Because of the long holiday weekend looming here in the U.S., I anticipate that today will be pretty slow. Therefore, it’s a good time to record something personal and not offend my readers who may be looking for a “Mack Attack” such as the one I launched yesterday against Allergan, which I labeled an “unethical marketer and the the drug industry poster boy for off-label promotion” ( see here ). I guess most people started their vacations yesterday, because I didn’t get any response to that attack

Soon after I posted a blog entry and tweeted about cholesterol-lowering drugs (see here ), I “coincidentally” received the following e-mail message (click for an enlarged, readable view): I do not remember opting in to receive email from Insyst Media — the company that sent me this email. But, who knows, it may be one of those “third-party partners” of a website where I signed up to learn more about cholesterol

Today I will listen to the BlogTalkRadio show ” E-patients, Cyberchondriacs, and Why We Should Stop Calling Names ,” which promises to be an “open, honest and stimulating discussion” about the “potential implications of the use of the term e-Patient and why some argue that it should be reconsidered.” As background to that discussion, see this blog post by Susannah Fox ( @SusannahFox ) who leads the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s health research. Susannah will be a guest on the BlogTalkRadio show today and will be speaking at the e-Patient Connections 2010 conference next month in Philadelphia, PA. In her post, Susannah says: “In short, the data — Pew Internet’s and others’ — are quite clear that the online health revolution is over and that use of digital tools in tackling health problems is the natural state of affairs.” I would argue that the online health revolution is no where near “over” just because the data shows that seeking health information online is now part of mainstream America (ie, 61% of American adults looked online for health information in the past year)

In January, I pointed out that drug companies that place product videos on YouTube leave themselves open to association with other videos that poke fun at them, or worse, encourage consumers to join class action lawsuits against the company. The case that I pointed out was the YAZ Birth Control Channel (see ” The Trouble with YouTube: YAZ Case Study “).

Recently, the news media and Congress focused our attention on the recall of contaminated over-the-counter (OTC) children’s medication manufactured by McNeil Consumer, a division of Johnson & Johnson (see ” Despite Its Social Media Expertise, J&J Fails to Use It Effectively to Communicate to Consumers “). But there’s an even more dangerous problem than contamination relating to OTC medication for children: incorrect dosing

If you were expecting the movie “Love and Other Drugs” to be a hard-hitting expose of pharmaceutical sales tactics as was the book it’s loosely based on — ie, “Hard Sell,” by Jamie Reidy (see review here ; use code ‘JAMIE’ to get it FREE! — then you are in for a surprise. The trailer (see below) exposes that this is just another “love story” that happens to feature pharmaceutical sales reps and their shenanigans. “Anne Hathaway portrays Maggie, an alluring free spirit who won’t let anyone - or anything - tie her down

One new indication for pain = $500 Million in additional sales! Once a drug is developed for a single indication, gaining approval for additional indications can be sweet icing on the profit cake. As an example, take Cymbalta, which was originally approved in 2004 for adults with major depression.

The golf world was stunned by Tiger Woods’ recent poor performance.

Since writing about FDA’s letter to Novartis regarding the content of a Facebook Search Button — see ” Implications of FDA’s Warning Letter to Novartis Regarding Facebook Share Widget ” and ” Who’s in Charge of Your ‘Invisible’ Metadata? WARNING: Don’t Invoke the ‘Invisibility Rule’ ” — several other experts have offered their analysis and recommendations. I already have referred to “Digitas Health Facebook Regulatory Alert” in a previous post

Dedicated to the Twitter “debate” about which comes first for the FDA: The Medium or the Message? “It’s the message NOT the medium! This content did not follow existing FDA guidelines, it just so happened it was to be shared on FAcebook.” says Eileen O’Brien ( @EileenObrien )