FDA Panel Poses Pointed Questions to Drug Makers Over Risks of Painkillers – NYT Thu, 17 Feb 200 A three day public advisory panel hearing which is overflowing with attendees from around the world, is an investigation of the conduct of pharmaceutical company giants and the FDA. The hearing began…
THE NEW YORK TIMES February 12, 2005 Drug Regulators Are Trying to Quash Study, Senator Says By GARDINER HARRIS WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 – The tension and intrigue surrounding a crucial federal drug advisory committee meeting next week, already high, reached a boil on Friday when Senator Charles E. Grassley charged…
Corporate Welfare Runs Amok – NYT Editorial Sun, 30 Jan 2005 The administration has gone another step toward doing away with corporate taxes – by offering a “tax holiday” to America’s richest multinationals. The 35% corporate tax rate is being winnowed down to the “puny rate” of 5.25% for corporations…
Bad Medicine: A Gift for Drug Makers–Malpractice Bill Shields Drugmakers Sat, 15 Jan 2005 Knowledgable critics – among them practicing physicians, health care analysts, medical journal editors, journalists, and lay citizens–have reached the conclusion that America’s for-profit health care system – which eats up 16% of the budget–has failed to…
Doctors, Too, Ask: Is This Drug Right? Thu, 30 Dec 2004 Much to their professional embarassment, doctors are finding that they have been fed a pack of lies by smooth talking pharmaceutical company sales reps, who persuaded them that the new, and (always) more expensive drugs provided a greater benefit…
What’s a Patient to Think? Prescription for Confusion – NY Times Editorial Tue, 28 Dec 2004 At long last, The New York Times has validated the well-placed anger and frustration that patients feel at having their trust in medicine and the nation’s oversight agents betrayed: “Now I just don’t trust…
Sen Grassley to Offer Mandatory Drug Data Registry Bill Fri, 10 Dec 2004 AHRP applauds Senator Chuck Grassley for spearheading legislation that will require pharmaceutical companies to register ALL drug trials and report their results in a public database. Given the record of deception and concealment of adverse data, anything…
FDA Protects Pfizer: Removes Advisory Panelist for Citing Evidence Bextra Similar to Vioxx – WSJ Fri, 12 Nov 2004 Even as the Vioxx casualties are still being counted, even as FDA’s conduct is under Congressional investigation, the FDA office of new drugs has taken action to obstruct evidence-based safety evaluation…
2/3 Institute of Medicine AIDS research panel have Conflicts of Interst – Assoc Press Thu, 17 Mar 2005 On Feb 25, the New York Times reported that 10 of 32 FDA panelists determining whether to recommend that COX 2 painkillers should allowed to be marketed despite the documented increased risk…
Public Ranks Drug Industry at Bottom With Oil, HMOs, Tobacco – Harris Poll Thu, 8 Jul 2004 The New York Times reports: “No industry has fallen as far or as fast in public esteem in recent years as the pharmaceutical industry, according to the Harris Poll.” The American public is…
Conflict of Interest: Profits vs Safety Congressional Investigations US Senators Pharmaceutical industry holdings, 2004: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/SenPharma.pdf Oct 12: How Did the Vioxx Debacle Happen? USA Today / Lancet Oct 4: Op Ed: Psychiatry on the Ropes–WP / Evidence-based Psychiatry Oct 3: BBC PANORAMA TONIGHT – Taken on Trust – 13 years-Medical…
Forest Labs Admits Concealment of data – Congressional Probe Expands Sat, 26 Jun 2004 New York Times business reporter, Barry Meier, reports, “Forest officials had not told a medical journal about a failed unpublished study in 2002 of Celexa use in children and adolescents, before the journal published an article…
