Latest Report Blasts FDA Bungling Drug Safety Tracking–Waste & 4-year Delay

FDA administrators "mishandled the initiative through bureaucratic infighting, flawed planning and duplicative work performed by outside contractors." The report estimates that agency administrators wasted $25 million on a computer system that won't be functional before 2009.

British Medical Journal: Something is rotten at the heart of FDA / Glaxo faces class action suit

British Medical Journal: Something is rotten at the heart of FDA / Glaxo faces class action suit Sun, 5 Dec 2004 “Something is rotten at the heart of the FDA.” That’s the opening of an editorial in the British Medical Journal. [1] Indeed, there is something rotten at the heart…

Guidant Didn’t Disclose a Flaw in Defibrillator for 3 Years – NYT / FDA Wrong on Crestor Safety

Guidant Didn’t Disclose a Flaw in Defibrillator for 3 Years_NYT / FDA Wrong on Crestor Safety Tue, 24 May 2005 The New York Times reports that the maker a a heart defirillator knew for 3 years about a malfunction and failed to inform physicians about It because the company “had…

Calls Mounting for FDA Revamp / Americans Are the most medicated population in the world – DHHS

Calls Mounting for FDA Revamp / Americans Are the most medicated population in the world – DHHS Sun, 26 Dec 2004 A government survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, confirms that Americans are the most medicated population in the world – 44 percent of Americans had…

Pfizer Statements RE: Bextra, Celebrex, Neurontin Shown to be Lies

Pfizer Statements RE: Bextra, Celebrex, Neurontin Shown to be Lies Fri, 08 Apr 2005 The New York Times reports that “as recently as Tuesday [Pfizer] assured Wall Street that sales of Celebrex and Bextra would soon rebound. It was the latest in a string of announcements by the company regarding…

Medicare Rx Drug Bill Shaped by Drug Industry Blocks Elderly Bargaining Power – NYT

Medicare Rx Drug Bill Shaped by Drug Industry Blocks Elderly Bargaining Power – NYT Fri, 5 Sep 2003 A drug industry lobbyist is quoted in The New York Times stating: “Having both houses of Congress Republican-controlled was great. Like in Monopoly, when you get to add hotels.” The Medicare prescription…

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FDA Is Flexing Less Muscle where Safety is the Issue – Wash Post

FDA Is Flexing Less Muscle where Safety is the Issue – Wash Post Thu, 18 Nov 2004 The Washington Post examines FDA’s record of surveillance and the evidence is clear: since 1992 when Congress required drug companies to pay users fees to the FDA, the agency’s focus changed from safety…

Drugmakers Go Furthest to Sway Congress: 1,274 Lobbyists – USA Today

Drugmakers Go Furthest to Sway Congress: 1,274 Lobbyists – USA Today Tue, 26 Apr 2005 USA Today provides a glimpse into the way the pharmaceutical industry controls health care policy by buying influence at the highest level of government, and underwriting professional and lay healthcare organizations whose spokespersons parrot industry’s…