ConsumerWatchdog.org

Consumer Watchdog has protested strings-attached grants from Big Oil to universities, but the oil companies are just following the path of Big Pharma. Here, from the Century Foundation's Maggie Mahar and Niko Karvounis, is a concise history of legislation that opened the classroom door to drug companies--and even let cosmetic giant Shiseido control research agendas at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital.  

When the federal government passes a law but has no cops to enforce it, the crooks hold a "get out of jail free" card. That's the unfortunate effect of a sweeping and successful effort by drug and insurance companies to have federal law "preempt" state enforcement. A spate of stories today (LA Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times) on new federal rules against insurance company abuses of Medicare recipients drives home the point.

Here's a perfect example of why a non-medical company with no relationship to the patient should never be allowed access to patient information without permission first - as a ...

A bill passed its second California Senate committee this week that would give an ever-wider circle of companies access to Californians' private medical information. SB 1096 by Senator Ron Calderon would allow pharmacies to give...

 Hundreds of Service Employee International Union (SEIU) staff and members stormed a progressive union gathering in Dearborn, Michigan this Saturday -- dispensing injuries, bruises and split heads to conference-goers at a Labor...