Universities Misappropriate Federal Grants – Cornell Doctor Blows Whistle Alleging Phantom Studies – WSJ

Universities Misappropriate Federal Grants – Cornell Doctor Blows Whistle Alleging Phantom Studies – WSJ Wed Aug 17, 2005 Scott Fitzgerald’s opener to The Great Gatsby, “the rich are different from you and me…” is most aptly applied today to an elite corps of rich academic scientists. Academia once symbolized a…

Doctors On the Take-Engaging in Vairous Dubious Activities for Cash / Stock Options

Doctors On the Take-Engaging in Vairous Dubious Activities for Cash / Stock Options Tue, 16 Aug 2005 A series of current articles in The Wall Street Journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the New York Times describe the many questionable non-medical income-producing activities that America¹s physicians…

Smallpox vaccine: Experts Urge Caution, Administration Pushes Hard

Smallpox vaccine: Experts Urge Caution, Administration Pushes Hard Sat, 29 Mar 2003 In our earlier Infomail today, the focus was on the Administration’s difficulty in recruiting volunteers for the anthrax vaccine trial. This Infomail focuses on the determined push to implement the smallpox vaccine program, despite the advice of medical…

Merck / Johnson & Johnson/ Lilly-Zyprexa: $690 Million settlement / a Flowering of Diabetes Drugs

Merck / Johnson & Johnson/ Lilly-Zyprexa: $690 Million settlement / a Flowering of Diabetes Drugs Fri, 10 Jun 2005 A cluster of news reports about three pillars of the pharmaceutical industry– Merck, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson–leave no doubt that this industry has shown its disregard for the welfare…

FDA May Require Longer Studies Before Approving Psych Drugs – WSJ

FDA May Require Longer Studies Before Approving Psych Drugs – WSJ Tue, 18 Oct 2005 The Wall Street Journal reports that the FDA has sent out feelers to drug manufacturers to provide “longer-term efficacy data” for psychotropic drugs. This comes after a mountain of evidence shows placebo “works” just as…

Superiority of Zyprexa (Olanzapine) Challenged

Superiority of Zyprexa (Olanzapine) Challenged Mon, 1 Dec 2003 “The profound issue in health care is do we pay anything — regardless of the price — for a statistically significant benefit?” A major 12 month randomized study compared the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of Eli Lilly’s $3.7 billion blockbuster schizophrenia…

Another deadly drug recalled – FDA asks Congress for Power to Dictate Warnings

Another deadly drug recalled – FDA asks Congress for Power to Dictate Warnings Tue, 1 Mar 2005 Public pressure has intensified as FDA’s failure to protect the public from unsafe – even lethal drugs. That failure included the failure to at least warn physicians and the public about severe adverse…