DrugCompanies

Drug companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to influence doctors' prescribing habits -- money that often goes directly into physicians' pockets for "consulting fees" and "educational presentations." Wondering if your doc is one of them? The nonprofit journalists at ProPublica can tell you.

Officially, it's the FDA's job to ensure that pharmaceutical ads adhere to guidelines. But the agency's annual compliance budget is $9 million, while drug companies spend $58 billion a year on marketing. So it comes as no surprise that only 18% of ads are in compliance with the rules. But it's still disturbing: This is your health.

Samsung Electronics is known for its smartphones, TVs and memory chips. Now it wants to tackle biopharmaceuticals, on Friday announcing a new joint venture to produce drugs to treat cancer and arthritis. Here's why the move could prove an ill-needed distraction for the electronics giant.

Health care reform will benefit millions of people, and many companies stand to gain as well. In particular, pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers will garner new business as they help cover newly insured Americans. And their profits should rise accordingly.

The House of Representatives finally passed a health care reform bill. The fight over the bill has gone on for months and during that period it had been changed dozens of times compared to the original White House proposal. The bill barely passed with at 219 to 212 margin. The Senate will vote on...

New legislation introduced by, among others, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), would cut off the federal tax deduction for drug companies that make those "direct-to-consumer" ads, the ones on TV convincing you to pop prescription drugs like candy. There's plenty to hate about those ads. They're...