Critics of NIH Studies Prompt Senate Hearing – WashPost Mon, 19 Jan 2004 Accountability is a controversial concept for officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Elias Zirhouni, director of NIH, is scrambling to explain recent revelations of impropriety: First, the agency approved taxpayer money for highly questionable…
Smallpox Vaccine Reactions Jolt Experts – WashPost Thu, 5 Dec 2002 The Washington Post reports that even experts conducting clinical trials of the smallpox vaccine found the side effects “startling”: “If Bush moves forward with vaccination, Dr. Kathy Edwards the Vanderbilt University physician overseeing the study, warns doctors to expect…
NIH sponsored hypertension trial incites controversy: COI Thu, 21 Nov 2002 Controversy has erupted around the research disclosure process of a government sponsored, clinical trial that gave drug companies the manuscript of the report 30 days prior to its submission for publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association….
October 29, 2001 FYI Widely disparate perspectives are presented in an article in the Maryland Daily Record re: The Court of Appeals of Maryland decision (Gimes v Kennedy Krieger Institute, Aug 16, 2001). That 6-to-1 landmark decision severely criticized the practice of exposing healthy children to risks of harm in…
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…
Fuzzy ethics of nonlethal chemical weapons_Christian Science Monitor Sun, 16 Feb 2003 ON February 5, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and General Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee the US was prepared to use chemical incapacitants in a war with Iraq. (An audio…
British Medical Journal critized for promoting drug cocktail ignoring risks Mon, 14 Jul 2003 The push toward adopting a radical cholesterol lowering strategy, including the use of statin drugs was given a shot in the arm when the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an article– endorsed by its editor–promoting the…
Brain Development &Teen Mood Swings – ABC Sun, 24 Aug 2003 ABC reports about a brain imaging study using MRI that tracks the brains of normal children. This study provides physical evidence about the biological development of the normal brain and the individual pace of normal development. What’s new, according…
Not-So-Public-Relations: Drug Industry & Bioethics – is it casuistry or sophistry? Fri, 19 Dec 2003 Carl Elliott is a clear eyed academic who teaches bioethics at the University of Minnesota . He is currently a visiting associate professor at School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton….
FDA approves Paxil for Premenstrual cramps Wed, 3 Sep 2003 On September 2, the FDA approved Paxil (Seroxat) for yet another newly invented “condition.” Inasmuch as those most likely to complain about premenstrual discomfort which has been labeled, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)–are likely to be pubescent girls, FDA’s approval is…
Medical Confidentiality of Research Subject in Jeopardy–Lawyers Subpoena Anthropologist Sun, 9 Mar 2003 Dr. Sheldon Zink, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics who was in the operating room when James Quinn had an artificial heart transplant, is fighting a legal battle to preserve a research subject’s…
AstraZeneca Pleads Guilty in Criminal Cancer Medicine Scheme Sun, 22 Jun 2003 AstraZeneca agreed to a $355 million settlement in civil and criminal charges. Government prosecutors found that AstraZeneca reported to the government that the average wholesale price for a monthly dose of the prostate cancer drug, Zoladex, was about…
