How Did the Vioxx Debacle Happen? USA Today / Lancet Tue, 12 Oct 2004 Dr. Eric Topol of the Cleveland Clinic: “The senior executives at Merck and the leadership at the FDA share responsibility for not having taken appropriate action and not recognizing that they are accountable for the public…
Vaccines the culprit – Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory – NYT Sun, 10 Nov 2002 A report in Sunday’s NY Times Magazine (excerpt below) reveals as much about the culture of arrogance exhibited by those who formulate public health policy, as it does about the link (long-denied) between a vaccine preservative containing…
October 18, 2002. Pediatric Drug Tests_CNN / NYT Editorial Children are increasingly being exploited for profit by the biomedical industry. Between 1983 and 1997, children had been protected from medical experiments that are not in their best interest. But in 1997 Congress passed the FDA Modernization Act (FDAMA), providing a…
“Drug Companies Should Make Their Studies Public” NYT Wed, 13 Aug 2003 Concealed and inaccessible research findings are undermining the integrity of medicine, the advancement of scientific knowledge, and most importantly, secrecy is putting people’s lives in jeopardy because prescribing doctors are ignorant about adverse – even lethal – drug…
4 compelling reasons against Mental Health Parity Fri, 12 Sep 2003 Compelling reasons NOT to approve insurance parity for mental health services come from the following recent reports suggesting that mental health services and treatments have often done more damage than good. Until psychiatry and mental health service providers develop…
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…
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…
FDA Strong Drug Ties-Less Monitoring – UK MHRA Mon, 6 Dec 2004 A front page article in The New York Times provides a historical perspective to the shift in FDA’s focus (in 1992) from watchdog safeguarding the public against hazardous drugs, food and medical devices, to its current role as…
FDA Anthrax vaccine documents show pentagon lied Mon, 11 Oct 2004 “A former Dover Air Force Base commander says military officials used his troops as guinea pigs in illegal medical experiments under the government’s controversial anthrax vaccination program.” “Government officials have acknowledged that the Department of Defense secretly tested squalene…
Expert FDA Report: SSRI Suicide risk_SF Chronicle / NYT/ NJ Ledger/ AP Fri, 16 Apr 2004 FDA officials have provoked congressional hearings at which they will have to explain, not only why they concealed data linking antidepressants to increased violent and suicidal behavior, and why they covered up a report…
FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford Resigns – AP Fri, 23 Sep 2005 The Associated Press reports that the embattled FDA commissioner, Lester Crawford, a veterenarian, who headed the agency since Marc McLellan moved over to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has resigned effective immediately. Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav 212-595-8974…
FDA New Drug Safety Website – ADHD A Huge Profit-Engine for amphetamine-like drugs – The Street Sun, 22 May 2005 “After 25 years and 35 studies, there is not a single straightforward experiment comparing typical unmedicated children with an ADHD diagnosis to typical controls.” But science is not what the…
