FDA Warning Letter: child died from overdose during clinical trial Monday, May 05, 2003 The FDA’s letter of warning to Jacqueline M. Halton, M.D. Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, a participating investigator in a National Cancer Institute pediatric trial describes multiple safety violations–including massive overdoses–that led to the death of…
BBC Panorama: Unprecedented public response to evidence of SSRI drug harm Wed, 21 May 2003 In a stunning follow up to its investigative report, The Secret of Seroxat, aired October 13, 2002, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) featured the public responses to its earlier program as the focus of its…
MedicAlert lifeline lent to patients in drug trials Thu, 1 May 2003 The Modesto Bee reports that MedicAlert Foundation International which maintains an electronic database of its members’ medical records which are accessible in to treating physicians and paramedics in emergencies, is venturing into the clinical drug trial arena. The…
Auditing Standards in Accounting and Medicine Wed, 4 Jun 2003 “Those financial calamities made it brutally clear that the present audit standards and practices are severely deficient, since the failing enterprises had managed to issue misleading financial reports that nevertheless were attested to and blessed at the time by “see…
FDA Statement Regarding Anti-Depressant Paxil for Children Thu, 19 Jun 2003 A knowledgeable critic suggested that the FDA was pushed into action, but the action (Statement below) is weak. Evidence about the risks of antidepressants such as Paxil (Seroxat) have been linked to severe withdrawal symptoms which are a sign…
AIDS vaccine Worse Than Useless?_ISS Wed, 25 Jun 2003 An article published by the Institute of Science and Society (ISS locatedin the UK) cautions that experience thus far with 51 NIH-sponsored AIDSvaccinetrials (Phase I and II) belie the claimed positive findings made in anarticle in the currentissue of Vaccine, which…
FDA Accepts Adverse Drug Reaction Reports from Consumers Sun, 22 Jun 2003 Doctors report only 1% to 10% of adverse drug reactions experienced by their patients to FDA’s MedWatch service. The FDA has extended an invitation to the public to submit adverse drug reaction reports directly to the agency: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/report/consumer/consumer.htm…
UK Health Dept/ British Prime Minister/ Issue Statement Warning No PAXIl for Children! Tue, 10 Jun 2003 UK GOVERNMENT STATEMENT: Press release: reference 2003/0223 Tuesday 10th June 2003 Related Story: GlaxoSmithKline discloses link to serious undesirable effects in depressed children and adolescents under age 18 SEROXAT MUST NOT BE USED…
Cost and Consequence: drug “cocktails” deplete Medicaid_Globe Tue, 24 Jun 2003 The escalating cost of healthcare is in large measure due tothe spiraling expenditure on drugs–many of which are misprescribed.The Boston Globe reports about one Medicaid patient who is prescribed18 medications at a cost of roughly $16,000 a year–“all at…
GlascoSmithKline PAXIL Warning letter to Healthcare Professionals Thu, 19 Jun 2003 On June 10 the British government disapproved a license the widely popular, SSRI antidepressant, Seroxat (PAXIL), for use in children and adolescents after a committee examined the data from 9 clinical trials. The British Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory…
Time to put drug giants on trial – Scotsman (UK) Fri, 20 Jun 2003 The UK media-including BBC, the Guardian, the Scotsman, the London Times, and others–have been informing the British public about the hidden health hazards underlying the industry-controlled drug approval and drug marketing process. Current practices have led…
AstraZeneca Pleads Guilty in Criminal Cancer Medicine Scheme Sun, 22 Jun 2003 AstraZeneca agreed to a $355 million settlement in civil and criminal charges. Government prosecutors found that AstraZeneca reported to the government that the average wholesale price for a monthly dose of the prostate cancer drug, Zoladex, was about…
