VA Drug Study Deaths under Criminal Investigation in NY_BNA Thu, 6 Feb 2003 Alexander Otto of the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) has uncovered a criminal investigation at the VA Medical Center in Albany, NY following the deaths of 5 patients who were inappropriately enrolled in a cancer drug trial….
Last Journey of Artificial Heart Recipient – NYT Tue, 8 Oct 2002 Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s drama-filled, but sobering article in The New York Times, chronicles the ordeal of James Quinn, the subject of an extraordinary and wrenching medical experiment in which his heart was replaced with an artificial one. From…
Director of OHRP Dr. Greg Koski resigns Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 Dr. Greg Koski has tendered his resignation as director of the federal Office of Human Research Protections. We agree, in principle, with Dr. Koski’s assessment: “to preserve public trust in research, the scientific community must go beyond a…
July 12, 2002 Duke Warning: Zyprexa-Diabetes Link FYI Since they arrived on the market in the 1990s, the so-called ‘atypicial’ antipsychotic drugs have been wrapped in controversy and promotional hype by drug companies and their paid professional spin masters who made bald claims about their “favorable side effect profile” referring…
NY Times Whitewashes Ritalin Experiment in Preschool Kids Sat, 16 Nov 2002 A story in The New York Times magazine about a controversial government sponsored drug experiment avoids examining the tough issues. Instead, it describes the growing pains of an apparently normal 4 year old boy, Sam, whose parents enrolled…
Psychiatric Drugs Pushing Children to Crisis Units_Tampa Tribune Tue, 15 Apr 2003 A report in the Tampa Tribune following its five month investigation, shows how misprescribing of psychiatric drugs for children can precipitate life-threatening tragedies. The report describes a 9 year old child’s descent into suicidal violence after she had…
How Health Care in America Became Big Business–And Bad Medicine – OpEd NYT Zoloft NYT Ad Fails to Disclose Suicide risk Mon, 25 Oct 2004 An Op-Ed in Sunday’ New York Times by Time magazine editors, Donald Barlett and James Steele, is a MUST READ assessment of what ails America’s…
Glaxo chief executive angry over NYS AG lawsuit – Telegraph Tue, 8 Jun 2004 The significance of the lawsuit filed by NYS Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, has infuriated Jean-Pierre Garnier, GlaxoSmithKline’s CEO. As Money.Telegraph (UK) reports (below), the AG suit carries a significance beyond the money sought. “Reputationally, however, the…
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….
Medicare Will cover New Treatments But Patients Will be Required to Enroll in Clinical Trials Fri, 5 Nov 2004 Dr. Mark McClellan, Director of Medicare, estimates that of Medicare’s $320 billion budget, “a third of all medical expenditures are for unnecessary or ill-advised treatments.” Medicare’s chief medical officer, Dr. Sean…
Calls Mounting for FDA Revamp / Americans Are the most medicated population in the world – DHHS Sun, 26 Dec 2004 A government survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, confirms that Americans are the most medicated population in the world – 44 percent of Americans had…
Worldwide Drug Industry Ailing – PhaRMA Giants Reeling Blockbuster Drugs Found Hazardous Sat, 18 Dec 2004 Daily headlines provide confirmatory evidence supporting what critics of the drug industry have been say:ing for years. First, as The New York Times notes in one of its 4 articles about the latest “unexpected”…
