British Shake-up for drug licensing body Thu, 11 Nov 2004 “The damage done by the public believing they have been lied to or defrauded is difficult to repair.” A shake up is taking place in the UK as the culture of secrecy and the pharmaceutical industry’s influence on the Medicines…
FDA Officials Tried to tone Down Report of 27,000 heart attacks on Vioxx – WSJ – WashPost Sun, 10 Oct 2004 The FDA attempted to block a senior medical officer from making his findings known about the lethal hazards of Vioxx: Senator Chuck Grassley stated: “Instead of acting as a…
How Pharma Took Over Medicine: Research and Practice – BMJ / NYT Fri, 3 Jan 2003 In today’s New York Times Dr. Erin Marcus writes: “Medicines aren’t like shampoo or perfume.” But they’re being hawked on TV as if they were just another ‘enhancer’–when in fact, they come with glossed…
Pfizer Acknowledges It Failed to Reveal Celebrex cardiac risk found in 1999 trial Tue, 1 Feb 2005 The New York Times reports: “Responding to the Vioxx withdrawal [Sept. 30, 2004], Pfizer said in October that no completed study had ever shown any increased heart risks related to Celebrex. Then, in…
Twin Pharma Give-A-Ways: Biodefense Vaccine /Drug Development Act–S. 1873_ $7 bill Bird Flu Plan Wed, 2 Nov 2005 If the Administration were serious about preparing for an avian flu pandemic–or for ANY health disaster for that matter–the money would be spent on developing reliable infrastructures at the state and local…
FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford Resigns – AP Fri, 23 Sep 2005 The Associated Press reports that the embattled FDA commissioner, Lester Crawford, a veterenarian, who headed the agency since Marc McLellan moved over to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has resigned effective immediately. Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav 212-595-8974…
Safety of American Drugs Questioned – Assoc Press Thu, 2 Dec 2004 In his CNN news program last evening, Lou Dobbs said the question is no longer whether something is wrong with the FDA’s performance in protecting the public from unsafe drugs–but whether the FDA can even be salvaged? The…
How Health Care in America Became Big Business–And Bad Medicine – OpEd NYT Zoloft NYT Ad Fails to Disclose Suicide risk Mon, 25 Oct 2004 An Op-Ed in Sunday’ New York Times by Time magazine editors, Donald Barlett and James Steele, is a MUST READ assessment of what ails America’s…
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 14:14:47 -0400 From: Vera Subject: Bitter Medicine: Pills, Profit & the Public Health_ABC News ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP) A Human Rights Organization www.researchprotection.org Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav FYI On May 17 The Wall Street Journal reported (in a front page article) that drug…
Despite Vow, Drug Makers Still Wtihhold Data – NYT letters Thu, 9 Jun 2005 An important article by Alex Berenson in The New York Times, “Despite Vow, Drug Makers Still Withhold Data,” corroborated the untrustworthiness of drug manufacturers. Their public pronouncements and promises to fully disclose their clinical trial data-including…
Forbes: Face of The Year: David Graham Mon, 13 Dec 2004 Â Forbes magazine has named Dr. David Graham the Face of the Year’ for his “steadfast advocacy of drug safety and his willingness to blow the whistle on his bosses.” Dr. Graham took a courageous stand as a responsible…
FDA’s Lethal Weakness Requires More than Committees Sun, 7 Nov 2004 Bloomberg News reports that New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer requested information from Pfizer about the promotion of some of its drugs for unapproved uses – the recalled diabetes drug, Rezulin and the antidepressant, Zoloft were named. In…
