Testing Psychotropic Drugs in Children April 30, 2002 David Healy, MD University of Wales College of Medicine April 30th 2002. The background against which this paper is prepared is that in 1997 I organized, chaired and wrote up the recommendations from an International Roundtable Meeting for the British Association for…
Congressional Investigations Senate Finance Committee Investigates FDA Aug 4: Sen. Grassley letter (416 K pdf) to 8 drug companies requests list of all antidepressant tests on children (1/1/1990–7/23/2004) Aug 3: Drug safety Hearings-Sept-Congress/ FDA – Lilly Plans to Disclose Data Jul 15: Senate Letter to FDA re: disclosure of risks…
Hutch Settles consent Case out of court – Seattle Times Thu, 16 Jan 2003 The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center has settled a lawsuit that charged the institution with ethical/legal violations in a fatal cancer trial. The case was brought to light in a superb, 5-part, prize winning series by David…
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…
Guidant Didn’t Disclose a Flaw in Defibrillator for 3 Years_NYT / FDA Wrong on Crestor Safety Tue, 24 May 2005 The New York Times reports that the maker a a heart defirillator knew for 3 years about a malfunction and failed to inform physicians about It because the company “had…
Drugmakers Go Furthest to Sway Congress: 1,274 Lobbyists – USA Today Tue, 26 Apr 2005 USA Today provides a glimpse into the way the pharmaceutical industry controls health care policy by buying influence at the highest level of government, and underwriting professional and lay healthcare organizations whose spokespersons parrot industry’s…
Protecting Editorial Integrity – Dr. Stefan Kreuszewski BMJ Sun, 6 Feb 2005 In his BMJ editorial, “A tough nut to crack,” Kamran Abassi writes: “The drug industry considers the BMJ a tough nut to crack,” an insider recently told us. Publishing a “favourable” research paper is far trickier in the…
<p> Big Pharma’s Shameful Secret – Bloomberg News <br> Most Clinical Trials Stopped Early for “perceived” benefit later turned out false – JAMA </p> <p> Thu, 3 Nov 2005 </p> <p> A six part Special Report by Bloomberg News reveals that “Every year, drug companies spend $14 billion to test…
Federal Study Finds No Benefit of New Antipsychotic Drugs – WashPost/Wall StreetJ/NY Times Tue, 20 Sep 2005 The findings of a $44 million government sponsored study, CATIE, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, comparing an older generic antipsychotic to four new atypical antipsychotics, undercut the legitimacy of psychiatry’s…
Merck / Johnson & Johnson/ Lilly-Zyprexa: $690 Million settlement / a Flowering of Diabetes Drugs Fri, 10 Jun 2005 A cluster of news reports about three pillars of the pharmaceutical industry– Merck, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson–leave no doubt that this industry has shown its disregard for the welfare…
Anthrax Global Press Conference Friday, April 1, at 2:00 PM: Reunion of Heavy Metal Music Band To Raise Awareness Against Forced Drugs Wed, 30 Mar 2005 An unusual global press conference will kick off a week-end of heavy metal music and a public awareness campign. The press conference is scheduled…
Recent developments in gene transfer research: risk and ethics Mon, 10 Jan 2005 An analysis by Dr. Jonathan Kimmelman, in the British Medical Journal provides an illuminating, clearly articulated discussion about the ethical dilemmas that challenge gene transfer experiments – essentially a kind of human genetic engineering involving somatic cells,…
