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SELLING DRUGS AND DISEASE More
false advertising: Psychiatric drug does not relieve physical symptoms
in depression, contrary to ad claims. Claims by Eli Lilly that their drug
Cymbalta helps physical symptoms are not supported by scientific studies.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080121120154.htm Trasylol Link to Kidney Damage, Heart Failure, and Death to be reviewed by FDA panel in September. Trasylol is used to reduce blood loss during coronary artery bypass surgery, but additional reports of injury and death have resulted in new scrutiny. www.DrugInjuryWatch.com Why
tougher Direct-To-Consumer advertising restrictions were killed. It was “a success for the entire advertising community,” http://www.pharmalot.com/2007/09/why-tougher-dtc-restrictions-were-killed/ A Brief History of Direct To Consumer Advertising Jackson Ryan Fisher has provided a well-documented explanation of pervasive drug advertising. TV Drug ads are not good for your health! A study of 24 TV drug ads were assessed for facts, important omitted data and outright lies. The article in the Annals of Family Medicine concludes that direct to consumer drug advertising is not a good public health policy. Read full article. Inventing a new disease: watch the spoof on the new epidemic of Motivational Deficiency Disorder on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoppJOtRLe4 Prescription for FUN! This animated short is a lighthearted look at the of truth of our nation's pill-popping obsession. Over-prescriber of date-rape drug faces conspiracy charges For Sale: Physicians' Prescribing Data. Wonder Drug Inspires Deep, Unwavering Love Of Pharmaceutical Companies NEW YORK—The Food and Drug Administration today approved the sale of the drug PharmAmorin, a prescription tablet developed by Pfizer to treat chronic distrust of large prescription-drug manufacturers. They're going Pharma-free: Medical students refusing to take drug company gifts. Backstory: A pill they won't swallow, 28 Dec. 2005 The Christian Science Monitor An editorial in Mother Jones summarizes the current state of cure-seeking hysteria in the United States. Assistant online editor Bradford Plummer concludes that maybe what is needed is a cultural change, “—perhaps a new understanding that not every condition of daily life reduces down to neurobiology, and that there's not necessarily a pill for every problem.” Read License to Ill "There has never been a human body that ever had a deficiency of a drug." we are reminded by nutritionist Hal Ewing in his article, Selling Pre-Disease. Profiteering from pink products! Learn how the breast cancer support symbol is being marketed by companies including Cartier, Ford, Kodak, Quilted Northern, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Yoplait, and more, with little proceeds going to actual research donations. The Think Before You Pink campaign asks, “Is this philanthropy or hypocrisy?” http://www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org/ Insiders view of selling diseases. Although you'd have to pay a pretty penny to get the actual “Diseases & Conditions Market Research Reports”, this site gives you an idea of the work that goes into creating the perception of sickness in order to sell drugs. "The sky is falling!"- Chicken Little. Dr. Marc Siegel describes the effects of the ongoing hysteria surrounding avian influenza of the American public in his online article Scare Scenario. Creating the super-flu: FLU MIST (MedImmune Vaccines, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD) vaccine may create a super strain virus plague, warns Dr. Mark Geier, as reported in AIDS and avian flu: plagues made in America? Is
SARS nothing more than a novel social experiment conducted by white-collar
bioterrorists”? Evaluate the supporting evidence for yourself
in this article by Leonard Horowitz: Avian Flu - Vaccination Fraud Debunked. Defending his profits: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was made the chairman of Gilead in 1997, the company that developed Tamiflu, the drug for which the US just placed a $2 billion order even though it has no effect against avian flu and is likely to promote the development of resistant strains. Financially Bloated American Cancer Society Fails to Prevent Cancer. And why should it prevent cancer when its board is composed of those who profit from cancer drugs? Only 16% of revenues of the worlds wealthiest “nonprofit” institution go into direct services for cancer victims. Only 6% of drug ad claims are true. New study shows that 94% of marketing claims made by pharmaceutical companies have no basis in fact. Medical Journals Are an Extension of the Marketing Arm of Pharmaceutical Companies Another fake disease: Restless leg syndrome-unrecognized epidemic or drug company hype, an essay by retired physician James Gaulte. We remember our colleague Dr. Howard Wayne, champion of informed consent and physician to thousands for rational non-invasive cardiology, and author of “How to Protect Your Heart From Your Doctor” and “Do You Really Need Bypass Surgery? A Second Opinion”. Read full obituary. Pfizer Fires a Vice President Who Criticized the Company's Sales Practices They're going Pharma-free: Medical students refusing to take drug company gifts. Backstory: A pill they won't swallow, 28 Dec. 2005 The Christian Science Monitor Disease Mongering is a phrase used by the late Lynn Payer to describe the most profitable drug-selling tactics of the day. Marketing programs take ordinary human conditions such as aging and hair loss, and characterize them as sicknesses. This creates an entirely engineered patient demand for specific drugs, and results in blockbuster sales of the unnecessary 'cures'. From the word monger: A person promoting something undesirable or discreditable. Often used in combination: a scandalmonger; a warmonger. From Middle English mongere, from Old English mangere, from Latin mang, dealer in slaves, probably of Greek origin. (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000) Learn more about disease mongering at Media Doctor, a group originating from the Newcastle Institute of Public Health. Their mission is more accurate reporting of medical treatment information. Find out more about the individuals comprising Media Doctor here: http://www.mediadoctor.org.au/content/people.jsp Merck’s
Alzheimer’s study failed to mention the increased deaths on their
drug. Internal Merck documents that have become available in the
Vioxx lawsuits show that Merck’s study of Vioxx as a treatment for
Alzheimer’s resulted in excess deaths in people on their drug. This
data was not mentioned to the FDA when Merck submitted study results. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/299/15/1813?etoc New vaccine, same problem. The FDA warns that the newest rotavirus vaccine RotaTeq may cause the same potentially deadly bowel strangulation as did its predecessor that was withdrawn 8 years ago. Read full article. Protect a Woman You Know - Some women are being prescribed a newer kind of birth control pill that doubles the risks of the older, just-as-effective pills. Tell the FDA to ban more dangerous birth control pills. Get informed about birth control pills. New YouTube movie! Are you taking one of these drugs? Desogestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol, Apri-28, Cyclessa, Desogen, Kariva, Mircette, Ortho-Cept, Reclipsen, Velivet. Third generation birth control pills are twice as likely as other oral contraceptives to cause life-threatening blood clots. The second generation pills that contain low-dose estrogen and levonorgestrel, norgestrel, or norethindrone are the safest. For the information you need to find out about your prescription, watch Kate' s Movie. New warnings required for over the counter pain killers. Are OTC analgesics leading causes of drug deaths? http://abcnews.go.com/Health/PainManagement/story?id=2739177&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 Groundbreaking legislation: Maine requires drug companies to reveal harmful drug effects in clinical trials Drug maker Glaxo knew Paxil was dangerous and ineffective in children. This was revealed 11 years ago, and Glaxo glibly accepted a minor fine. What has happened since then? Bought and paid for: Fully half of all university medical center administrators allow industry sponsors to draft the initial manuscripts that describe the results of clinical trials conducted by their faculty, according to a survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Merck may have deleted data on heart attack risk from Vioxx studies published 5 years ago; news “stuns” top editor of New England Journal What Can We Learn from Medical Whistleblowers? Investigative reporter Jeanne Lenzer reports on her experiment to bring together 5 medical whistleblowers to learn how each had a piece of the puzzle of criminal pharma influence on medical drug testing, approval and marketing processes. Nesiteride: fatal adverse effects omitted from marketing material and label The Corporate Coauthor: A physician who turned down a byline for a ghostwritten article describes the scope and machinations of the ghostwriting of medical articles. Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD. Vioxx
articles written by ‘ghosts’ at Merck. Industry documents
reveal that pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. paid academics to put
their names on Vioxx research published in top medical journals while company
employees
often ghost-wrote the studies on the controversial painkiller. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_63462.html No
more free lunch. University of Texas Health Science Center will
enact a new policy on Jan. 1, 2007 in which doctors and medical students
will have to refuse any gifts from the pharmaceutical industry. http://www.amsa.org/prof/pharmfree.cfm Selling cancer chemotherapy with concessions creates conflicts of interest for oncologists. Gregory Pawelski describes how business interests played into a life or death struggle when his wife had ovarian cancer. He concludes: "What needs to be done is to remove the profit incentive from the choice of drug treatments. Medical oncologists should be taken out of the retail pharmacy business and let them be doctors again." http://healthyskepticism.org/news/2007/Jun.php "Incestuous relationship" between State and Eli Lilly - targets children and boosts drug sales. Eli Lilly is now overseeing a “quality” management program of 20 state Medicaid programs throughout the country. Nearly 90% of anti-psychotics sold in this country are paid for by government programs, including Medicaid. What’s wrong with this picture? Read all about it. How Eli Lilly decides what drug you get. According to a report in the New York Times, Lilly has contracted with Comprehensive NeuroScience to operate a "physician monitoring" program since 2003 in two dozen states. Medicaid officials in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, say "Lilly tied the program to unrestricted access to Zyprexa and the company's other mental health drugs." Read full article. Unethical scientists stealing millions go unpunished "Non profits" for sale. A typical example of medicine for sale at the expense of patients is the situation at Midwest Heart Foundation, where medical device manufacturers’ "donation" to a "non profit" medical group was gratified by study of the company’s own heart device and handsome profits for the funded doctors. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/business/28foundation.html?ex=1152158400&en=2c137f657ca367d0&ei=5070&emc=eta1(requires registration or subscription) US scientist accused of selling tissue samples. According to congressional investigators, Dr. Trey Sunderland chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch of the National Institute for Mental Health , sent Pfizer 3,200 tubes of spinal fluid and 388 tubes of plasma collected for Alzheimer's research. The government spent $6.4 million to obtain the 3,500 samples that showed how Alzheimer's disease progressed in 538 subjects. Pfizer paid Sunderland $285,000 in consulting fees related to the samples, investigators said. In total, Pfizer paid him more than $600,000 from 1998 to 2004 for outside consulting and speaking fees. http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/06/14/ Conflict of interest disclosures are largely ineffective. Scientific and educational meetings routinely require disclosure of conflicts related to industry but do not ask for disclosures related to clinical income or National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, both of which are major factors for professional success and involve financial sums much greater than the small gifts that the authors strongly argue can influence the behavior of physicians... full text requires subscription People over Profits circulates petition to protect victims of medical negligence The FDA chose 32 scientists to evaluate the COX-2 inhibitors (Vioxx, Celebrex, Bextra) on a special advisory committee February 2005. 27 of the scientists that served on the committee had affiliations or ties with manufacturers of Cox-2 inhibitors. According to a New York Times analysis of the votes, the advisory committee would have voted against Bextra and Vioxx staying on the market had scientists with conflicts of interest been excluded from the vote. Financial Conflicts of Interest in Physicians' Relationships with the Pharmaceutical Industry — Self-Regulation in the Shadow of Federal Prosecution David M. Studdert, LL.B., Sc.D., M.P.H., Michelle M. Mello, J.D., Ph.D., M.Phil., and Troyen A. Brennan, M.D., J.D., M.P.H. Physicians ought to refuse to visit with representatives as a matter of both professional integrity...The Company We Keep: Why Physicians Should Refuse to See Pharmaceutical Representatives Howard Brody, MD, PhD Cholesterol advisory panel stacked with industry affiliations: Eight of the nine authors of the new lower cholesterol recommendations have financial ties to statin manufacturers, including Pfizer, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and AstraZeneca. Stimulant Drug Warnings Advised After Panelists with Drug Maker Ties Booted. FDA advisory panel voted on February 9 that all stimulant psychotropic drugs carry the strongest warning (Black Box Warning) about possible links to fatal heart attacks. The panel vote of 8 to 7 came after 6 panelists were excluded for ties to pharmaceutical manufacturers. This affects methylphenidate (Ritalin), amphetamine (Adderall), Concerta, Focalin and Methylin. INFORMED CONSENT IN PSYCHIATRY NEW! Psychiatric Treatment Informed Consent Pamphlet Feature this pamphlet on display in patient waiting areas as a free information handout in the offices of physicians, chiropractors and other health practitioners. Watch Hannity’s America video report of teen murders and antidepressant
medication. Deaths and serious adverse effects in children on antipsychotic drugs. An Australian study of children ages 2 to 16 showed adverse effects and deaths are far more frequent than drug maker reveals. Bonkers Institute for Nearly Genuine Research: Advancing in the general direction of bona fide science since last Tuesday. http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/index.html Antidepressants a Suicide Risk for Young Adults: Review of drug maker data shows that suicidality risk doubles in antidepressant users at least up to age 25. Antidepressants double the risk of suicidal behavior in young adults according to an FDA analysis of hundreds of clinical trials. There is already a Black Box warning about the drugs causing suicidality in children, but this is the first time that the FDA has admitted that the drugs can trigger suicidal behavior in adults. FDA hears testimony from The MAN. Moira MD, Executive Director of The Medical Accountability Network testified at the Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee. Click here to read the testimony. Psychiatry: Industry of Death Psychiatry's sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseases This article examines the issue of informed consent in the psychiatric drugging of school age children ... A Front Group for the Psycho-Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex An Informed Consent Form for ECT A Model Consent Form for Psychiatric Drug Treatment It is illegal to prescribe psychiatric medications without obtaining informed consent, this law is regularly violated, and the lawsuit is being filed to stop this illegality. Violation of Informed Consent Exposing the Fraud of ADD and ADHD One of the important things about psychiatric (in particular) medications is that they should always be the choice of the person taking them, whether to take them or not. They should never be the choice of parents, teachers, or doctors. Read more in Psychiatric Drug in Autism: http://www.geocities.com/stnektarios/index2.html Informed Consent and Psychiatrists Should America's school children should be screened and labeled? National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy Bush launches controversial mental health plan A satirical look at abuses in the mental health industry and irresponsible Psychiatrists. http://www.stopshrinks.org/stopshrinks.htm If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. If the dead talk to you,you are a spiritualist; If God talks to you, you are a schizophrenic. --Thomas S. Szasz, The Second Sin, Anchor/Doubleday, Garden City, NY. 1973, Page 113. FDA AND OTHER GOVERNMENT ENTITIES Do
you trust Google and Microsoft to store your personal data in
this era of computerized medical records? Information services companies
are not
strictly under the rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act (HIPAA), and so your private information may not be as safe as you
presume. http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2008/4/17/PHR-Advocates-Push-for-More-Privacy-Security-Measures.aspx Top FDA scientist sidelined for raising the alarm on Avandia. An unnamed senior Food and Drug Administration scientist has told congressional investigators that the FDA removed him or her from work on the diabetic drug Avandia after voicing concerns about its safety. www.reutershealth.com Surgeon General testifies on the replacement of science with political agendas at the nation’s top doctor post. Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional panel Tuesday that he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. Dr. Carmona testified under oath at a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Former Surgeons General Dr. C. Everett Koop and Dr. David Satcher also testified. Each complained about political interference and the declining status of the office. FDA approves antibiotic for cattle that will promote dangerous drug resistance in humans. Read the full article. Ex-FDA Chief Gets Probation, Fine for Lying About Stocks. A judge sentenced former Food and Drug Administration chief Lester M. Crawford to three years of supervised probation and fined him about $90,000 for lying about stocks he owned in companies regulated by the agency. Read article. FDA proposal to increase fees collected from drug makers – part of the proposed increase would pay for 27 additional staff to monitor direct to consumer drug advertisements. Should a two-year wait be mandatory before ads are unleashed on the public? Register to speak at the public meeting on February 16, 2007, at http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01544.html Keep Cloned Animals Off Our Dinner Plates. A legal petition filed by the Center for Food Safety documents the insufficient data on the safety of cloned feed animals. Ex-FDA chief pleads guilty to conflict of interest. Lester Crawford held onto shares in companies governed by agency. Former FDA commissioner Lester Crawford pleaded guilty to conflict of interest and falsely reporting information about stocks he owned in food, beverage and medical device companies that he was in charge of regulating. One in Five Scientists on National Academies of Science Issue Panels Tied to Firms Involved in Issue Groundbreaking legislation: Maine requires drug companies to reveal harmful drug effects in clinical trials FDA Scientists Suppress Safety Concerns for Fear of Retaliation Study Cites Marked Drop In FDA's Warning Letters. The number of serious "warning letters" sent by the Food and Drug Administration to drug, device and food companies has dropped by half over the past five years, leading to a situation where the agency's ability to ensure that products are being made properly has been "significantly compromised," according to a study by the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee. NEW FDA LINK FOR ACCESS DRUG INFORMATION: In November 2005, FDA began requiring prescription drug labeling information be submitted in a new searchable electronic format that will allow healthcare providers and the general public to more easily access drug information. By the end of this summer, there will be more than 1,000 sets of new electronic product labeling accessible through the National Library of Medicine http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/about.cfm Big Pharma Research Racket Is Killing People. Over the past six years, ten FDA approved drugs have been withdrawn from the market due to deaths and injuries. Michael Enzi (R-Wy) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA), are expected within weeks to introduce a legislative proposal that would require that drug makers disclose the results of all large human tests of their drugs, known as Phase 3 and Phase 4 trials. http://www.sierratimes.com/06/06/24/75_7_241_211_29304.htm New drug label rule may give legal protection for pharma "Sneak attack" on patients rights in new drug label rule How does an expiring Bush administration reward Big Pharma for its $84 millions in support? Bypass the courts and the legislature and exercise executive branch regulatory authority. Read here about the new FDA actions that seek to shield pharma from accountability. Shielding Big Pharma, by Stephen Pizzo What ails the FDA? Payola Martha Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, says that the FDA approves drugs that offer only minimal benefit, and then sometimes leaves them on the market long after they've been shown to be dangerous. FDA Blames the Victim for silicone breast implant troubles. Kim Gandy, President, National Organization for Women says that Uninformed "Choice" is No Choice at All. FDA gives industry a sweet payoff. The Deadly Deception of Aspartame by the FDA and Searle. FDA and Eli Lilly Knew Prozac Causes Suicides, Violence -how many children died before the belated Black Box warnings? Get the Senate Finance Committee to Hold Hearings on Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs FDA cover up of Thimerosal, (Mercury) and the link with autism. Pharmaceutical companies and the FDA continue to suppress negative information about antidepressant drugs and violent behavior. Deaths in Japan possibly related to Tamiflu, Pediatric Adverse Events: Questions and Answers, at the FDA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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