HMO physician applauds Spitzer’s focus on information bias / NYT blind spot Sun, 20 Jun 2004 The affirmation by a Kaiser Permanente physician, Dr. Kate Scannell, that NYS Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, deserves applause for his “bold and courageous” lawsuit, is an encouraging watershed. The suit, she says, “gives me…
Spitzer’s Lawsuit Will Shake Up the Drug Industry – Full Disclosure is the Goal Thu, 3 Jun 2004 New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer’s lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline challenges the pharmaceutical industry’s fraudulent marketing of drugs. Karen Barth Menzes, an attorney representing victims of antidepressant drug effects, told The (So….
Bush Plans to Screen Whole US Population for Mental Illness – BMJ Thu, 24 Jun 2004 A second article in the British Medical Journal discloses additional evidence uncovered by Allen Jones, the whistle blower from the Pennsylvania Inspector General’s Office. The first BMJ article focused on the Texas Medication Algorithm…
NIH Under Fire: Longtime Favorite of Congress – Wash Post / WSJ Sun, 27 Jun 2004 Under fire from Congress with evidence of NIH staff engaging in secret outside contracts and consultancies, NIH Director, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, turned a corner. He acknowledged the problem at a hearing (June 22) of…
“Black Hole” of medical research–Negative Results Don’t get Published – JAMA, WSJ Sat, 5 Jun 2004 “No one likes bad news. But in science, there is an ethical imperative to publish research, even if the findings aren’t what the researcher had hoped for.” The New York Times, which tends to…
Guardian Reports: MHRA to Issue New SSRI Restrictions Mon, 14 Jun 2004 The Guardian reports that the British Committee on safety and Medicines, which was first to issue warnings about the potential suicidal risk for children prescribed an antidepressant of the SSRI class, are now about to issue similar warnings…
Paxil induced suicides in US quantified_Glaxo Faces criminal action in UK over “suicide” pills_Times Mon, 7 Jun Law enforcement is finally catching up with drug companies who, for years, concealed evidence of a drug-related suicide risk for some children and adults who take an antidepressant. The law requires the companies…
Bad Medicine – Editorial – Guardian UK Sat, 12 Jun 2004 New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, is being recognized as a hero on both sides of the Atlantic. That’s because, unlike FDA officials, he knows how to use a “smoking gun” to affect change in corporate practices to…
Response to Washington Post Editorial Wed, 30 Jun 2004 Today’s Washington Post editorial, Missing Drug Data, is divorced from reality. It is written by someone who clearly doesn’t understand the safety issues involved when doctors are kept ignorant of the risks of prescribing drugs that expose patients to severe adverse…
NY Times Does it Again – Drug Advertisers Get Front Page Coverage to Boost SSRI Market Wed, 2 Jun 2004 The New York Times saw fit to print a report about preliminary, unpublished findings of a study whose authors claim to have “found that Prozac helps teenagers overcome depression far…
Will the Cong Oversight / Investigations Committee Ask FDA the Tough Questions? Wed, 22 Sep 2004 FDA’s complicity in concealing vital drug safety information that might have saved lives, is the subject of tomorrow’s hearing by the House subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Rayburn Office Bldg, room 2123 at 11:00….
FDA Forced Wyeth to REMOVE Suicide Warning from Effexor Label Wed, 8 Sep 2004 The Wall Street Journal reports that FDA officials forced Wyeth to remove the label warning stating: “In pediatric clinical trials, there were increased reports of hostility and, especially in Major Depressive Disorder, suicide-related adverse events such…
