Recent Articles

  • “OxyContin: Purdue Pharma’s painful medicine,” Fortune Magazine

    What the strange saga of Purdue and its $3 billion drug tells us about our national dependence on painkillers. read more
  • “The Hidden Dangers of Outsourcing Radiology,” Self Magazine

    That scan of your brain, bones or breasts you got last Tuesday? It might have been read by someone who isn't a doctor and lives 12 time zones away. If, that is, anyone has bothered to read it at all. read more
  • “The War Over Lipitor,” Fortune

    You'd think that in this era of generic-drug dominance, making the transition to a nonbranded version of Pfizer's vaunted cholesterol-fighting statin would be smooth, or at least controlled. And indeed, that's precisely how it seemed -- until just a few months ago. Now the process appears to have unraveled, leaving serious questions about who will make the cheaper form of Lipitor, whether the price will really drop, and most disturbing of all, whether patients will be able to trust that the medication is safe. read more
  • “Drug Theft Goes Big,” Fortune

    Organized gangs are stealing prescription medicine in increasingly audacious heists. That's a problem for Big Pharma and for patients, who can unknowingly buy stolen -- and sometimes dangerous -- medications... read more
  • “What a Scientist Didn’t Tell the New York Times about His Study on Bee Deaths,” Fortune.com

    Few ecological disasters have been as confounding as the massive and devastating die-off of the world's honeybees. The phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) -- in which disoriented honeybees die far from their hives -- has kept scientists, beekeepers, and regulators desperately seeking the cause. read more
  • “Are You Buying Illegal Drugs?” New York Times

    Last month, thieves cut through the roof of an Eli Lilly warehouse in Enfield, Conn, shimmied down a rope, disabled the alarms and made off with $75 million worth of psychiatric drugs, including the antidepressants Prozac and Cymbalta and the antipsychotic Zyprexa. It is thought to have been... read more
  • The “Medical Mafia,” Fortune

    LAS VEGAS (Fortune) -- It began as the most ordinary of fender-benders. Cynthia Johnson, an office manager for a real estate company, was driving to work on Interstate 15 near the Las Vegas strip when a fellow commuter clipped the rear bumper of her Toyota Avalon... read more
  • “Bad Bargain,” Self

    Just when Beth Hubbard should have been feeling great, her health fell apart. A 34-year-old housewares designer in the St. Louis area, Hubbard had recently gotten married. She liked the creativity of her career. And she'd conquered her mild depression and fatigue with a combination of exercise, rest and medicine, including the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL. But in the fall of 2006, shortly after she refilled her prescription—her pharmacy giving her this time Budeprion XL, a generic version of the drug—her good health gave way. read more
  • “Back to Life,” Working Mother

    Depression is the last thing most moms expect to experience once their babies are sleeping through the night, talking up a storm and walking around. But one in five working women is depressed—and the illness can hit years after a child is born. We spoke with a few brave working moms about the crippling darkness that overtook their lives and their steps toward recovery. read more
  • “Your Hospital’s Deadly Secret,” Conde Nast Portfolio

    The light of their lives was born 12 inches long. She weighed just one pound four ounces. Her skin fit like a baggy suit. But from the moment Baby Alyssa arrived 14 weeks early, she was the biggest thing in the Shinn family's world... read more
  • “The War on Terror: Rorschach and Awe,” VanityFair.com

    Abu Zubaydah was a mess. It was early April 2002, and the al-Qaeda lieutenant had been shot in the groin during a firefight in Pakistan, then captured by the Special Forces and flown to a safe house in Thailand. Now he was experiencing life as America’s first high-value detainee in the wake of 9/11. A medical team and a cluster of F.B.I. and C.I.A. agents stood vigil, all fearing that the next attack on America could happen at any moment... read more