Friday Blog Roundup

Big Pharma is under scrutiny in the blogosphere this week. Ed Silverman at Pharmalot reports on a study (published in PLoS Medicine) that finds drugmakers spend almost twice as much on marketing and promotion as they do on R&D; he also tells us who Big Pharmaâs backing for president.

Scott Hensley at the WSJ Health Blog reveals the real person behind the BigPharmaRealPeople.org website (whose mission includes fighting âridiculous Government rules and regulation that hamper Big Pharma from acting in the best interest of customers, patients and pharmacies in a free market societyâ), while Angry Toxicologist checks an industry publication to find out what Big Pharma really wants at the FDA.

Elsewhere:

Itâs Plague Week on Retrospectacle! Shelley Batts covers the widely accepted and alternative explanations about what caused the Black Plague, plus weird anti-Plague medical garb.

Triple Pundit reports on the ways hospitals are going green.

Tom Philpott at Gristmill digs into the fertilizer boom spurred by the ethanol surge, and finds mountains of hazardous waste. 

Janet D. Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science delivers the core message of why ethics matters to science.

Mead Over at Global Health Policy explains how the âchecklistâ concept, which improves outcomes in some U.S. hospitals, can apply to African health systems.

Anika Rahman at RH Reality Check advocates for the U.S. to start making its allocated contributions to the United Nations Population Fund

Coturnix at A Blog Around the Clock weighs in on the blogospheric debate about who should be picked for the position of Science Advisor to the President, and provides links to other bloggersâ suggestions.

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