As Dr. Joel Lexchin makes painfully obvious in this issue (see pages 351 to 356), regulatory processes governing pharmaceutical advertising in Canada and elsewhere are seriously compromised. However, the remedial measures Lexchin proposes are not sufficient. Financial sanctions against improper advertising are likely to be regarded by manufacturers as the cost of doing business, and any regulat...

The conventional wisdom is that indirect network effects, unlike direct network effects, do not give rise to externalities. In this paper we show that under very general conditions, indirect network effects lead to adoption externalities. In particular we show that in markets where consumption benefits arise from hardware/software systems, adoption externalities will occur when there are (i) in...

OBJECTIVES To examine the extensive research undertaken by the tobacco industry over the past 25 years toward development of a fire safe cigarette. METHODS Research was conducted through a web based search of internal tobacco industry documents made publicly available through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. RESULTS The documents reveal that the tobacco industry produced a fire safe ci...

The story of food distribution in the United States is a remarliable one. As a nation, we are blessed with abundant agricultural resources. We have a national agricultural policy that has emphasized efficiency (output per unit of input). And, perhaps most of all, we tend to believe that markets seive consumers best. This belief has helped produce an industry characterized by change. Over the pa...

OBJECTIVE To construct a conceptual model of tobacco industry tactics to undermine tobacco control programmes for the purposes of: (1) developing measures to evaluate industry tactics, (2) improving tobacco control planning, and (3) supplementing current or future frameworks used to classify and analyse tobacco industry documents. DESIGN Web based concept mapping was conducted, including expe...

OBJECTIVE To examine self service tobacco displays (SSTDs) and youth retail tobacco access by comparing longitudinal illegal tobacco sales rates in three communities in Santa Barbara County, California, that considered or implemented ordinances banning SSTDs. A confirmatory survey was also conducted to substantiate the longitudinal data. DESIGN A longitudinal case study design was utilised. F...

The inseparability of the biotechnology industry and the state is a central theme in the analysis of the location and performance of biotechnology industry in the US and elsewhere. This paper reports on the results of a survey of US biotechnology companies looking particularly at their assessment of needs, barriers, strategies, and government programs. The paper shows that although there is an ...