to wait until 2013 before the FDA reconsiders approval of its cholesterol drug known as Cordaptive (MK-0524A).

A proposal by the American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) calling for the elimination of commercial sponsorship of medical education was referred back to the council, effectively tabling it for the year.

Harvard researchers failed to report pharmaceutical company incomes, a possible violation of university rules and federal law. The story was first reported on Sunday, in the New York Times.

GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) experimental drug Promacta (eltrombopag) failed to significantly lower bleeding in patients with the rare blood disorder it was designed to treat, the FDA said.