Medicaid Battles: Law firm With Ties to Drug Makers Joins Fight in Tennessee / NYT Blind Spot Mon, 14 Mar 2005 The Tennessean reports: “An international law firm with ties to major drug manufacturers is providing free legal help to the advocacy group seeking to block the state from cutting…
FDA Tones Down Warning–Shyra Kallas an SSRI Suicide Victim Fri, 4 Mar 2005 In his recent testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, Dr. David Fassler, representing the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), misrepresented the scientific facts about…
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…
Marcia Angell: The Body Hunters & The Constant Gardner Mon, 19 Sep 2005 Marcia Angell’s insightful and informative review of the film and John le Carre’s book, The Constant Gardner, needs no additional commentary: "On the basis of the research I did for my book I believe that most of…
Guidant Case May Involve Crime Inquiry Thu, 29 Sep 2005 The New York Times reports that “criminal investigators at the Food and Drug Administration have apparently become involved in the agency’s inquiry into how the Guidant Corporation handled problems with its heart devices, said two people contacted by the investigators."…
Paxil Protest at GSK US headquarters Sept. 26–Sept. 28 Sun, 18 Sep 2005 Families and victims who have suffered harm from SSRI antidepressants are heading for Philadelphia from the US and Canada for a “Paxil Protest.” Date: September 26 through Sept. 28. Place: GlaxoSmithKline US headquarters in Philadelphia The organizer of this event is…
Federal Court (Illinois) Rejects FDA-Daniel Troy Preemption Argument Fri, 11 Nov 2005 In yet another federal case (Zikis v Pfizer) involving the company’s failure to warn physicians and the public about the increased risk of suicide effects for pediatric patients prescribed Zoloft, the court rejected Pfizer’s argument that it didn’t need to war…
Abuses Endangered Veterans in Cancer Drug Experiments – NYT Sun, 6 Feb 2005 Paul H. Kornak pleaded guilty to fraud, making false statements and criminally negligent homicide in the death of an Air Force veteran, James DiGeorgio – one of the patients he used as subjects in medical experiments that…
Pfizer Acknowledges It Failed to Reveal Celebrex cardiac risk found in 1999 trial Tue, 1 Feb 2005 The New York Times reports: “Responding to the Vioxx withdrawal [Sept. 30, 2004], Pfizer said in October that no completed study had ever shown any increased heart risks related to Celebrex. Then, in…
Follow the Money / Can the Institute of Medicine Review the FDA? Wed, 6 Apr 2005 A letter to the editor published in Nature Medicine by Dr. Bernard Carroll, a past chairman of the FDA Advisory Committee for Psychotropic Drugs, and past chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Duke…
FDA sends contradictory message re: addictive drugs prescribed for children – NIMH admits cognitive therapy as good as SSRIs Fri, 27 May 2005 Two government health care agencies sent conflicting mixed messages about th euse of psychotropic drugs for children: The National Instiute of Mental Health issued an announcement acknowledging…
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…
