Consumer Protection: Drug safety & quality |
Manufacture and distribution of defective or ineffective medicines; F.D.A. regulation and non-regulation; pharmaceutical company control of research safety regulation;
nutritional value of commercially marketed drugs.
12/6/08 Post-partum depression in women: Drug indistry creates the need and fills the demand:. Evelyn Pringle describes efforts such as the current "Mothers Act" proposed in Congress to enhance greatly the country's system of pre-partum "screening" of pregnant women to identify those at risk of post-partum depression. Much like the industry pushed psycho-tropic drugs with harmful side-effects for "at risk" children, it now promotes a medical program for pregnant women that may result in larger profits for the industry and greater risks for women. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/12/mothers-act-promotes-pregnancy-as-new-cottage-industry/
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Analysis & views: 6/1/08 Canadian court allows filing of a class action suit against Pfizer for alleged violations in marketing of a contraceptive. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=7c963231-bb52-43f7-a67f-2e83f114c33b 7/11/07 Libyan Supreme Court approves death penalties for 5 medical personnel accused of infecting children with H.I.V., but execution may yet be averted by financial settlement. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6290112.stm 4/8/06 British males nearly die after participating in clinical trial of the U.S. based drug, parexel: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/08/world/europe/08britain.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
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Analysis & views: 12/6/08 Post-partum depression in women: Drug indistry creates the need and fills the demand:. Evelyn Pringle describes efforts such as the current "Mothers Act" proposed in Congress to enhance greatly the country's system of pre-partum "screening" of pregnant women to identify those at risk of post-partum depression. Much like the industry pushed psycho-tropic drugs with harmful side-effects for "at risk" children, it now promotes a medical program for pregnant women that may result in larger profits for the industry and greater risks for women. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/12/mothers-act-promotes-pregnancy-as-new-cottage-industry/ 9/19/08 The Supreme Court is taking up an appeal from a Vermont case in which a woman was awarded $6 million damages from Wyeth drug company, which failed to label for a drug to counter nausea that there was a risk associated with injecting that drug intravenously, in a situation in which the woman developed gangrene and lost an arm and her career as a musician. At legal issue is the power of a state to impose more stringent labelling requirements than those required by the FDA. Wyeth argues the principal of "federal pre-exemption" to argue that Vermont could not require a warning label that the FDA did not require. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/us/19scotus.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th 5/12/08 Drug company blasted for downplaying the heart attack risks of its AIDS drug:. GlaxoSmithKline, maker of abacavir, in possession of data showing the risks of the drug, tried to "reassure" potential investers that these risks were exaggerated and contradicted by studies which their critcs say were flawed studies. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/11/8886/ 4/6/08 U.S. drug makers are working their way toward a legal liability shield:. Industry officials, supported by Bush administration, are seeking to extend a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that points toward an expanded ruling that, once the FDA has made a determination on the safety of a drug, those prescribed the drug cannot sue companies for damages from unrevealed side-effects. (Should this be an issue for the 08 presidential elections?) 3/8/08 Ex-FDA official blasts Eli Lilly for minimizing health risks of its schizophenia drug zyprexia in a court appearance in which state of Alaska is suing the drug maker. http://www.adn.com/front/story/338638.html 2/29/08 Health Beat columnist of AlterNet wonders why we are "just hearing" questions about the efficacy of cholesterol-lowering drugs when these questions have for some time been well aired in the medical community http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/77916/ 2/15/08 Will it save lives, or put more lives in peril? Issue arises from proposed FDA changes in rules governing what makers of drugs and medical devices which have not received FDA approval may provide as "information" to doctors about their products. Under the proposed rule, they could furnish copies of medical journal studies even though the FDA has not approved or even studied these products for safety. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/business/16drug.html?th&emc=th 1/17/08 "Clinical studies have shown that "X" drug is effective in treating "Y" medical condition." - A new report shows that the makers of Prozac and Paxil (anti-depressants) omitted the publication of "less positive" clinical results, over-stating their proven effectiveness as they bid for FDA approval. This pattern seems to be common in the field of drug testing and reporting. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/health/17depress.html?th&emc=th 1/10/08 Why isAvandia, a drug for treatment of diabetes, still on the market after a report attributing 63,000 heart attack deaths to its use? : Senate Finance Committee, spearheaded by Republican Chuck Grassley, is asking that question, and is finding anwers in the apparent "intimidation" by Glaso/Smith/Kline, the drug's maker, of the scientist who issued the report, and the secrecy of an FDA decision that allowed the drug to continue to be marketed. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/01/government-estimates-83000-exce 12/6/07 U.S. drug-makers hire industry "researchers" to produce "evidence" about the safety and efficacy of their products which are published in medical journals. This process has mostly been observed in the huckstering of psychotropics, especially for children, but Martha Rosenberg describes this as part of the broader process of the medical establishment in "creating and treating diseases that don't even exist. "http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/05/5622/ 11/16/07 Merck buries its mistakes and "moves on" after its Vioxx settlement. The company had to pay $4.8 billion to 140,000 Vioxx users, but that worked out to a mere $140 thousand per victim and, like Wall Street which buried the practices that imploded the financial market, it finds a way to "move on" to involvement in lucrative operations, in Merck's case to the business as usual of Big Pharma in attempting to "up-sell" pyschotropic drugs for adults and children who really don't need them. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/15/5251/ 10/20/07 Advisory panel of FDA votes to recommend ban on over-the-counter sale of cough medicines for children under 6; industry vows to fight the ban. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/washington/20fda.html?th&emc=th 8/1/07 Ask your doctor if an SSR anti-depressant is right for you (A pregnant woman). Chances are your doctor will have read the same mainstream news headlines or TV new clips as have you, and these tend to overstate the results of studies that supposedly show that these drugs pose little risk for birth defects in their babies. This seems to be one piece of the larger relation that has developed between the media and pharmaceutical companies, as the media have become heavily dependent on revenues from drug advertising. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/07/ssri-makers-use-media-to-reel-in-pregnant-women-as-customers/ 6/28/07 FDA reports that much of the toothpaste produced in China and laced with this toxic chemical has been distributed to inmates of prisons and also in juvenile detention facilities and hospitals for the mentally ill. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/us/28tooth.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin 5/22/07 Data mining is hitting your physician's prescription pad. American Medical Association is selling physician prescription information to drug companies who use it to target doctors who are prescribing generics with "warnings" that they are putting their patirents at risk by so doing. This practice has aroused the ire of a new association of physicians and of legislators in New Hampshire and elsewhere who have tried to pass laws against such operations. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/21/AR2007052101701.html?referrer=email 12/14/06 Roll up your sleeve: 6 employees of Defense Department file suit to prevent Pentagon from requiring all employees to have anthrax vaccinations. Suit claims there are risk factors to vaccine and that employees should have the right to refuse based on that risk. http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061213/COUNTY05/61213045 12/8/06 Don't miss the Paxil Follies, opening on December 13 and brought to you by the EPA: The agency will hold public hearings on claims that antidepressants like Paxil and Zoloft increase the risk of suicide, especially in children. The big pharmaceuticals will bring out the same hired-gun "experts" who publish those the-drugs-actually-have-suicide-depressive-effects in "scientific" medical journals, studies which the rare critic points to as fraudulent. http://www.countercurrents.org/pringle081206.htm 12/4/06 Pfizer's decision to suspend testing of torecetrapib rocks the cardio-vascular medical world, as similar issues could stymie use of other "good cholesterol" raising drugs like Pfizer's Lipitor. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/health/04pfizer.html?th&emc=th 11/9/06 11 million bottles of acetaminophen distributed by Wal Mart and CVS pharmacies are recalled on fear of metal fragment contamination. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/sns-ap-drug-warning,0,1507475.story?coll=orl-home-headlines 5/12/06 Derramax, an anti-inflammatory for dogs, is going through the same process as Vioxx, with pet owners' claims that the drug was inadequately tested and defended by its manufacturer even after its deficiencies were known: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR2006051101883.html?referrer=email 5/1/06 Federal Drug Administration said to be mired in bureaucray; naming a permanent head has been delayed, as Administration is stymied by issues like the morning-after pill, which highlight the controversy over the role of religion and ideology in science policy: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/05/01/fda_is_mired_in_bureaucracy_observers_say/ 4/24/06 GAO report criticizes Food and Drug Administration for its inefficient handling of issues of drug safety: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/23/AR2006042300958.html?referrer=email 3/22/06 President and Congress, to appease drug companies, continue to allow dangerous and unnecessary mercury content in vaccines for children: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0322-22.htm 3/8/06 FDA considering contradictory claims on benefits and risks of a drug treatment for MS, tysabri: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2002851089_msdrug08.html 3/8/06 "Driving while sleepingwalking" may characterize some Ambien users: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/08/business/08ambien.html?th&emc=th 2/9/06 Side effects of psychiatric drugs cited in new study: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020802350.html?referrer=email
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