"When you’re talking deaths in clinical trials, mistakes are not an option," said Dr. Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania. "It’s just an area where we have to have absolute, foolproof reporting in place."
New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, got it right!
The real story behind the crisis at Merck, the Cleveland Clinic, and the medical industrial complex as a whole "is bigger than either the company or the clinic. It’s the story of how growing conflicts of interest may be distorting both medical research and health care in general."
Loss of Trust: Big Drug Makers See Sales Decline With Their Image – NYT Mon, 14 Nov 2005 The lead front page article in today’s New York Times reports: “A poll last month showed that only 9 percent of Americans believed drug companies were generally honest, down from 14 percent…
"Every year, drug companies spend $14 billion to test experimental substances on humans. Across the U.S., the centers that do the testing–and the regulators who watch them–allow scores of human test subjects to be injured or killed."
New Diabetes Drug Increases Mortality / Morbidity – FDA “approvable” letter Challenged Fri, 21 Oct 2005 Today’s newspaper reports about a lethal new diabetes drug that the FDA was poised to approve makes abundantly clear that The New York Times got it wrong when it gave the FDA high marks…
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/10/business/10drug.html?ei=5094&en=5475b3c17e50e692&hp =&ex=1118462400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print THE NEW YORK TIMES June 10, 2005, front page Lucrative Drug, Danger Signals and the F.D.A. By GARDINER HARRIS and ERIC KOLI Dozens had died and more than 100 patients had suffered serious heart problems by March 1998 after taking Propulsid, a popular medicine for heartburn. Infants, given…
TeenScreen: the Law Suits Begin Mon, 13 Jun 2005 Newsworthy developments about the duo-drug promotion scam‹TeenScreen & TMAP: A. The first legal challenge against TeenScreen, the mental health screening scheme that is invading the public school system across the nation, declaring otherwise normal children to be mentally ill, has been…
“Lilly is Hiding Negative Information About Zyprexa” – SAPS Wed, 2 Nov 2005 From our colleague in Sweden: A published interview with Dr. Curt Furberg, Professor of Public Health Sciences Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and Chair, Steering Committee, and Principal Investigator, of one of the most important studies…
The Power of $4 bill Drug Ads: Doctors Respond with Diagnosis & Prescription – WashPost Thu, 28 Apr 2005 What does $4 billion dollars in drug advertising buy? The Washington Post reports that a University of Washington study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms the insidious…
Vioxx Fallout: Merck Officials Intervened–NYT / FDA Officials Intervened–Mother Jones Mon, 25 Apr 2005 Mother Jones and The New York Times focus on the Vioxx fall out–a case that encapsulates the corrupt practices in drug research. Merck and FDA officials intervened to conceal the lethal cardiac effect of Vioxx. Mother…
What Ails the FDA? Payola – Marcia Angell Boston Globe Thu, 10 Mar 2005 The Boston Globe reports that the FDA is scrambling to put out one drug crisis after another, doing a poor job in both its areas of responsibility: medicine and food. FDA acting chief, Lester Crawford, cancelled…
Pfizer Marketing Scheme Stirs Concern_NYT / Corporate Responsibility Movement Puts PhRMA on Notice_ ICCR Mon, 7 Mar 2005 The New York Times reports that Pfizer is planning to lock up the market for heart treaments by bundling its new drug (toretrapib, which is still in experimental stage of development) to…
