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 "viagra" ...
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"Viagra"
CBS News reported on the concerns about the potential for blindness among Viagra users. Through the Freedom of Information Act they obtained adverse event data and found at least 800 reports of vision problems in a four-year period, including some cases of total blindness. The FDA is considering label changes for Viagra and other impotence drugs.
Tags: ED drugs; impotence; FDA; Viagra; health risks
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Superbugs
This story reveals that, not only are "superbugs" (bacteria that are resistant to existing antibiotics,) proliferating, but the major pharmaceutical companies are not developing new antibiotics to combat them. Bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics at such a rate that pharmaceutical companies find it more profitable to develop big sellers like Viagra that do not become obsolete.
Tags: infectious disease; drug-resistant strains; FDA; MRSA; Texas Children's Hospital
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Drug Dependency: U.S. Has developed An Expensive Habit: Now, How to Pay for It?
The Journal reports that "scores of pricey new pills improve quality of life, but bust health budgets ... A revolution in pharmaceutical research, a billion-dollar marketing blitz and Americans' voracious appetite for Viagra, Claritin and a host of other pricey pills are driving drug spending to record-high levels. And nobody, it seems, knows what to do about it."
Tags: marketing; prescription drugs; elderly; health care; medicine; technology
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The Orgasm Industry. Drug Companies Search for a Female Viagra.
Since the launch of Viagra in May 1998, pharmaceutical companies have scrambled to find the next big sex drug for women. Start-up pharmaceutical companies and enterprising physicians have jumped into the fray to threat what they see as an underserved market of tens of millions of sexually dysfunctional women.
Tags: viagra; drug companies; female; woman; sex; pharmaceutical
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Undue Influence
The American Prospect examines the deregulation trend in the pharmaceutical industry. The report finds that laws passed in 1992 and 1997 "left the Food and Drug Administration beholden to the very industry it is supposed to regulate, and the public vulnerable to unsafe drugs." The story reveals that more than 100,000 Americans die each year from adverse reactions to prescription drugs. However, President Bush, who received contributions of $456,000 from the pharmaceutical industry, will likely prove receptive to drug companies' pleas for additional deregulation, points out the magazine.
Tags: FDA; biotech; AIDS; regulations; George W. Bush; life-threatening diseases; medications; drug testing; Prescription Drug User Fee Act; Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act; television ads; research; safety; health; Viagra; Rezulin
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Primetime Pushers
A Mother Jones investigation looks at the implications of the aggressive advertising of prescription drugs. The report poses the question, "What does it mean for our health care when serious medicine is marketed like soap." The story reveals that "pharmaceutical companies spent $1.7 billion on TV advertising in 2000, 50 percent more than they spent in 1999." It finds that "direct-to-consumers advertising has paid off ... often turning solid earners into blockbuster drugs." The investigation also exposes major pharmaceutical companies that have failed to comply with the federal regulations on direct-to-consumer ads..
Tags: FDA; Viagra; Xenical; Celebrex; Pfizer; Prozac; Eli Lilly; broadcast advertisement; doctors; patients
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Prescription for Trouble
KDFW-TV "Fox 4 News in Dallas uncovered a dangerous and potentially deadly practice in one of the nation's largest drug store chains. Fox 4 News went undercover, to prove that the Eckerd Corporation allowed a 17-year-old teenager to fill prescriptions without proper training or supervision. This teen "Pharmacy Technician" was responsible for everything from antibiotics to Viagra. The I-Team investigation also showed that this could also be happening in other stores...."
Tags: TAPE TRANSCRIPT Eckerd Drugs malpractice medicine mistakes wrongful deaths business ethics
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Relief for the Rx Blues
This special report seeks to explain the rising costs and partially decreased access to prescription drugs, in the process exposing through an undercover investigation loose standards on the part of pharmacists who sometimes fail to protect consumers against drug interactions. The report also investigates the murky and at-times hazardous world of on-line drug purchases.
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Millions for Viagra, pennies for diseases of the poor
Only one percent of all new medicines brought to market by multinational pharmaceutical companies between 1975 and 1997 were designed specifically to treat tropical diseases plaguing the Third World. The reporter investigates out of control profits for drug manufacturers who continue to churn out "lifestyle" drugs, treating canine depression, impotence, baldness, or wrinkles.
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The new era of lifestyle drugs
Business Week talks about Viagra, the impotence treatment, and other similar "lifestyle" drugs. Other pills are on the way to treat minor irritations like baldness and wrinkles.
Tags: None