Why We Need Whistleblowers–One-third US Scientists Admit Unethical Research Practices Sat, 11 Jun 2005 Although the major focus of these AHRP Infomails has been on the deplorable misconduct by the pharmaceutical industry and government health care agencies, whenever we pointed a flashlight at academia and biomedical scientists, we raised the…
UK reports the FDA Conceals Vital Data on Prescription Drugs – Independent Sun, 12 Jun 2005 The entire world has trusted the FDA to ensure that only safe and effective drugs are approved for marketing–other agencies, lacking the necessary resources often followed FDA’s lead. However, such deferrence is no longer…
Fed Investigation Report: AIDS Drug Tests on Foster Kids Violated Rules Thu, 16 Jun 2005 related link: OHRP Letter of Determination, Columbia University Medical Center, May 23, 2005 (32 K pdf) The Associated Press reports that an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Human…
Despite Vow, Drug Makers Still Wtihhold Data – NYT letters Thu, 9 Jun 2005 An important article by Alex Berenson in The New York Times, “Despite Vow, Drug Makers Still Withhold Data,” corroborated the untrustworthiness of drug manufacturers. Their public pronouncements and promises to fully disclose their clinical trial data-including…
FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford Resigns – AP Fri, 23 Sep 2005 The Associated Press reports that the embattled FDA commissioner, Lester Crawford, a veterenarian, who headed the agency since Marc McLellan moved over to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has resigned effective immediately. Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav 212-595-8974…
Rutherford Files Mental Health Screening Lawsuit_Indiana / Fierce Opposition to TeenScreen Mounts – Pittsburgh Mon, 19 Sep 2005 The Rutherford Institute has just filed a lawsuit in Indiana challenging a school for subjecting a teenager to a mental health screening test – TeenScreen–without her parents’ knowledge or consent. After completing…
Failed Drug Treatments for Schizophrenia–Letters to the Editor – NYT Fri, 23 Sep 2005 Letters to the NY Times editor (below) demonstrate the combative reaction of stakeholders in the psychotropic drug industry to the evidence-based overthrow of psychiatry’s treatment recommendations. Psychiatrists who have financial contracts with psychotropic drug manfuacturers, have…
Bayh-Dole Act: The Law of Unintended Consequences – Fortune Sun, 25 Sep 2005 The author of this Infomail is Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D. Revisiting the Bayh-Dole Act (1980): Spawned Big Biotech, Now Has Opposite Debilitating Effects Today’s specter of harmful and inordinately priced drugs pressed on legislators and the…
Addicted to Legal Prescription Drugs Mon, 26 Sep 2005 “My addiction may be to legal, prescribed medication, but I am no better than the heroin junkie on the street or the celebrity crack addict,” said Mrs Jeanne Rankin, one of Britain’s leading cooks. Her addiciton began when she was prescribed…
Prologue Selling sickness by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels Thirty years ago the head of one of the world’s best-known drug companies made some very candid comments. Close to retirement at the time, Merck’s aggressive chief executive Henry Gadsden told Fortune magazine of his distress that the company’s potential markets…
212% Increase in Prescription Drug Abuse by US Teens – Australian critics challenge loose prescribers Tue, 27 Sep 2005 Psychiatric prescription drugs have “run amok”: two reports (July, August) by Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, or CASA, confirm an epidemic of prescription drug abuse among teenagers:…
Major Drug Effectiveness Review Found “Little Evidence” that ADHD drugs are safe or effective Tue, 13 Sep 2005 On paper, drug manufacturers MUST demonstrate with scientific evidence that a drug is safe and effective–if they want to gain to gain FDA approval. The burden of proof is on the manufacturer….
