The 10 Weirdest Drug Stories of the Month
Welcome to February. It’s time for our traditional look back at the strangest stories that popped up onto last month’s radar:
Race discrimination suit at Wyeth is all Morgan Freeman’s fault
The Wyeth supervisor who triggered a discrimination suit because she allegedly described herself as “the head n—— in charge” says that she got the phrase from the movie “Lean on Me,” in which actor Morgan Freeman says it.- Masturbation is cause of, and cure for, prostate cancer
Researchers at the universities of Nottingham, Cambridge and Harvard, produce contradictory studies on the male condition. - CIA placates Afghan warlords with Viagra
“Take one of these. You’ll love it,” the officer told the muslim chieftain with four younger wives. A few days later, the grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes — followed by a request for more pills. - Eli Lilly teaches Indianapolis how to fix potholes.
The city had a 19 day turnaround for filling potholes until “a group of process experts known as ‘lean six sigma black belts’ from Eli Lilly came in to streamline DPW’s response time.” Now the city gets ‘em filled in two to four days. - The nicest and the “naughtiest” drug company CEOs
Survey says: Genentech’s Art Levinson is universally beloved, but nobody likes Amgen’s Kevin Sharer. - Boehringer Ingelheim rep hates the new “micro” company cars
His colleagues berate him for looking a gift horse in the mouth during a recession. The Mazda is too bumpy, this rep says. Some people chose Nissans and had to wait for them to arrive. - The inside scoop on Eli Lilly’s office furniture
Eli Lilly has a furniture consultant. Who knew? “my team and I developed and delivered the Move Genius service to Lilly team members. We provided a range of solutions through training, communication and issue tracking and resolution, including on-site support before, during and after each move. We delivered custom cultural transformation components based on technology, personal change and physical space.” - Pfizer to train Chinese docs not to prescribe antibiotics for absolutely everything
The irrational use of antibiotics is a major problem in China, where about 30 percent patients take them as a panacea. 80,000 Chinese die each year because of the misuse of antibiotics. - Merck advertises Gardasil in India and it’s deja vu all over again
“The underlying assumption here is that adolescent girls in India may all become promiscuous,” says Jacob Puliyel, consultant paediatrician at the St. Stephens Hospital in Delhi. (See BNET’s debunking of false Gardasil rumors.) - Novo Nordisk guy succumbs to fumes
Note to self: Don’t add hydrochloric acid to sodium hypochlorite when cleaning insulin-making equipment.
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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