House Votes to Prevent Pharma-tied Scientists on FDA Advisory Panels Thu, 9 Jun 2005 The House passed an amendment introduced by Congressman Maurice Hinchey (NY) to rein in pharmaceutical industry influence on FDA advisory panels whose recdommendations have resulted in the approval of lethal drugs. Below Merrill Goozner write: “The…
Integrity of Medical Regulators Wed, 8 Jun 2005 The UK MHRA (equivalent of US FDA) has been caught in flat out public deception. The MHRA–which is entirely funded by the pharmaceutical industry–had claimed that two thirds of professional organizations it consulted favored selling a heart medication (Zocor Heart-Pro) without a…
AMA Serves Pharma Marketing Priority/ FDA To Add Warnings on ADHD drugs–Concerta, Ritalin, Strattera, Adderall Wed, 29 Jun 2005 The FDA is finally taking note of the fact that many drugs prescribed for the treatment of psychiatric problems are CAUSING serious psychiatric and cardiovascular problems in children and adolescents !…
When Doctors Learn, Drug Firms Often Pay th eTab – Philly Inquirer Wed, 8 Jun 2005 The Philadelphia Inquirer reports about the blinders that academic medical institutions and physicians (in this instance psychiatrists) put on pretending not to know that they have surrendered the integrity of medicine and medical education…
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4696609 Documents Suggest Merck Tried to Censor Vioxx Critics NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO All Things Considered, June 9, 2005 – Because of intense interest in this report, NPR has decided to present a full transcript. Introduction: At least 38,000 Americans are believed to have died from taking the pain pill Vioxx…
Suicide Rate Unchanged in 10 Years–JAMA / AMA Considers Stand Against Warning Labels on Antidepressants Thu, 9 Jun 2005 A major report in the Journal of the American Medical Association shatters all claims about the effectiveness of antidepressants as a treatment for the prevention of suicide. A comparison of the…
Is there hope for Psychiatry to make it as a profession? Tue, 14 Jun 2005 The New York Times reports: “Psychiatrists have been searching for more than a century for some biological marker for mental disease, to little avail.” Indeed, the latest embarassing controversy that perennially plagues the psychiatric establishment…
The Rutherford Institute Takes on TeenScreen Case in Indiana Mon, 13 Jun 2005 Good News! The high profile civil libertarian Rutherford Institute has taken up the case of Mike and Teresa Rhoades whose15-year old daughter was screened in her Indiana school for mental illness– without their permission. John Whitehead, the…
Junk Science Hits Front Page Headlines: Most Americans Will Be Mentally Ill at Some Point – NIMH / Harvard Study Says Tue, 7 Jun 2005 Americans may be astonished to learn that $20 million in taxpayers’ money was spent on a study whose unacknowledged purpose is to increase the use…
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…
