health.newsbios

Reuters's Bill Berkrot: November 2008 Health.NewsBios Biography Update

This is an excerpt from Reuters Bill Berkrot's November 2008 Health.NewsBio.  His NewsBios dossier is one of more than 50 profiles of influential health journalist updated each month and available from NewsBios for only $69.95.  Hundreds of other NewsBios on health journalists are also available. Phone: 866-NEWS-070, ext. 2 to order or email tjfr@newsbios.com.

Bill Berkrot - Reuters
November 2008

Mr. Berkrot was part of the Reuters journalism contingent that traveled to New Orleans for the American Heart Association’s annual meeting, November 8th to 12th.  Among the stories he wrote emanating from the conference were:

•    AstraZeneca’s Crestor cuts deaths, heart attacks – November 9, 2008 (724 words)  [Mr. Berkrot filed the original 553-word story alone; when it was updated to include additional study details and comment, it carried the byline of Mr. Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson.]

•    Drug-coated stents top bare metal in diabetics – November 10, 2008 (715 words)  [Mr. Berkrot filed the original 336-word story alone; when it was updated to include company and analysts comments, it carried the byline of Mr. Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson.]

•    Bayer to advance clot drug despite mixed results – November 10, 2008 (649 words) by Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson

•    New test to identify heart failure in ER superior – November 11, 2008 (594 words)

•    Sanofi’s Multaq reduces hospitalization: study – November 11, 2008 (444 words)

In addition, Mr. Berkrot actively covered the Reuters Health Summit held in New York just before Thanksgiving.  His blog posts at the Reuters Summit on Health:

•    Obama victory sparks pride – now what?
Aetna CEO Ron Williams is one of the highest profile African American executives in the United States. On Wednesday he reflected on the election of Barack Obama, who is about to become the nation’s first black president.

•    High risk in high places
AstraZeneca Chief Executive David Brennan has identified a few more risk factors and may be ready to start taking his own cholesterol medicine.
“I don’t know about you guys but I’m having my CRP tested. Why not know? I’m 55 years old, Type A personality, an executive, that’s a risk factor right there. Working in the pharmaceutical industry is a risk factor,” Brennan said, only half joking.

On November 9th, Mr. Berkrot also wrote a short article, 344 words, titled “Headphones can interfere with heart devices”

BusinessWeek's Catherine 'Cathy' Arnst: November 2008 Health.NewsBios Biography Update

This is an excerpt from BusinessWeek's Catherine "Cathy" Arnst's November 2008 Health.NewsBio.  Her NewsBios dossier is one of more than 50 profiles of influential health journalist updated each month and available from NewsBios for only $69.95.  Hundreds of other NewsBios on health journalists are also available. Phone: 866-NEWS-070, ext. 2 to order or email tjfr@newsbios.com.

Catherine Arnst - BusinessWeek
November 2008

Along with her colleagues Peter Burrows, Roger Crockett, Aaron Pressman, Aaron Ricadela, Arlene Weintraub, Jena McGregor, Rob Hof, Amy Barrett, Manuel Baigorri, Kerry Capell, Emily Thornton, Jon Fine, Nanette Byrnes, Lauren Young, Amanda Zusman, David Kiley, Burt Helm, Arik Hesseldahl, Matthew Boyle, Gene Marcial, and Christopher Palmeri, Ms. Arnst contributed to a special election package under the direction of Chief of Correspondents Joseph Weber.  Ms. Arnst's story was HEALTH CARE: IMMEDIATE RELIEF FROM RISING COSTS (17 November 2008, 802 words).

The remainder of Ms. Arnst's print work this month was largely confined to editing and writing introductory paragraphs to sections in a special report on heart health, published on November 24. She addressed the cholesterol-lowering statin Crestor (221 words);  the ineffectiveness of vitamins on heart health (154 words); and fixing heart ailments by delivering healthful genes (207 words).

Online, she wrote about so-called dental tourism (November 09, 2008, 729 words), addressing the large number of Amerians who travel abroad for dental care because it is cheaper there than in the U.S.

Ms. Arnst also had four blog postings:

•    Take Time To "Engage With Grace" - November 26, 2008
This probably isn't the best time of year to bring this up, but how many of us have thought about the way we would like to leave this mortal coil?

•    Sling-Wearing Moms Take Aim At Johnson & Johnson - November 18, 2008
Johnson & Johnson learned the hard way -- don't make new moms mad. The company,which makes extensive use of new media, posted an ad for Motrin on its website.

•    What Makes A Good Family? - November 17, 2008
I'm sure many of you have read with horror the stories about the children that have been abandoned in Nebraska under the state's safe haven law.

•    Women, Heart Disease and Statins -  November 10, 2008
You may have already read about the statin study in the news today that found that the cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor reduced the risk of heart attacks, strokes and angioplasty.

AP's Lauran Neergaard Leads Wires Reporting on Swine Flu

The Associated Press's Lauran Neergaard has been covering outbreaks of infectious diseases since 1991. She is currently spearheading the wire service's coverage of the swine flu crisis.

Neergaard, 40, is based in Washington D.C.  Previously, she covered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from the AP's Atlanta bureau.  She is a graduate of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Georgia.

Among other public health topics she has covered are the anthrax attacks, the crackdown on Big Tobacco and mad cow disease.  She is married and has two daughters.

Her full, newly updated, in-depth dossier is available now from NewsBios.com.

USA Today's Julie Schmit Writes Impressive Review of PB Recall

Yesterday's USA Today carries an impressive 2,596-word Cover Story by reporter Julie Schmit recapping the utter breakdown in America's food-safety chain that failed to prevent the late 2008/early 2009 outbreak of salmonella in peanut butter products produced by Peanut Corp. of America.

Schmit, who reports on business-health topics for the national daily, writes that "the case reveals a food-safety system in which every key link in the chain of protection failed."  As she notes, the outbreak produced as many as nine deaths and sicked at least 700 people.

Schmit covered the story as it unfolded in January and February 2009.  She primarily reports alone, although she sometimes shares bylines with Elizabeth Weise. 

Schmit, 47, joined the paper in 1992 from the Stockton Record, where she was a business writer.  She has covered biotech, technology, and worked as the paper's Asia correspondent, among other beats.

WSJ & DJNS Got Core Merck-Schering Number Wrong

We may never know who is the goat at The Wall Street Journal and/or Dow Jones Newswires who flubbed the key number -- the value of the transaction -- in yesterday's coverage of the blockbuster merger of Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp.

While the two giant pharma companies put a price tag on the combination of $41.1 billion, WSJ.com and Dow Jones Newswire insisted for much of Monday that the true value of the cash-and-equity offer was only $32.6 billion. 

In a WSJ.com post at Health Blog (2:13 p.m. yesterday), the Journal's Sarah Rubenstein wrote:  "An update on the deal's size: Though Merck and Schering-Plough put it at $41.1 billion, it clocks in at $32.6 billion when taking into account only the cash and stock that Schering-Plough shareholders will received.  "The other $8.5 billion is Schering-Plough debt that Merck will take on."

Oops!  That was wrong. 

As the Journal makes clear today in its front page coverage, the deal is valued at $41.1 billion and the $8.5 billion figure is actually debt that Merck is taking on to help pay for the transaction.

It's far from clear that Rubenstein is the goat.  Or if she is, she's certainly not alone.

Other Journal and DJNS staffers who wrote stories yesterday relying on the erroneous $32.6 billion figure include Heidi N. Moore, James A. White and Peter Loftus.

Besides the obviously embarrassing question of how could the Journal have goofed up such an important fact and not caught itself all day long, the episode points to an important newsroom insight: reporters don't do enough of their own thinking, relying heavily on what their colleagues report.

Did any of the at least four reporters, including M&A expert Moore, ask their fellow reporters or editors the hard question of why the Journal was the only news organization to go with and stick with the $32.6 billion figure?

Like an infectious disease, once the Journal got the bug, it spread unchecked throughout the newsroom.

As usual, Health.NewsBios's request for comment or explanation from Journal reporters, editors and PR people has gone unanswered.

POST SCRIPT:  Rather than append a correction to each and every erroneous post published yesterday at WSJ.com, the editors of the site mostly reposted the same stories with the corrected number included.  One post, by James A. White, carries this note at its bottom:  "Correction: Merck agreed to buy Schering-Plough for $41.1 billion in cash and stock. An earlier version of this post incorrectly said the deal was valued at $32.6 billion."

Early Monday Blockbuster - Merck to Buy Schering-Plough for $41B

It will be a busy Monday for business-health journalists as Merck announces it will acquire Schering-Plough Corp. in a deal valued at $41 billion.  Health.NewsBios is blogging media coverage of the combination here, now, and throughout the day.  Check back for frequent updates.

• The math just doesn't add up for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, which can't seem to make up their minds as to the true value of the Merck bid for Schering-Plough.  Frankly, it's embarrassing.
  
  On Health Blog this afternoon (2:13 p.m.), Journal reporter Sarah Rubenstein wrote: "Though Merck and Schering-Plough put it at $41.1 billion, it clocks in at $32.6 billion when taking into account only the cash and stock that Schering-Plough shareholders will receive.  The other $8.5 billion is Schering-Plough debt that Merck will take on."
  
  Later, at 4:16 p.m., James A. White repeats the $32.6 billion figure, which is repeated a third time by DJNS's Peter Loftus at 4:58 p.m.  Then at 5:57 p.m. EDT, DJNS runs a correction to Mr. Loftus's story saying the correct figure is "a cash-and-stock deal with an equity value of about $41.1 billion."  Oh, my!
  
  They can't all be right, but they could all be wrong if the $32.6 billion figure first mentioned by Rubenstein was in error. 
  
  We'll try to see if anyone at the Journal or DJNS cares to explain.  Usually, Journal folk don't respond to Health.NewsBios requests for comment.
  

• Roche Holding AG has raised its bid for Genentech to $95 a share says Jessica Hall at 5:44 EDT on the Reuters.com site.  Hall attributes the news to "a source familiar with the situation." Earlier, The Wall Street Journal speculated that such a move could happen today, although no official word on the matter has come from Roche.
  
  Hall writes as if it is a done deal.  The higher price "marks the second increase since  Friday," she says.  "'The new price was enough to get both sides to the table,' said the source, who was not authorized to speak to the press," Reuters reported.
  
  It is interesting that this unauthorized source, who is supposedly violating a fiduciary confidentiality, is still trustworthy enough for Reuters to count on him or her.  Usually in similar circumstances, unauthorized sources are in fact 'authorized,' only they want to make it seem they are not.  That is how the game is played.

• Kudos to Bloomberg News's Alex Nussbaum and Shannon Pettypiece who on Saturday wrote, Schering-Plough May Be Next Drugmaker Acquired by a Rival. How did they know?  The two reporters didn't miss the fact that on Friday, March 6th, shares of S-P rose the most in a month.
  
  Now, James A. White over at WSJ.com is blogging that "if the Securities and Exchange Commission wants to prove its worth after missing Madoff and other scandals, perhaps it might take a look at the latest instance of a pre-merger stock runup."  White credits the Journal's Heidi N. Moore for reporting that today's blockbuster announcement "doesn't seem to have been a surprise to everyone in the markets."

• You won't find any streaming video on the Merck-Schering combination at WSJ.com, unlike January 26th when Pfizer agreed to buy Wyeth.  Why not?  Could it be because last month the Journal laid off long-time pharmaceutical reporter and editor, Scott Hensley, who did the video duties in January?  Hensley also oversaw the site's Health Blog and helped supervise reporters Jacob Goldstein and Sarah Rubenstein.
  
  Health.NewsBios has tried to get the Journal's PR department or John Carreyrou, Health & Science editor for the paper, to tell us who will now oversee Health Blog.  But no one has responded to our inquiries.  It always strikes us as ironic that journalists such as Carreyrou, who admonish companies to be more open to press queries, go hiding when they themselves are approached by a reporter working on a story.  We'll bet Carreyrou & Company are missing Hensley's talents and experience today!

• Out of curiosity and to make sure we are not missing any important coverage, we clicked on over to the homepage of Investor's Business Daily to see what that paper has to say about the Merck deal.  The answer: nothing.  At 4:48 p.m. EDT, the word "Merck" appears nowhere on the paper's main page.

• The Financial Times, down one pharma reporter with the departure of Boston-based Rebecca Knight, has put together an impressive package of coverage nonetheless, led by London-based Andrew Jack, a journalism workhorse.
  
  Health.NewsBios is particularly impressed with Jack's An dose of pharmaceutical competitiveness, which offers some fly-on-the-wall details concerning how the deal was struck.  "Last December, only weeks after Barack Obama had won the race for the US presidency, Richard Clark, the head of Merck, arranged a meeting with Fred Hassan, his opposite number at Schering-Plough," Jack writes.
  
  Jack says the holdup in agreeing on a deal surrounded price.  S-P, Jack states, "was being courted by another New Jersey peer, Johnson & Johnson, which some analysts argue was a closer fit."
  
  Jack's Lex colleagues quickly posted their own take on today's announcement: "Allow for these synergies, and Merck's post-tax return on investment will be a respectible 10 per cent," Lex calculates, a figure not spotted elsewhere in the media today.
  
  In New York, M&A reporter Julie Macintosh offers her take on a streaming video available from FT.com.
  
  Photo: Julie Macintosh

• Certainly every journalist covering the Merck acquisition would like to interview CEO Richard Clark today.  So it is interesting to note who gets to the big guy, and who is left quoting his statements or interviewing members of the public relations department.
  
  Bloomberg News's Shannon Pettypiece, in her most recent story iteration, quotes from an interview with Clark.  Score one for Pettypiece!
  
  "What convinced me as a CEO of Merck was to have our head of research come back and talk about the quality of the scientific programs," Pettypiece quotes Clark as saying during a telephone conversation.  "This is about the science and not just synergies and that is what makes this different than other deals in the past."
  
  Among the likely factors weighing on which journalists get access to Clark and which don't: who their readers and viewers are; who the Merck public relations executives trust to be balanced; which reporters hustle the hardest. Chances are those journalists who don't perform well on all three criteria get handed the news release.

• Veteran Reuters pharma reporters Edward Tobin and Ransdell Pierson share a byline on the wire's 2:35 p.m. post at Reuters.com.  Ben Hirshler in London and Sam Cage in Zurich also contribute, with editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Andre Grenon.
  
  Their afternoon update notes that Merck has deeper pockets than Schering-Plough and "would help fund research on Schering-Plough products, including promising blood clot and hepatitis C drugs.  The reporters repeat analysts' speculation that Johnson & Johnson could launch a rival bid for S-P, adding that "J&J officials couldn't be reached for comment."
  
  What are the folks in the J&J public relations department doing today to be so unavailable? Ducking the press, perhaps?

• Mike Huckman has posted his first Pharma's Market item on the Merck-Schering deal, pointing out that his adopted state of New Jersey stands to be the big loser in terms of jobs and tax revenues.  New Jersey, writes Huckman on CNBC.com, "is already reeling from the banking crisis because of its proximity to and dependence on Wall Street. And now a consolidation wave in big pharma is threatening to take the state under."

• We've heard back from Phil Mintz, who we asked to explain why BusinessWeek.com is touting his reporting on the Merck merger as a "BW Exclusive".  Here's  Phil's response:

Thanks for pointing that out. That’s a technological artifact from when we used to have a module on our home page called BW Exclusives. Our story page template pulls in the top of our home page into that module. We re-named the Home Page module News and Analysis some time ago, but apparently that change never made it to our story template page. Our design folks are now on the case.

• Even while we typed the next item, Forbes' Matthew Herper was cranking out some fresh insights.  He's back with Four Thoughts on Merck-Schering. They include: "In a sense, this is the end of Merck;" and the merger "does not solve the fundamental problems regarding innovation."

• Forbes.com labels the Merck-Schering combination as "Another Merger of Weakness."  The Forbes.com homepage has a package of four pharma-related articles.  Mathhew Herper, health care reporter, writes that "more than anything else, the deal shows how tough times have gotten for drug companies."  His sources include: Barbara Ryan, an analyst at Deutsche Bank and Tim Anderson at Sanford C. Bernstein. 
  
  Herper writes that the merger will help Merck's earnings "and protect its dividend during a time when drug companies are being hurt not only by the global economic crisis but also by years in which the industry as a whole has failed to invent enough drugs."
  
  For those keeping track, Herper posted at 10:30 a.m.

• Not sure why, but BusinessWeek.com is touting its story, Merck Is Buying Schering-Plough for $41B, as a "BW Exclusive."  The story by Phil Mintz, news editor, doesn't appear to Health.NewsBios to have any real scoop.  We'll email Mintz and ask him why.

Alicia Mundy's First WSJ Page One Story: 'Lobbying Drove FDA Process'

Alicia Mundy, who has specialized in probing the links between FDA policy and lobbying efforts by drug-makers and other health care companies, delivered her first front page story on the subject in Friday's The Wall Street Journal.

Ms. Mundy, who joined the Journal in March 2008, penned the 2,500-word investigative story, Political Lobbying Drove FDA Process, in which she pours over internal FDA documents to report that "The recent approval of a new device to treat knee injuries followed a lobbying campaign that overcame repeated rejections" by FDA scientists.

The article focuses on Menaflex, made by New Jersey-based ReGen Biologics Inc., and quotes former FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach saying "we fumbled that process" when the agency agreed to fast-track approval of the product that is used to repair a torn meniscus in the knee.  Mr. von Eschenbach was in charge of the government regulator at the time it allowed ReGen to skip past standard clinical trials on its path to approval.  The FDA approved Menaflex on December 20th.

To support her reporting, Ms. Mundy cites "emails reviewed by the Journal," although she doesn't make clear how she obtained access to the internal FDA communications.  This is similar to a story Ms. Mundy wrote on January 14th, Glaxo's Emails on Avandia Reveal Concern, in which she notes that Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa was preparing a report "containing excerpts from Glaxo documents."  In her Page One story, Ms. Mundy also mentions that Sen. Grassley "is also looking into the Menaflex approval process" -- making the Senator's office a leading candidate as the source of her materials.

Two other supportive sources Ms. Mundy cites are Jay Mabrey, the chief of orthopedic surgery at Baylor University Medical Center, who served as chairman of the FDA advisory committee weighing Menaflex; and Larry Kessler, who now heads the Health Services Department at the University of Washington, but who was previously with the FDA and directed the laboratory that reviewed Menaflex. 

Dr. Kessler told Ms. Mundy the Menaflex approval "shows the FDA at its worst."

Ms. Mundy's past reporting has been controversial leading one critic affiliated with the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest to accuse her last year of her own conflicts-of-interest, having worked at as a New America Foundation Fellow prior to joining the Journal and written an article for the "far left" American Prospect magazine.  Additional details are available in Ms. Mundy's Health.NewsBio.

Ms. Mundy is the author of Dispensing With The Truth, which alleges a deliberate deception by Wyeth-Ayerst (a division of American Home Products) pertaining to the risks of the diet drug, fen-phen.

Jared A. Favole, who covers the FDA for Dow Jones Newswires, is credited at the bottom of Ms. Mundy's front page story for having contributed reporting to it.

To order Ms. Mundy's full Health.NewsBios dossier, phone 866-NEWS-070, x.2.  It is available, like that of dozens of other influential health journalists, for $69.95.

TIME Magazine’s Alice Park Named February’s Top U.S. Health Journalist

Beverly Hills, CA (March 4, 2009)  – Alice Park, who has reported on medicine and health for TIME magazine since 1993, was named the top health journalist in the country for the month of February 2009.

Health.NewsBios, an affiliate of NewsBios.com, reviewed the performance of more than 50 leading national reporters and editors covering health and medical-related topics and selected Ms. Park as the journalist who turned in the most impressive performance.

 In the space of roughly one month, Ms. Park had two cover stories in the print edition of TIME – including a controversial 3,850-word article on stem cell research – and contributed numerous posts to Time.com.

Her posts at Time.com included stories on: efforts to develop a flu supervaccine; preventing hearing loss in teens; bacterial infections in hospitals; the benefits of statins and the relationship between a mother’s obesity and birth defects.

“Unlike some health reporters who pretty much cruised through February – a slow news month, Ms. Park hustled and behaved like a reporter who is still ‘hungry’ for the opportunity to report,” says Dean Rotbart, founder and executive editor of Health.NewsBios. 

Mr. Rotbart said that while some critics, including fellow journalists, took issue with Ms. Park’s reporting on her February 9th cover, Stem Cell Research: The Quest Resumes, he was impressed with her willingness and that of her editors to take on a topic that is fraught with heated opinions.   “Even those who feel Ms. Park didn’t have sufficient balance in her article have to admit that she stirred the pot, and indirectly at least, also provided them fresh cause to air their own views,” Mr. Rotbart explains.  “Discussing controversial issues is an important journalistic role.”

Ms. Park’s second cover story, Going Nuts Over Allergies, appears in the magazine’s edition dated March 9th.

“There are other news outlets with much larger health and science teams and many more windows with which to cover health and medicine,” Mr. Rotbart observed.  “But Ms. Park really gives fresh meaning to the expression, ‘an army of one.’”

History Repeats As Crisis Communicators Mismanage the 2009 Peanut Butter Recall

Rotbart, an award-wining investigative reporter and executive editor of NewsBios.com, will conduct a 90-minute webinar on February 27th titled, Media Relations Lessons from the 2009 Peanut Butter Recall.  For complete details send an email to:  info@editor-in-chief.com.

By Dean Rotbart

The most recent salmonella outbreak, spread through tainted peanut butter products, has spawned the largest food product recall in American history. 

It has also demonstrated convincingly that for all Corporate America should have learned from dozens of earlier product recalls dating back decades, food and consumer products companies remain glaringly ignorant of what communications steps count most in the early hours and days of a health and safety recall.

Never have so many smart companies with so much at stake entrusted so much, so mistakenly, to the power of the news release and on-the-job reporters. 

Of course your products are affected!  Perhaps not legally, but in the minds of consumers and the marketplace, you are front and center in this national catastrophe.  Don’t believe me? Just ask your sales force what it is hearing back from the field?

It seems so obvious that I’m almost ashamed to write this, but when it comes to product recalls, the media’s interests and your company’s or brand’s needs are not aligned.

For nearly three decades, I’ve witnessed up close the ways in which journalists perceive a product recall and the ways in which companies respond to these unfortunate events.  I first reported on the topic in 1980 as the lead reporter for The Wall Street Journal covering Procter & Gamble’s recall of its Rely tampons, which were implicated in a disproportionate number of cases of toxic shock syndrome.

In the ensuing years I’ve covered other recalls and covered the journalists and news organizations covering the recalls, from Tylenol to jalepeños, baby formula to peanut butter.

Each incident has its own peculiarities and generalizations about recalls are just that. But there are patterns that reoccur each and every time the public’s safety is endangered by a faulty device or tainted food.  And these patterns can be crucial to anticipate when a fresh outbreak arises.

Editors or reporters sitting in a newsroom who get a news release from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alerting them to illness and/or death related to a consumer product, have many questions they want answered.

How many people are affected? How many products are impacted? How large a geographical region is involved? Which manufacturers are implicated? How quickly can the products be removed from shelves? What actions are the FDA and CDC taking? What medical symptoms arise? How are those symptoms treated? Is there negligence involved? And so on.

Preserving the reputations of those good companies that have recalled products or protecting the reputations of those good companies who have similar products that are not being recalled, is not high on the agenda of journalists – if it is on their agenda at all.

That is your job.  And, to be frank, it is hard to find even one major national company that makes or sells peanut-butter containing products that clearly acted on this necessity from the get-go in early January 2009.

The marketplace, the ultimate arbiter of whether crisis communications works, is overwhelmingly reminding food and snack companies that when recalls arise, the tidal wave of bad publicity is indiscriminate. In this instance, it has engulfed tainted peanut butter brands, non-tainted brands, even non-peanut butter products.

Weekend Health News: Peanut Butter Recall Still in the Headlines

News about the recall of Peanut Corporation of America products and recriminations for the companies caught with suspect products continues to make headlines this weekend.  While much of the reporting is retracing well-covered ground, heath.newsbios did spot some fresh, engaging articles.

• Some recalled peanut butter snacks still in stores -- By Craig Schneider and Doug Nurse (2/8), The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“It’s so confusing,” said Shelly Awl, a clerk at a gas station on Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta. “I wish they would communicate better what is safe and what is not.”

Awl said she spent Thursday morning sorting through the snacks trying to determine what was safe. She had removed some Frito-Lay and Lance snacks that are not on the recall list.

Still there on the shelf, however, were two boxes of recalled Austin brand Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter.

She threw them out when informed by a reporter that they were on the recall list.

• Peanut recall clears food banks' shelves -- By Francesca Jarosz (2/8), Indianapolis Star
  
  Now Gleaners [Food Bank of Indiana] and other charities that provide food for the needy are scrambling to find a replacement for a staple source of protein just as demand for food is skyrocketing.
  
  Throwing food away "makes us sick," said Pamela Altmeyer, president and chief executive officer of Gleaners. "But better that we would be sick at heart than someone be sick in their body."

Also of Note:

• Opinion: Food Safety Mustn't Be Left In FDA's Hands -- By U.S. Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, D-New Haven (2/8), The Hartford Courant
  
  To truly fix inherent problems in our food safety system, we must fundamentally restructure the food safety bureaucracy at the FDA. Today, food safety is divided among multiple, separately managed units at the FDA — the Office of the Commissioner, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, the Center for Veterinary Medicine, the field force (Office of Regulatory Affairs) and the National Center for Toxicological Research. As a result, there is no one single individual to be held accountable for food safety at the FDA or anywhere else at the federal level.
  
  Separating food safety regulation from drug and device approvals would go a long way toward restoring the balance that has long been missing at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, and give food safety the attention it deserves. By establishing a Food Safety Administration within Health and Human Services, headed by its own commissioner, we can give food safety experts and researchers the room and the resources to do their jobs.

• Editorial: Questioning Food Safety -- The Plain Dealer (2/7)
  
  FDA inspectors noted in September that they refused to let adulterated nuts from the Georgia plant back in the United States after a Canadian importer rejected them. Yet it appears that FDA inspectors did not visit the suspect plant.
  
  Such incompetence is incomprehensible, a sign that the nation's food inspection system is flat out broken.

• Editorial: The FDA - Making Us Sick -- The Philadelphia Inquirer (2/7)
  
  It says much about the depth of our food-safety crisis that, before the feds could get around to any other sanctions against Peanut Corp., they had to stop doing business with it.

Landlocked Colorado Hit With 'Cruise Ship' Illness - Denver Post

Denver Post reporter Jennifer Brown writes in the paper's Sunday edition that Colorado has seen a tenfold increase in the number of cases of norovirus, the gastrointestinal illness most commonly associated with passengers aboard cruise ships.

While still small in total numbers -- 145 reports of norovirus outbreaks last year, Brown says in all 6,517 people have contracted the virus and 13 died from it.  Her report is exclusive.

The most commonly affected are senior citizens living in nursing homes or other communal environments.  Other locations include child-care centers, camps and hospitals.

Brown interviews Dr. Aron Hall, a medical epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  "Although not life-threatening, it's a pretty miserable experience," he tells the Post.  Norovirus is, in fact, life-threatening to the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

P&G May Sell Pharma Biz -- Julie Macintosh, the FT

The Financial Times' Julie Macintosh and Jonathan Birchall in New York report exclusively (2/5) that consumer products giant, Procter & Gamble has retained Goldman Sachs to help it unload its pharmaceuticals brands.  WSJ.com's Health Blog credits Macintosh and Birchall with the scoop.

In addition to its print story, the FT posts a video of Macintosh explaining why it makes more sense for giant pharma companies to own consumer products divisions than for giant consumer products companies to own pharma divisions.  Last week, as the FT reporters note, P&G shares hit a 52-week low of $52.21.  P&G's healthcare unit - both consumer products and prescriptions -- earned $2.5 billion in 2008 on $14.6 billion in sales. 

Macintosh's video can be viewed here.

5 Most Viewed Washington Post Articles Today

As of 12:25 EST, these are the five most popular health-related articles on washingtonpost.com:

1) Suspect Peanuts Sent to Schools:  A front page article (2/6) by Lyndsey Layton 
Peanut Corporation of America sold 32 truckloads of roasted peanuts and peanut butter to the federal government for a free-lunch program for poor children even as the company's internal tests showed that its products were contaminated with salmonella bacteria.

2) In colon cancer drug study, more wasn't better:  By Stephanie Nano of The Associated Press (2/4)
NEW YORK -- Doctors thought that combining two newer drugs that more precisely attack cancer would help people with advanced colon cancer. Instead, it made the cancer worse and made the patients more miserable, a study found.

3) It's Not the Heat, It's the Tranquillity: By Sindya N. Bhanoo (2/3) from Page HE01 (Special to The Washington Post)
It was a hot, air-conditioner-worthy day last summer when Chester Marl came home from the hospital. The newborn slept remarkably well through the night.

4) A Headache That Didn't Go Away:  By Sandra G. Boodman (2/3) from Page HE01 (Special to The Washington Post)
Valerie Novak fervently wished doctors would stop telling her the intense headache she'd endured for several weeks was a migraine. For one thing, neither the Georgetown University senior nor her close relatives had headaches, and migraines are frequently familial.

5) Few get surgery for grim pancreatic cancer: By Lauran Neergaard of The Associated Press (2/5)
WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg got a shot at survival that unfortunately few people with pancreatic cancer do: not just care from a celebrated specialist but the chance to have surgery at all.

Health Journalism Today - February 5, 2009

While all national news organizations reported the news that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has pancreatic cancer and most speculated on her possibly soon-to-be-vacant seat, U.S. News & World Report's Katherine Hobson was quick to post 6 Things You Need to Know About Pancreatic Cancer. Helping to guide Hobson in her reporting was Gauri Varadhachary, a medical oncologist who specializes in pancreatic cancer at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

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It was a good day for for veteran financial/health journalist Maggie Mahar who was interviewed on ABC News about the failed nomination of Tom Daschle and who wrote on the same topic for The Guardian of London.

On her Health Beat blog, Mahar says the loss of Daschle won't deal a serious blow to healthcare reform, noting particularly that "Daschle was expected to compromise with conservatives -- which might have meant giving in on issues that more progressive reformers consider essential to reform." 

In the Guardian, Mahar, author of Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, concludes that the "idea of tightly regulating the private insurance industry...will be contentious."  Even without Daschle, Mahar reassures progressives that healthcare reformers still have Senators Max Baucus and Ted Kennedy to champion their cause.

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Writing for the Op-Ed pages of The Washington Times, Amy Menefee makes the case that the so-called 'stimulus' bill holds within it the seeds of slyly revamping the U.S. healthcare system.  "It would hand over decisions about your care to a group of bureaucrats you won't have the chance to elect," Menefee believes.

Menefee, previously managing editor of Media Reseearch Center's Business & Media Institute, is now director of communications for nonprofit Galen Institute, a health policy think tank. 

"...having the government decide which treatments are acceptable is beyond frightening," Menefee writes.  In her Washington Times piece, she quotes Robert Pear of The New York Times who wrote, "For Democrats, it [the stimulus package] is also a tool for rewriting the social contract with the poor, the uninsured and the employed, in ways they have long yearned to do" and "with little notice and no public hearings."

Menefee, a native of Macon, GA., studied public policy journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MA-2004), and is a frequent blogger and editorial contributor on health-related topic. 

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Botox is not recession-proof, or at least not as much as some once thought.  So writes Natasha Singer in The New York Times, noting that the 8.8% decline in quarterly earnings at Allergan, maker of the best known antiwrinkle shots, is proof positive that the entire $12 billion-a-year cosmetic medicine market is slumping. 

Singer notes that Allergan is viewed by many investment analysts as the bellwether of the cosmetic medical market.  "Call it the Botox index," she suggests.

Singer interviewed David E.I. Pyott, CEO, by phone.  She also spoke to Gary Nachman, an analyst with Leerink Swann, a health care investment bank.

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Also:

• Roche Offers Dim Outlook as Profit Drops 8% -- (442 words) By Jeanne Whalen and Anita Greil -- The Wall Street Journal

• FBI Reopens Tylenol Tampering Case -- By Jeff Coen and Gary Marx -- The Chicago Tribune

• Vertex CEO to Retire, Clearing Way for M&A Deal -- (401 words) By Deena Beasley (Additional reporting by Bill Berkrot, edited by Richard Chang and Andre Grenon.)

• David Hauslaib's JOSSIP has some thoughts on Women's Health magazine and its new editor, Michele Promaulayko:  "The magazine has started to read more like a Cosmo than a health mag," he writes, noting that Promaulayko is a Cosmopolitan ex-pat.  Joining their old colleague at Women's Health are Molly Nover-Baker, who becomes beauty director; and Lesley Rotchford, who moves from deputy editor of Cosmo to executive features editor at Women's Health.

Health Journalism Today - February 4, 2009

Would you like some hepatitis and HIV along with that flu shot?  It's not as far-fetched as it may sound, according to The Wall Street Journal's Laura Landro, who writes in today's The Informed Patient column that lax injection guidelines at some health care facilities could become life threatening.

"Although most health-care workers are aware of the dangers of reusing needles, other injection guidelines aren't always followed, including disposing of syringes after each use," Landro reports.  "Contaminated shots can lead to transmission of such diseases as hepatitis and HIV, along with other viral and bacterial infections."

Look for a 'One Needle, One Syringe, Only One Time' campaign coming next week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and private medical groups.

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The FDA's move to conduct a safety review of Eli Lilly's injectable sepsis drug, Xigris, is the focus of The Associated Press's Matthew Perrone; Reuters' Susan Heavey; and Dow Jones Newswire's Jennifer Corbett Dooren.  Bloomberg likely has the story, too, but nothing has been posted at its free web site as of 2 p.m. EST today.

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Word from Merck & Co. that it is keeping all it's options open, including that of a mega acquisition, was covered yesterday for Dow Jones Newswires and WSJ.com by Peter Loftus in the DJNS Philly bureau.  But it was print reporter Jonathan D. Rockoff who wrote the article for today's newspaper.

Let's compare:

Loftus's Lead Sentence:  "Merck & Co. Chief Executive Richard Clark said Tuesday the drug maker would consider a large-scale acquisition.

Rockoff's Lead Sentence:  "Merck & Co. Chief Executive Richard Clark said the drug maker was open to buying a big rival, signaling a shift for a company that long maintained its research prowess was enough to keep it growing."

What Loftus Says Clark Said:  "I don't think any CEO in this environment can categorically rule out any transaction."

What Rockoff Says Clark Said:  "I don't think in today's world any CEO can categorically rule out any type of transaction."

Bloomberg's Shannon Pettypiece, who monitored the exact same conference call that Clark conducted with analysts, casts her vote for Rockoff's version:  "I don't think in today's world, any CEO can categorically rule out any type of transaction."

The Journal credits Barbara Martinez and Mike Barris as contributors to Rockoff's article. 

Rockoff quotes only one third-party source: John Boris of Citigroup.  Pettypiece doesn't quote any third-party source in her Merck acquisitions article at bloomberg.com, but does interview Jeffrey Kraws, chief executive officer of Crystal Research Associates for her same-day story on Merck's fourth-quarter results.

"Sales of Merck’s Gardasil, a vaccine against cervical cancer, fell 16 percent to $286 million, with U.S. revenue declining 19 percent. The vaccine, approved in 2006 in girls and women ages 9 to 26, has failed to catch on with young adults within that age group. Patients may also be skipping the $400 shot because of the recession, analysts said." Pettypiece wrote.  But which "analysts" she spoke with other than Kraws aren't mentioned by name in the version available online.

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At the New York Times, Jeff Zeleny, Robert Pear, Carl Hulse and Peter Baker have more to say in the aftermath of Tom Daschle's retreat as President Barack Obama's secretary of health and human services.

Just Spotted:

• Spine Surgery: Less Invasive Procedure Speeds Healing (2/3) -- By Monifa Thomas, Chicago Sun-Times

• Babies Know: A Little Dirt is Good for You (1/26) -- By Jane E. Brody, The New York Times

• New Mom of 8 Babies Should Call It Quits Now (2/3) -- By Shanderia K. Posey, Health Editor, The Clarion Ledger

Photo: Laura Landro - Wall Street Journal, Undated

‘Food scares have become as common as Midwestern tornadoes’ – New York Times

By Dean Rotbart
Executive Editor

In Gardner Harris’s extensively researched article, The Safety Gap, which ran in the The New York Times Sunday Magazine last November, the vulnerability of the U.S. food and drug supply chain to foreign imports was laid bare.

The bottom line of Harris’s 5,200-word article was that huge volumes of pharmaceutical and food products (or their ingredients) are reaching U.S. shores each year and there are way, way too few inspectors to avoid major problems, such as those that arose earlier in 2008 due to tainted Chinese baby formula.

Now Mr. Harris, one of the nation’s toughest reporter watchdogs of food safety, pharmaceutical companies, and of the Food and Drug Administration, finds himself reporting on what Stephen Sundlof, head of the FDA’s food safety center, says is one of the largest food recalls ever: peanut butter.

More than 530 people to date have taken ill and at least eight people infected with salmonella have died from peanut-related products that are believed to have been manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America.  The first cases began showing up last September and despite the recall, which has impacted numerous companies including Kellogg and General Mills, fresh cases are still turning up.

The Justice Department and the FDA have begun a criminal investigation amidst evidence that PCoA shipped products it knew were tainted and didn’t maintain safe product conditions at its plant in Blakely, GA.

All major national news organizations are covering the story, although the vast majority of articles have been rather perfunctory recitations of FDA statements and actions.

Mr. Gardiner is one of the few national journalists so far to generate a feature-oriented article.  On January 30th, he and Pam Belluck wrote New Look at Food Safety After Peanut Tainting, which included an interview with the mother of a 7 year old who was afflicted.

“Food scares have become as common as Midwestern tornadoes,” wrote Mr. Gardiner and Ms. Belluck.  They went on to flesh out how the latest cases were detected and some of the reasons that federal health officials don’t respond more quickly once an outbreak occurs.

Men's Health Zinczenko Rooted for the Steelers

The New York Observer reports that Dave Zinczenko, editor of Men's Health, was among the media V.I.P.s attending the Sports Illustrated SuperBowl party on Sunday night at The Plaza's Oak Room.

NYO's Reid Pillifant writes that Zinczenko, who has roots in Pennsylvania, spent most of the game talking to fellow revelers.  "He laughed after a young woman complimented his recent appearance on Oprah.   'It was a childhood obesity special,' he said," Pillifant reports.

Zinczenko, author of the Eat This, Not That! book series, told the paper he was struggling with his good and evil impulses when it came to the party's mix of seafood and sweets.  "I'm not faring so well tonight," Zinczenko acknowledged.

Other media personalities at the part included Lewis Lapham (ex-Harper's editor), Richard Johnson (Page Six), Harry Smith (CBS News) and Terry McDonnell, Sport Illustrated's editor.

Speaking of Health Reporters: Deborah Kotz, U.S. News & World Report

"I feel as if I'm always a bit of a downer, reporting sobering news..." writes Deborah Kotz of U.S. News & World Report on her On Women blog of January 13th.  In this instance, she is conveying the findings of a government report that shows STDs are on the rise and women are the ones who pay the highest price.

Ms. Kotz advises women to avoid unprotected sex with a new partner, adding "many of us still don't insist that men wear condoms."

Health Journalism Today - February 3, 2009

The big story of the day was the collapse of Tom Daschle's nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services.  The Associated Press released the text of Daschle's withdrawal statement, which was quickly noted (1:16 p.m.) by Scott Hensley on Health Blog, at WSJ.com.

Reuter''s Susan Heavey forecast that Daschle's collapse could delay the selection of a new Food and Drug Administration commissioner.  Among those Ms. Heavey  turned to for comment were Ron Pollack, executive director of the consumer advocacy group, Families USA, and Diana Zuckerman, president of the advocacy group National Research Center for Women & Families.  

Among possible contenders for the top FDA post, Ms. Heavey lists:  Joshua Sharfstein, head of Baltimore's health department; Robert Califf, cardiologist at Duke University; Steven Nissen, cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic; and Susan Wood, former head of the FDA's Office of Women's Health.

Andrew Pollack of The New York Times is out online this afternoon with InterMune Stock Soars on Results of Lung Disease Drug Study, covering the market reaction to what may be the first drug to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which afflicts 100,000 Americans each year.

InterMune shares jumped more than one-third in mid-afternoon trading today, as the company's CEO, Dan Welch, told securities analysts "we believe we have a very strong argument on behalf of patients."  Pollack interviews Dr. Paul W. Noble, a professor at Duke University and co-chair of the committee that helped design the company's trial of the drug, called pirfenidone.

Dow Jones Newswires's Philadelphia-based pharma reporter, Peter Loftus, reports on the analysts conference call conducted by Merck & Co. CEO Richard Clark where the executive states that he is not ruling out "any transaction" Writes Loftus in Merck CEO: Eyeing 'Entire Spectrum' of Possible Acquisition: "[Clark's] comments Tuesday suggest Clark might be open to a larger combination with another traditional pharmaceutical company."

Loftus was back later in the afternoon with the 1,100-word Drug Makers Take Varying M&A Tacks In Wake of Pfizer's Move.

Also:

• Partner drugmakers Merck, Schering-Plough top forecasts on cost cuts despite light revenues -- (795 words) By Linda A. Johnson -- Associated Press

• Peanut Product Recall Took Company Approval -- (903 words) By Gardiner Harris -- New York Times

FT's Andrew Jack Has the Scoop on Sanofi-Aventis Expansion Plans

London-based Andrew Jack, lead pharmaceuticals reporter for The Financial Times, reported late Sunday night (2/1) that Sanofli-Aventis is planning to make acquisitions in a bid to enlarge and diversify its businesses.

Other news organizations, including Dow Jones Newswires, The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog, and Bloomberg News were forced to play catch up.

Jack cited comments made by Chris Viehbacher, Sanofi-Aventis's CEO, at a company staff meeting held on Friday, January 30th.  Jack wrote that Viebacher "is keen to make his mark with a similar but still bolder version of the strategy adopted by Andrew Witty, who beat him to the top job at [GlaxoSmithKline] in late 2007."

Bloomberg News's Albertina Torsoli, based in Paris, confirmed and expanded upon the crux of Viehbacher's remarks with Thierry Bodin, a member of the pharmaceutical company's union.  Torsoli also quoted "two people familiar with the talks" in noting that Sanofi is seeking a new finance chief and has interviewed Jerome Contamine, the former finance head of Veolia Environment SA.

Elena Berton of Dow Jones Newswire could only get Sanofi-Aventis to confirm that Viehbacher had spoken to employees at the end of last week, but not that the French drug maker is planning acquisitions.

Bloomberg and Health Blog credited the FT's Jack with naming likely targets for Sanofi, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen, and Biogen Idec.

Jean-Marc Podvin, a Sanofi spokesman, was cited by Bloomberg.

Health Journalism Today - February 2, 2009

Alice Park of TIME magazine has a lengthy article, The Quest Resumes, about the resurgence of stem-cell scientists and their research. Prominently featured is Harvard's Douglas Melton.

Jared A. Favole and Alicia Mundy of The Wall Street Journal write: FDA Panel May Reccomend High Fence Around Lilly Clot Drug, which the pair says will have ramifications for the multibillion-dollar market. Jonathan D. Rockoff contributed to the story.

Also:

• Federal regulators sue Solvay and generic firms for conspiring to delay cheaper drugs -- (538 words) By Matthew Perrone -- Associated Press
  
  
• FDA Questions Effectiveness of Dyax Drug for Rare Disorder -- (502 words)  By Jennifer Corbett Dooren -- Dow Jones Newswires

• Democrats rally behind pick for health chief, imperiled by tax disclosure -- (724 words)  By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Robert Pear -- The New York Times