Talk:AstraZeneca

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Companies Portal
This article is within the scope of Companies WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of companies. If you would like to participate please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the assessment scale.
??? This article has not yet received an importance rating assessment scale.

Contents

[edit] Removed references

I have removed references to AstraZeneca not promoting "prevention" of breast cancer, as this was unreferrenced and the biggest causes of the cancer are inhertited defective tumour suppressor genes and somatic mutation, not environmental factors which could be controlled and lead to prevention. I believe placing this juxtaposed with the fact that AZ is a big producer of chemotherapeutic drugs used to treat the cancer was a POV comment upon a diliberate strategy by the company to prevent it being caught earlier and hence use their drugs. Since there was no reference for this (or indeed any evidence) it should be removed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 163.1.162.20 (talk) (31 May 2006)

Given that AZ produces known carcinogens, profits off of the treatment of cancer, and that the majority of cancers are linked to the environment...your comment seems highly skewed in favor of the company and against the complete body of information available relevant to this article. It would be POV to directly accuse AZ. It is also POV to remove legitimate facts that paint the company in an unrealistically positive light. Youngea (talk) 23:54, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Name

Formal company name used as per this legal notice on their website. [[User:Noisy|Noisy | Talk]] 09:12, 10 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I can see no compelling reason what so ever why the name of this article be extended to include the three letter abbreviation for public limited company. This type of fact belongs in the text of an article, not in its title. There might have been an excuse to introduce this if disambiguation had been necessary, but since that is not the case there is no reason not to use the simplest form.
Another point is the example of bicapitalization of what isn't even a compound word. Even if this is just one example of a contemporary trend in marketing, it still suggests that the name of the company should be read and pronounced "Astrazeneca", contrary to the common practice; Astra Zeneca. -- Mic 21:00, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)
  • interesting point; I've added this to the article as an end-noted pronounciation guideline User:Ceyockey 11:16, August 5, 2005 (UTC)
This seems to be an issue of contention. Many of the larger public limited companies have been moved away from the "plc" name (BAE SYSTEMS, Safeway, mmO2, Reuters). I would agree that this fits in with Wikipedia:Naming_conventions#Use_common_names_of_persons_and_things. I have started a discusison on Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions#Public_limited_companies. ed g2s • talk 22:03, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] POV

This is a total POV page. Will edit —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 159.195.11.58 (talk) (1 Nov 2006)

This anon editor essentially removed all negative statements about the company from the article - a frankly POV deletion. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 02:14, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Breat Cancer Awareness Month

I am adding a comment about Breast Cancer Awareness Month's lack of focus on prevention in the criticism section. Source is given. Don't remove it unless you give a valid reason. -Fendersmasher 19:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

And where is your assumption of good faith, Fender? --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 21:02, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
Please explain the AGF issue so we're on the same wavelength. -Fendersmasher 19:36, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
Assuming good faith would mean assuming that editors will behave in a manner consistent to what you have stated pre-emptively - that they will not remove something without reason and that they will explain the reason for removal at least in their edit summary if not on this page. You've made an assumption that editors will behave otherwise. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 00:01, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for the reply. My comment may have been somewhat unfair to other editors. I'm still new to editing WP, please excuse. -Fendersmasher 04:27, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I have appended the NBCAM to include additional information available about tamoxifen as a known carcinogen, and have provided a 3rd party citation for the conflict of interest producing a lack of focus on prevention and environmental carcinogens. Youngea (talk) 21:07, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Recommend removing this section. It's mostly POV at worst, but at best uses one sided citations. One of the main citations is this one: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_256/ai_n6258845 Clearly, this is one side of the story and this article itself has some dubious citations as well along with some "facts" that aren't accurate including "in a March 8, 1996, article in The New York Times because their stock "was soaring" after they merged with Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy, two of Switzerland's big drug makers." AZ merged with Astra. I would say that this disqualifies this citation and therefore the related content.

The comments about AZ and NBCAM are inaccurate and don't give the full story. The listing fails to mention that the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Cancer Society, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (among others) are all sponsors in addition to AZ. These highly respected groups would presumably have a lot to say about what this organization does. The comment that NBCAM does not focus on prevention or early detection is also inaccurate based on cursory look at their site (www.nbcam.org).

Finally, tamoxifen is a carcinogen (the state of california lists it as one as well), however, the fair balance (which Wikipedia strives to include) is this "Tamoxifen alone is probably already saving 20,000 lives a year. The present results suggest that the numbers of lives saved could be doubled if tamoxifen was much more widely used." http://www.ctsu.ox.ac.uk/pressreleases/1998-05-16/fact-sheet

All of this taken together to me demonstrates someone posting biased information without presenting the full case.Hess411 (talk) 13:56, 15 May 2008 (UTC)hess411

[edit] Free Medicines Ad

The most recent contribution, under the heading "Free Medicines..." seems like an ad to me. It's just needless info provided from AZ's website. Should this be removed. -Fendersmasher 17:00, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes it is very much an ad and it should be removed.

  • My thought is that it should be significantly revised to indicate that AZ, like all other major pharma, has such a program. I'm surprised to see that there is not an article on patient assistance programs as a topic. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 00:54, 13 April 2007 (UTC) I recuse myself from further editing this article, except for reverting vandalism, as I am employed by the company.

[edit] Reference / Note for consideration

[edit] new AstraZeneca controversy: Wikipedia self-editing (August 2007)

AstraZeneca has been mentioned in several news articles in recent days (See the London Times here, in an article picked up by Fox News; Pharmalot here, and a good blogger description here, among others). The firm is caught up in the scandal stemming from the invention of a Wikipedia data-mining service (from Cal Tech graduate student Virgil Griffith) allowing Internet users the ability to discover which companies are self-editing in embarrassing/incriminating ways on Wikipedia. I had already noted sockpuppet tendencies on the Seroquel talk page on 16 July 2007, before this scandal broke, and mentioned the possibility of a pharmaceutical self-edit.

An anonymous Internet user discovered that AstraZeneca apparently deleted references to its own safety information. AstraZeneca has said it is investigating itself, but also questions whether IP addresses can be faked... Seroquel has been a problem drug for AstraZeneca in various ways. I believe the Seroquel issue should be introduced to the AstraZeneca page as a new controversy, in addition to the current Wikipedia scandal. Sandover 06:32, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unexplained ragged section removal

72.78.117.96 (talk • contribs • info • WHOIS) raggedly deleted the entire section regarding the 'Controversy over Nexium' section without explanation either on the talk page or in edit summary; this is the only visible edit from this IP address. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 04:04, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

I brought back the sections that had been edited out, particularly the controversy-related ones. Added some detail from a German magazine regarding Nexium.Duagloth 15:43, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

The user claims removing POV, it may be worht having a good look at the article and see if there is any basis for that. From what I can see it all looks farly unbiased to me though. RaseaC (talk) 00:46, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] External links

Most of the ELs are not proper - see WP:EL. They should be changed into footnotes within the article or deleted. Sbowers3 (talk) 12:47, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Controversies section

As per suggestions above, I have included references to the "self-edit" controversy. A third link caused the entire section to automatically be deleted: [1] so I have left it out for the time being. Although it is fully cited and appears to be very detailed and clear -- are there exceptions to including blogs or do we just never include blogs in wikipedia entries regardless of the quality of information they provide? Youngea (talk) 21:43, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

I also edited out some of the sloppiness in some of the other controversies (mostly sloppy citation format), but have applied some templates as there still seems to be work to do to make the information coherent and readable. I think one of the sections is attempting to talk about the controversy in AstraZeneca attempting to use an anti-psychotic to treat depression, but it doesn't read very well as of yet.Youngea (talk) 22:08, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Unexplained controversial modifications/deletions

New user Stephenr410 deleted parts of the controversy section without explanation. I have reverted the edits, and am currently NOT assuming good faith from this user until further explanation. Youngea (talk) 04:50, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Add 89.138.172.145 to the the list for deleting the entire "self-editing" section without explanation.Youngea (talk) 16:28, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

207.255.33.83 and NRAPA33 provided dubious deletion reasons and no prior discussion. I am assuming good faith from them for at least providing a reason, but have reverted the edits and requested that they enter in discussion here. I am seeking assistance with this matter as to how to proceed, as it is very definitely a clear pattern developing.Youngea (talk) 08:11, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I am one of the people who has deleted the text that you seem to consider controversial from the AstraZenica page. First, I would like to make it known that I am not in connection which AstraZenica, I have never been in contact with the corporation, and I do not work for them. The following is my reasoning as to deleting the section. First off, after reviewing several Pharmaceutical pages on this website, I found that no other company had this information on their profile. In fact, none of them even mention safety concerns or controversies. I feel in order to keep Wikipedia neutral and fair to all companies this section should be deleted, why should we individually attack AstrZenica and allow all other companies to go unmarked. Second, this information is common knowledge and doesn't need to be discussed. Also, there is no verifyable reason for it to be present. Finally, there is no proof that AstraZenica itself removed the text, but rather another user hacking the company's contacts or someone acting as though they are connected with AstraZenica could easily have commited the deed. Unless sufficient proof is shown that it was indeed AstraZenica that removed the message should not be displayed! Please people let it as it, leave the comment off, there is no viable reasoning to its display and it simply isn't of a neutral tone and attacks a company that may not even have done any wrong. --NRAPA33 (talk) 23:31, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I edited the first sentence of the sexual harrassment controversy section - Astra USA Inc. was not a subsidiary of AstraZeneca at the time of the scandal and instead was its own company. -- (unregistered user), 04:21, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup

I have attempted a minor clean up. In particular I have changed all references to reflist format and removed all dead links. There is a lot more to do - you can help Dormskirk (talk) 12:49, 1 June 2008 (UTC)