Integrity of Medical Regulators Wed, 8 Jun 2005 The UK MHRA (equivalent of US FDA) has been caught in flat out public deception. The MHRA–which is entirely funded by the pharmaceutical industry–had claimed that two thirds of professional organizations it consulted favored selling a heart medication (Zocor Heart-Pro) without a…
Recent developments in gene transfer research: risk and ethics Mon, 10 Jan 2005 An analysis by Dr. Jonathan Kimmelman, in the British Medical Journal provides an illuminating, clearly articulated discussion about the ethical dilemmas that challenge gene transfer experiments – essentially a kind of human genetic engineering involving somatic cells,…
Conflicts of Interest policy – New York Times Sun, 28 Mar 2004 To: ‘Executive-editor@nytimes’; ‘gcollins@nytimes’; ‘arosenthal@nytimes’; ‘pboffey@nytimes’; ‘lchang@nytimes’; ‘oped@nytimes’ Cc: ‘Daniel Okrent’ ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP) Promoting openness and full disclosure https://ahrp.org FYI Friday’s New York Times included the following Editor’s Note on the paper’s Op Ed page:…
Institute of Medicine (IOM) Panel Misses the Point re Test Subjects October 3, 2002 See also the following Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences documents: IOM Report: Responsible Research: A Systems Approach to Protecting Research Participants. Oct. 3, 2002 (Adobe Acrobat document) IOM Public Briefing – October…
Just How Effective are Medical Screening Tests? Mon, 17 Nov 2003 A investigative report in the Guardian (UK) takes a critical view of medical screening for early detection of latent diseases. Contrary to the promoters of medical screening tests, there is scant evidence that early detection actually saves lives. The…
Protecting People with Mental Disabilities and Impairments against Biomedical Research Abuse[*] By John H. Noble, Jr., Ph.D, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA Vera Hassner Sharav, MLS, Alliance for Human Research Protection, New York, USA People with mental disabilities and impairments historically have been targeted by biomedical researchers…
Foster children AIDS Drug-Vaccine Experiments-Editorial – OpEd Sun, 22 May 2005 An editorial in the Toledo Blade, “Pediatric Shame,” expresses the moral indignation of the community upon learning that prestigious medical research Institutions nationwide exploited the vulnerability of children in foster care to test experimental AIDS drugs and vaccines: “in…
Additional information as of late Wed Oct 19: Although I was assured that attendance for a presentation by Dr. David Healy (at Columbia University School of Public Health on Oct. 20 at 12:30) would be open to the public, a problem seems to have emerged after an AHRP Infomail about…
Credibility Crisis:Survey FDA Scientists – Death in NIH-AIDS Trial – Tauzin Moves to PhRMA Thu, 16 Dec 2004 A credibility crisis in medical research is smoldering: like the Enron accounting scandal, the prescription-drug debacle is a matter of systemic corruption, including gross and widespread failure by the regulatory process. Unlike…
FDA Bad Faith – Daniel Troy’s pre-emption defense – Nat’l Law Journal Fri, 26 Mar 2004 Federal regulations require drug label warnings if there is “reasonable evidence” of a link between adverse effects and drug action. An article in the National Law Journal shows how s FDA’s chief counsel, Daniel…
Advisory Panel: What Protections for Children, fetuses, embryos? Wed, 30 Oct 2002 The Washington Post reports that the administration has issued a new charter for a federal advisory committee extending safeguards for human subjects to include embryos and fetuses along with children and adults. Whatever the intent of the Bush…
4 compelling reasons against Mental Health Parity Fri, 12 Sep 2003 Compelling reasons NOT to approve insurance parity for mental health services come from the following recent reports suggesting that mental health services and treatments have often done more damage than good. Until psychiatry and mental health service providers develop…
