Drug Companies Move Trials Outside the US Tue, 17 May 2005 Unless the FDA cracks down by enforcing safety and scientific standards in clinical trials, the drug industry is moving its drug trials out of any regulatory oversight. USA Today reports that 50% of trials sponsored by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals were…
Accutane Suicide Controversy–small study finds depression reduced Tue, 17 May 2005 Accutane–a drug prescribed for acne has been linked to suicide and birth defects–it carries bold warnings about birth defects. A small non-blinded study finding is being touted by Hoffman-La Roche, manufacturer of Accutane. The study found the drug did…
Drug Companies are Outsourcing Drug Trials – WP Wed, 4 May 2005 The Washington Post reports that a study by Tufts has found a drop in the number of pharmaceutical company sponsored drug trials. Fewer new drug applications are being submitted to the FDA, and there has been a drop…
Someone Tell Brooke Shields the Truth!! Mon, 4 Jul 2005 On this American independence day, thousands of families strive for drug free schools–and they’re not worrying about illegal drugs, their main concern is coercive prescribed amphetamines and other mind-altering psychotropic drugs. Other than the critical reaction of actor Tom Cruise,…
AIDS Drug Trial report–Slipshod Journalism– NY Times Sat, 23 Jul 2005 Please join our effort to tweak the New York Times to practice what their banner states: “All the News that’s fit to print” That surely means fair and balanced reporting about contentious issues that pit the weak and vulnerable…
Israeli State Comptroller Blasts Researchers for Experimenting on Patients without Consent Tue, 26 Jul 2005 Patients the world over need adeaquate protection from overreaching physicians who use patients to test experimental drugs and procedures without their informed consent. Jacques Michel, a retired director of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem who also…
Landmark Decision: Jury awards $635,177 Damages for Memory Loss from Electroshock Fri, 8 Jul 2005 Below is a press release by Linda Andre, president of Committee for Truth in Psychiatry (CTIP) about the first ever lawsuit in which a jury found a psychiatrist who referred a patient for intensive electroshock…
Congress Bars EPA from accepting human pesticide data Thu, 28 Jul 2005 Thank you Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Hilda Solis for leading the charge to stop the Environmental Protection Agency in its tracks. The EPA was formulating rules that would have oveturened the Nuremberg Code prohibition against using poisonous…
FDA Public Health Advisory: SSRI-Suicide link in adults Wed, 20 Jul 2005 The American Medical Association is attempting to trivialize the hazards of prescribing SSRIs to children, urging physicians not to allow the evidence to interfere with their prescribing habits. See: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/print/15186.html The AMA has done the public a disservice…
IOM Committee Considers Prison Research Sun, 24 Jul 2005 Today¹s New York Times Magazine cover story, Planet of the Retired Chimpanzees By CHARLES SIEBERT, reports that chimpanzees who have served as subjects in biomedical research can look forward to being set free in one of 12 specially built chimp sanctuaries…
Columbia Journalism Review–The Complicity of the Media in Drug Marketing Wed, 27 Jul 2005 An excellent article in the Columbia Journalism Review examines pharmaceutical industry hype and the media’s role in helping that industry create false impressions about the safety and benefits of newly marketed drugs: “stories trumpeting new drugs…
Circumcision May Offer Powerful 70% HIV Prevention Tue, 5 Jul 2005 A front page report in the Wall Street Journal reveals that a controlled clinical study conducted by French and South African researchers have found that circumciion reduces the risk of transmitting AIDS by 70%. “The circumcision findings were so…
