Unhealthy Dose of Cash

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

Those clinical trials? 80% of clinical trials in US are paid for by drug companies.Vioxx as a cause of heart attacks used to be just a conspiracy theory.

Unhealthy dose of cash
Adam Cresswell | January 19, 2009
Article from: The Australian

Ian Kerridge, associate professor in bioethics at the Centre for Values, Ethics and Law in Medicine at the University of Sydney, says the involvement of pharmaceutical companies in studies of their own products is "large and growing".

"More than 80 per cent of clinical trials in the US, and more than 20 per cent in Australia, are industry-sponsored," he says.

"There's a raft of ethical concerns regarding gifts (by pharmaceutical companies to doctors) and the establishment of a conflict of interest.

"But the other questions relate to research: (industry funding) does change the research that's done ... and it changes the conduct of the research."

Why might drug giants want to tweak research? It comes down to money.

The global pharmaceutical market was worth an estimated $US712 billion in 2007, and is forecast to grow to $US929 billion in2012.

Independent Cardiologists warned about Vioxx, but Merck paid scientists said effects weren't real

Manufacturing Doubt in Product Defense
By: David CaseFri Jan 16, 2009 at 11:54 AM
What is the product-defense industry? How does it work, and who's behind it?
We asked David Michaels, author of the exposé Doubt Is Their Product.

...Are there clear examples of products that have been kept on shelves that should have been removed?

Vioxx is a recent one. There were early papers written by independent cardiologists who pointed out that people taking Vioxx had double the heart-attack rate of those taking other drugs. But then scientists paid by Merck published study after study saying that the effects weren't real. That was clearly wrong, but it helped keep Vioxx on the market for three years. FDA scientists estimate that the drug caused a total of 88,000 to 139,000 heart attacks....

Sadly, the media gave equal weight to the paid "scientists". The problems with Vioxx were
all imagined, all in our heads.... Riiiight.

[eilen]

1. Honestly, this is why I don't give my friend any flak for

refusing chemo.

[tabatha]

2. Find alternatives, if possible.

[izquierdista]

3. The FDA has scientists??

I thought they just had rubber stamps to approve research that was submitted to them. :shrug:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. FDA Scientists Accuse Own Administration of Corruption ...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nine scientists at the Food and Drug Administration have written a letter to President-elect Barack Obama and his transition team, alleging gross mismanagement at the agency that has "placed the American public at risk."

The agency is "fundamentally broken" and "failing to fulfill its mission," according to a copy of the six-page letter obtained by CNN.

The scientists work in the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, which regulates items ranging from rubber gloves and contact lenses to heart stents and mammogram machines.

The scientists claim that "the scientific review process for medical devices at FDA has been corrupted and distorted by current FDA managers, thereby placing the American people at risk." Watch the FDA come under fire »

"Currently, there is an atmosphere at FDA in which the honest employee fears the dishonest employee, and not the other way around," the letter said. "Disturbingly, the atmosphere does not yet exist at FDA where honest employees committed to integrity and the FDA mission can act without fear of reprisal."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/09/fda.scientists/


And they approve the drugs and vaccines.