Parkinson’s fetal tissue transplant experiment fails – Nature Fri, 29 Aug 2003 The journal Nature reports about yet another Parkinson’s fetal tissue transplant experiment (at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NY) that has failed to show any benefit for the patients. Indeed, in the latest such experiment 50% of…
Forbes: Face of The Year: David Graham Mon, 13 Dec 2004 Forbes magazine has named Dr. David Graham the Face of the Year’ for his “steadfast advocacy of drug safety and his willingness to blow the whistle on his bosses.” Dr. Graham took a courageous stand as a responsible…
AHRP Position Statement on Mental Health Screening – FDA Hearing Re: Drug Advertising Wed, 02 Nov 2005 FDA is holding public hearings (Nov 1, 2) Re: Direct-to-Consumer Promotion of Medical Products at: National Transportation Safety Board Boardroom and Conference Center 429 L’Enfant Plaza, SW., Washington, DC 2 Time: 9:00 –5:00….
Cash Interests Taint Drug Advice – NATURE / Death a Risk of Antipsychotics – AP Sun, 23 Oct 2005 An investigation by the journal, NATURE (the largest of its kind) reveals that not only do conflicts of interest taint the conduct and outcome of clinical trials, the authors who formulate…
Part II– Mental Health Screening: A Form of Child Abuse–Mother Jones http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/05/medicating_aliah.html enter subscriber code MJZL6Y Tue, 19 Apr 2005 This is a continuation of the earlier Infomail Re: Mental Health Screening expose by Rob Waters in Mother Jones – A detailed description of (what some would call) collusion by…
Leading Antipsychotic Drugs Come Under New Scrutiny – NYT Tuesday, May 20, 2003 A front page article in The New York Times reveals that the pillars of American psychiatry–including Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, Dr. John Kane, Dr. William Carpenter–are acknowledging that evidence is lacking to support the claims that the new…
Superiority of Zyprexa (Olanzapine) Challenged Mon, 1 Dec 2003 “The profound issue in health care is do we pay anything — regardless of the price — for a statistically significant benefit?” A major 12 month randomized study compared the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of Eli Lilly’s $3.7 billion blockbuster schizophrenia…
Big Pharma’s Dirty Little Secret Mon, 27 Dec 2004 Dr. Peter Rost, Vice-President marketing, Pfizer, has taken a principled stand by speaking out against his industry’s “drity little secrets:” “Our dirty little secret is that the drug industry already sells its products, right here in the U.S., at the same…
At FDA, Graham is still the whistle-blower – USA Today Thu, 17 Nov 2005 On Nov. 18, 2004, Dr. David Graham, FDA’s associate director for science and medicine, blew the whistle in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, on FDA’s “profound regulatory failure” to protect the public against lethal prescription…
Linguistic Tinkering with Regulatory Terminology Increases Risk of Harm for Children: "minimal risk" "minor increment of minimal risk" and "disorder or condition" January 28, 2001 A cornerstone of the Declaration of Helsinki (adopted by the World Medical Association in 1964, and reaffirmed on Oct. 2000) is the distinction between research…
Drug Warnings: Are They Effective? USA Today Tue, 26 Apr 2005 How effective are drug warnings? USA Today reports that experts are unsure. For example, a study in the January issue of Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety focused on Ohio Medicaid claims for Rezulin prescriptions – the diabetes drug had been…
Cost and Consequence: drug “cocktails” deplete Medicaid_Globe Tue, 24 Jun 2003 The escalating cost of healthcare is in large measure due tothe spiraling expenditure on drugs–many of which are misprescribed.The Boston Globe reports about one Medicaid patient who is prescribed18 medications at a cost of roughly $16,000 a year–“all at…
