Leading ADHD Researcher Blows Whistle on Concerta & CHADD Fri, 3 Dec 2004 A newly released report by the Center for Disease Control – Health US 2004–reveals how effective the pharmaceutical industry is in marketing its drugs – whether or not they are beneficial; whether or not they cause severe…
Published Clinical Trials Contradict Claimed Benefits – Front Page Pill Pushers Tue Aug 16, 2005 Two items from the BMJ A systemic review of 22 randomized clinical trials of Alzheimer’s disease treatments in the BMJ found the studies to have suffered from flawed methodology and to have revealed that commonly…
“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…
Hormone Replacement “Bombshell” is Not and isolated incident Wednesday, July 10, 2002 Until a “bombshell” study overturned hormone replacement treatment (HRT), Premarin was the most prescribed drug in U.S. in the last decade (45 million Rx in 2001) and Prempro the most prescribed estrongen / progesterone combination (22 million Rx…
Elliott Spitzer walks away from prosecuting coporate crimes Sat, 25 Dec 2004 “After nearly three years of high-profile prosecutions of investment banks, mutual funds and insurance companies, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of New York said yesterday that he is ready to cede those investigations to federal regulators.” Whatever Eliot Spitzer…
Doctors On the Take-Engaging in Vairous Dubious Activities for Cash / Stock Options Tue, 16 Aug 2005 A series of current articles in The Wall Street Journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the New York Times describe the many questionable non-medical income-producing activities that America¹s physicians…
Zolft pediatric study in JAMA challenged by peers – JAMA letters Fri, 9 Jan 2004 At the time that two manufacturers publicly acknowledged that their antidepressant drugs (Paxil / Seroxat and Effexor) were unsafe, and ineffective for children, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a clinical trial…
Duke Survey Clinical trials: Research Conflicts of Interest Violate ethical Guidelines_UPI Sun, 27 Oct 2002 A major Duke University survey of 108 U.S. medical schools reveals that medical institutions fail utterly to meet international standards aimed at ensuring the integrity of clinical research and the safety of the subjects. Conflicts…
FDA Underhanded Tactics Against Medical Officer Who Blew the Whistle Mon, 29 Nov 2004 The Food and Drug Administration is the epicenter of a collision between medical officers in the drug safety office and senior officials in managerial positions whose focus is on facilitating new drug approvals. Officials at the…
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….
Lead author of JAMA article rethinks positive Zoloft report – Guardian Wed, 1 Oct 2003 In August 2003, the Sertraline Pediatric Study Group reported: “Sertraline-treated patients experienced statistically significantly greater improvement than placebo.” Their report was published in the authoritative Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The authors claimed…
Lawsuit filed re: ALLHAT Hypertension research death of human subject Thu, 17 Jul 2003 The Bureau of National Affairs reports: “Just months after a groundbreaking blood pressure study made headlines across the nation, a principal investigator in the trial and his team have been sued in connection with the death…
