Suicide Rate Unchanged in 10 Years–JAMA / AMA Considers Stand Against Warning Labels on Antidepressants Thu, 9 Jun 2005 A major report in the Journal of the American Medical Association shatters all claims about the effectiveness of antidepressants as a treatment for the prevention of suicide. A comparison of the…
Eli Lilly Prozac Documents: What do They Reveal? Thu, 27 Jan 2005 A report in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) that relied on internal Eli Lilly documents to challenge Lilly’s claims about the safety of Prozac has stirred a prickly hornet’s nest. [1] The documents show, among other…
FDA Strong Drug Ties-Less Monitoring – UK MHRA Mon, 6 Dec 2004 A front page article in The New York Times provides a historical perspective to the shift in FDA’s focus (in 1992) from watchdog safeguarding the public against hazardous drugs, food and medical devices, to its current role as…
VIOXX WITHDRAWAL: FDA TO JOIN AUDIO CONFERENCE ON NOVEMBER 10 Mon, 8 Nov 2004 To hear from FDA Office of New Drugs Acting Director Sandra Kweder, MD, in an interactive discussion of what the withdrawal of the blockbuster drug means for the agencys drug safety programs, the COX-2 inhibitor class…
Alliance for Human Research Protection in the Press Feb 17, 2005: FDA Critics Slam Plan for Safety Reform – Nature “This is smoke and mirrors and musical chairs,” says Vera Sharav, president of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection. “They will be using the very same officials that…
Jeffrey Drazen editor NEJM Turns Activist on Drug Trials Thu, 26 May 2005 Journal editors, one by one are trying to retrieve the integrity of their publications, at last recognizing that the pharamaceutical industry is a corrupting factor in medical research and the information disseminated about medicine. Jeffrey Drazen who…
’91 Merck Memo Warned of Mercury in Baby Vaccines – LAT Tue, 8 Feb 2005 The Los Angeles Times reports that a 1991 internal Merck memo obtained from a whistleblower by James Moody, a Washington lawyer who works with parent groups on vaccine safety issues, provides the “first hard evidence…
$95 billion a year spent on medical research in US – JAMA Fri, 23 Sep 2005 A special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, focuses on medical research spending and findings. A study that examined US spending for medical research—$95 billion approaching $100 billion–57% is spent…
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4696609 Documents Suggest Merck Tried to Censor Vioxx Critics NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO All Things Considered, June 9, 2005 – Because of intense interest in this report, NPR has decided to present a full transcript. Introduction: At least 38,000 Americans are believed to have died from taking the pain pill Vioxx…
Bill would shield some drug firms from punitive damages Wed, 29 Dec 2004 A proposed bill in Congress would be another disincentive for pharmaceutical companies to disclose drug safety problems. Those promoting the bill should be asked to disclose their financial ties to drug companies. In 2000, a mysterious clause…
Prescription Drug Industfry: The Insiders – AARP Bulletin Wed, 10 Nov 2004 Three pharmaceutical industry insiders blow the whistle in one of the most important articles you’ll ever read about the unethical marketing of prescription drugs. Peter Rost, M.D, a top marketing executive at Pfizer, Arthur Kuebel, a salesman who…
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…
