Trial Lawyers Are Taking Aim at the Drug Industry_NYT Sun, 18 May 2003 It appears that trial lawyers will produce the results that government oversight agencies–in particular, the FDA–have failed to do. Namely, to protect the public against an increasing number of unsafe drugs. The pharmaceutical industry whose efforts to…
Antidepressant Controversy: Media Conflicts of Interest – New York Times Thu, 25 Mar 2004 FDA’s advisory warning about antidepressant drugs received wide press coverage nationally. But few in the national media mentioned conflicts of interest as the obstacle to disclosure of evidence showing these drugs’ adverse effects. Among the few…
Bayer drops legal action against Friends of the Earth re: Concealed pesticide data Fri, 2 Jul 2004 The Guardian reports that Bayer, the giant pesticide / pharmaceutical company has backed off from its bullying tactics in its effort to prevent Friends of the Earth from informing the public how to…
Practice Guidelines: Can We Trustthe Evidence in Evidence-Based Medicine? Sun, 25 Sep 2005 “Research and Clinical Practice Guidelines: Can We Trust the Evidence in Evidence-Based Medicine?” is an article by Dr. John Abramson* (Harvard) and Dr. Barbara Starfeld (Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins), published in the Journal of the American Board…
Lies & Broken Promises_Drug firm Websites Fail to Disclose Test Data Sun, 9 Jan 2005 One year after PhRMA’s publicized proclamation of its “commitment to transparency” The Boston Globe reviewed pharmaceutical company websites searching for disclosure of clinical trial data. The Globe found that this voluntary approach failed miserably: “Last…
FDA Smoke & Mirrors Musical Chairs Wed, 16 Feb 2005 Amidst widespread public criticism of the FDA’s role as facilitators in the marketing of lethal drugs that killed thousands of people, the Administration made several announcements incorporating terminology (such as: “we’re in an era of openness” “transparency”). But politically correct…
Commentary by Vera Hassner Sharav February 18, 2002Â FYI United States Government Sponsored Genetic Research in Rural China Raises Troubling Ethical Concerns A January 2002 report in China Daily, byXiong Lei, the senior journalist with China Features, Xinhua News Agency(below), raises troubling ethical concerns about U.S. government-sponsoredgenetic research in rural…
NIH ethics review Thu, 15 Jan 2004 There is nothing quite like good investigative journalism to shake public officials from their complacency. An investigative report by David Willman in The Los Angeles Times on Dect 7, 2003, has sent NIH director, Dr. Elias Zirhouni, scrambling to explain why NIH has…
Paxil for Children: Safety, Efficacy Aren’t Established – Letter WSJ Fri, 9 Jul 2004 Dr. Arnold Relman, Professor Emeritus, Medicine and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, responds to a June 21 editorial in The Wall Street Journal. The editorial attacked…
212% Increase in Prescription Drug Abuse by US Teens – Australian critics challenge loose prescribers Tue, 27 Sep 2005 Psychiatric prescription drugs have “run amok”: two reports (July, August) by Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, or CASA, confirm an epidemic of prescription drug abuse among teenagers:…
China Daily A farming family’s recollection 2003-09-25 http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-09/25/content_267233.htm Near-death experience after 55-year-old father of four inhales ‘fog-like’ spray China Features reporters XIONG LEI and WEN CHIHUA recently visited Zongyang County, in East China’s Anhui Province, to further dig into the allegations surrounding Harvard’s genetic studies in China. Their investigation was…
Universities Misappropriate Federal Grants – Cornell Doctor Blows Whistle Alleging Phantom Studies – WSJ Wed Aug 17, 2005 Scott Fitzgerald’s opener to The Great Gatsby, “the rich are different from you and me…” is most aptly applied today to an elite corps of rich academic scientists. Academia once symbolized a…
