Top pharma blogger quits, moves to Elsevier

The undisputed leading pharmaceutical industry blogger, Ed Silverman, who ran the Pharmalot.com industry blog, has taken a redundancy package  from his employer, the Newark Star-Ledger. The move puts into question  the future of one of the most prolific sources of news about the drug  industry. The New Jersey, USA, based newspaper, reported by the Wall  Street Journal's Health blog to be "beleaguered," has allegedly cut its  editorial staff by 40%.

However, Mr Silverman is also reported to have signed a deal to work for  international specialist publishing firm Elsevier, which owns the Pink  Sheet and In Vivo, the latter of which already has a blog.

Other pharmaceutical industry commentators believe that there is a gap  for the kind of reporting covered by Pharmalot. Peter Pitts, the  president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a New  York-based think-tank which tends to be supportive of the drug sector,  also runs the www.drugwonks.com blog. He told the Marketletter that,  despite frequent differences of opinion, Mr Silverman's "voice will not  be silenced. And that's a good thing."