FDA Approves Lilly’s Growth Hormone for Healthy Children Mon, 28 Jul 2003 The FDA has approved Eli Lilly’s injectable human growth hormone (hGH) therapy, Humatrope, for healthy children who are short but have no hormonal deficiency. Lilly claims that its trials in 300 healthy short children resulted in an increase…
Guardian Reports: MHRA to Issue New SSRI Restrictions Mon, 14 Jun 2004 The Guardian reports that the British Committee on safety and Medicines, which was first to issue warnings about the potential suicidal risk for children prescribed an antidepressant of the SSRI class, are now about to issue similar warnings…
Australian Judge blames Paxil & Effexor: mom free of murder attempt / UK MP Wed, 26 May 2004 Top FDA officials are foot dragging–can’t make up their minds whether protecting children’s lives is a priority. These officials are loath to curtail the dispensing of antidepressants–inasmuch as it would hurt drug…
Labeling Kids Mentally Ill for Profit – E. Pringle Mon, 14 Mar 2005 Independent, investigative reporters in Texas, Illinois, Ohio, FloridaŠare questioning the rationale for the recommendations of President Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health report calling for universal screening for mental illness. These investigative reporter have discovered that…
Pharma’s Pervasive Influence Corrupts Medicine both sides of Atlantic Tue, 4 Oct 2005 The focus of criticism in medicine has shifted from cost and barriers to access to treatments to an examination of the safety and benefit of current treatments. The pharmaceutical industry’s corrupting influence on physicians, academic researchers, the…
Despite Vow, Drug Makers Still Wtihhold Data – NYT letters Thu, 9 Jun 2005 An important article by Alex Berenson in The New York Times, “Despite Vow, Drug Makers Still Withhold Data,” corroborated the untrustworthiness of drug manufacturers. Their public pronouncements and promises to fully disclose their clinical trial data-including…
Children in "Hot Demand" for Clinical Trials May 31, 2002 FYI Rachel Zimmerman of The Wall Street Journal reports about the "frenzy" to recruit children for drug trials. The inclusion of children in drug trials allows pharmaceutical companies to cash in on six month patent exclusivity extensions worth hundreds of millions of dollars….
Schizophrenia drugs increase diabetes risk Fri, 29 Aug 2003 A large scale study by the Veterans Administration corroborates a body of evidence demonstrating that the much touted “improved” newer drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia–Zyprexa, Risperdal, Seroquesl– are precipitating the onset of diabetes at alarming rates– especially among younger patients….
“Black Hole” of medical research–Negative Results Don’t get Published – JAMA, WSJ Sat, 5 Jun 2004 “No one likes bad news. But in science, there is an ethical imperative to publish research, even if the findings aren’t what the researcher had hoped for.” The New York Times, which tends to…
Doctors Without Borders: Why you can’t trust medical journals anymore Tue, 13 Apr 2004 Related link: Hear an interview with Shannon Brownlee on NPR at: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1874563 Doctors Without Borders in the Washington Monthly (excerpt below), looks at the intricate web of collaborating players in medicine who are financially tied one…
Petition FDA to Investigate if SSRI Induced School Shootings Fri, 25 Mar 2005 The Minnesota shooting rampage by 16-year old Jeff Weise, prompted the parent organization, Ablechild.org, to petition the FDA to conduct “a full investigation into the possible SSRI induced school shootings.” “It took 15 years for the FDA…
Hearing on Antidepressants Canceled – Washington Post Wed, 21 Jul 2004 The Washington Post confirms AHRP’s assessment about the real reason for the derailment of a much awaited congressional hearing at which the giants of the pharmaceutical industry were to testify: “A Democratic staff member who spoke on the condition…
