The 10 Weirdest Drug Stories of the Month
It’s that time again — another month is done. Here’s your roundup of the strange stuff that didn’t quite make the front page.
- Boffins comb old Bayer plant and find abandoned legless robot
The Hartford Courant: Jeffrey Townsend, an evolutionary biologist, made his way Friday to a warehouse on the former grounds of a pharmaceutical company to look for free stuff. He found a robot. “It doesn’t have legs,” Townsend said Friday as he inspected a bubble-wrapped gizmo that looked markedly less human than even Luke Skywalker’s buddy, R2D2. “But it has arms.” Townsend, who studies gene expression in wine and bread yeast, among other things, estimates that the device, used for handling liquids, would cost $50,000 new, not including the software for operating it. “This is like Christmas all over again,” he said. - Lawyer has fond memories of suing Bristol-Myers Squibb over broken penis pump
You had to be there, I guess. - Blog posts pictures of Pfizer execs’ real estate holdings
Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler’s house is big, boxy and lacks style. But board member James Kilts‘ place is a pimped-out spread ready for MTV Cribs. - Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella subject of papal ban
Kicked off Vatican radio because he makes contraceptives. You can’t make this stuff up. 
Communist Party of India (Marxist) takes position on patent-approval link
A spectre is haunting India. It is the specter of linking patent rights to new drug approvals, according to Indian leftists. We know you were worrying about this.- Car accident on I-64. Who’s responsible? Pfizer, obviously.
Proof America has too many lawyers: Woman rear-ended while stuck in freeway traffic sues the drug giant because the driver who hit her is an employee. - Novo Nordisk office turned into impromptu fountain by leaking pipe.
Electrician on the job severs a water pipe. Turns Novo site into a flood zone. - Bayer bribes owners to take dogs to the vet
Take Fido for a checkup and Bayer will give you $20. Hoping to pump your hound full of doggy drugs as well, one assumes. - McDonald’s man appointed to Lilly board
Following ex McD’s lawyer Jeff Kindler’s assumption of the reins at Pfizer, the fast-food takeover of Big Pharma continues as Eli Lilly adds another burger exec to its board. - Anti-HIV pills tested via monkey rape
Here’s an image you didn’t want. An experiment was described this way by Bloomberg: “Almost all untreated monkeys were quickly infected after being exposed to the virus twice. Two doses of Truvada, one before and another after rectal exposure, protected most monkeys from infection.”
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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