News in brief - Aug. 2, 2004

AMA urges Illinois court to uphold verdict against Philip Morris - Medicare changes policy on obesity - No drugs from Down Under - Judge rules against Missouri's "partial-birth abortion" ban - TAP officials acquitted in Lupron case in Boston

AMA urges Illinois court to uphold verdict against Philip Morris

The Illinois Supreme Court should uphold a lower court decision that Philip Morris broke state laws in the way it marketed its "light" cigarettes, according to the American Medical Association/State Medical Societies Litigation Center, the Illinois State Medical Society and a half-dozen other associations.

After a three-month bench trial, the lower court ruled that the company had violated the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act by claiming that light cigarettes "were less harmful or safer than their counterparts" when light cigarettes were "actually more harmful and more hazardous."

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the Illinois Supreme Court in July, the AMA and other groups urged justices to stand by the earlier decision because "from a public health standpoint, the detrimental consequences of Philip Morris' conduct have been enormous. Its brazen conduct has substantially injured the health and safety of millions of Illinois citizens, cost the state's citizens billions of dollars and offends the public policy of this state."

Medicare changes policy on obesity

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced a change in policy that opens the possibility that Medicare will pay for obesity-related treatments that are shown to improve beneficiaries' health. Before the policy change, obesity was not considered an illness by the program.

"From the standpoint of Medicare coverage and the health of our beneficiaries, the question isn't whether obesity is a disease or a risk factor," said CMS Administrator Mark McClellan, MD, PhD. "What matters is whether there's scientific evidence that an obesity-related medical treatment improves health." The change won't create an immediate impact on reimbursement. But the public now can request a review that would lead to the program paying for treatment for which there is evidence of effectiveness.

No drugs from Down Under

Congress has passed a trade agreement with Australia that prohibits that country from exporting discounted pharmaceutical drugs to the United States. Reimportation proponents in the U.S. House and Senate were bothered by the agreement, which they fear sets a precedent that could be repeated in trade agreements with other countries. Three measures are pending in the Senate that would mandate a system for allowing drug reimportation from Canada and other developed nations.

Judge rules against Missouri's "partial-birth abortion" ban

A 1999 Missouri law that bans what politicians refer to as "partial-birth abortion" can't go into effect because it doesn't create an exception for instances when the procedure could be the best one available to protect a mother's health, ruled U.S. District Judge Scott Wright for the Western District of Missouri. At press time, the Missouri Attorney General's office was deciding whether it would appeal the decision.

Last month's ruling follows the precedent the U.S. Supreme Court set in 2000 when it rejected a similar law in Nebraska in 2000 because there was no exception for the mother's health. It also comes at a time when federal courts in Nebraska and New York are weighing arguments made for and against the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. A federal judge in California in June ruled that the act is unconstitutional.

TAP officials acquitted in Lupron case in Boston

After a three-month trial, a federal jury in Boston acquitted eight TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc. employees of charges that they offered kickbacks to physicians to prescribe its prostate cancer drug Lupron. The current and former employees were accused of offering doctors trips and other incentives to persuade them to prescribe the TAP drug instead of competitors' products.

The trial was part of a larger probe of the company. In October 2001, TAP Pharmaceutical agreed to pay $875 million to resolve civil and criminal charges related to its pricing and marketing of Lupron.