Briefly

Marketing: Pharmaceutical manufacturers in the United States will be allowed to resume the practice (outlawed in 2006) of distributing medical journal articles to physicians as part of marketing efforts to promote so-called “off-label” use of their drugs (www.fda.gov/oc/op/goodreprint.html). In a bid to reduce ghostwriting, the guidelines also require firms to disclose all financial relationships with authors, as well as list author affiliations.

Olympic-FX: Wonder of winter wonders, there is now an Official Cold and Flu Remedy of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. It's COLD-FX(R), an extract of North American ginseng (CMAJ 2005;173[9]:1043-8). Edmonton-based manufacturer CV Technologies will supply the cold remedy to volunteers and staff at the Games. Athletes, though, will have to pay over-the-counter for the product. As a Tier 3 sponsor of the Games, CV Technologies paid “between $3 million and $15 million” for the right to market its product as an official Olympic remedy.

Stimulus: The National Institutes of Health was a winner in both congressional economic stimulus packages unveiled in the United States in January. The Senate and House of Representatives each allocated the agency a US$3.9-billion increase, which will yield an overall budget of US$33.4 billion in fiscal year 2009/10. The agency hike is part of a stimulus package that provides between US$11.9 billion (Senate) and US$13.2 billion (House) in new monies for science.

Hypertension: The Heart and Stroke Foundation has issued new guidelines urging that a combination of ACE inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers not be simultaneously prescribed to people with high blood pressure because the combination increases the risk of kidney disease (http://hypertension.ca/chep/recommendations-2009/). An estimated 175 000 Canadians are now being treated with the combination.