Drug Pushing... [View All]

Vioxx, Celebrex are the most recent FDA approved drugs to come into question. Will there be more? Wouldn't doubt it.

In recent years the FDA has sped up the approval process. Have they sped it up too much? how much money is floating around that "greases" the approval process?

We know that the pharmaceuticals are heavy into lobbying. From getting new drugs on the market, to blocking importation or price negotiations -- the drug companies are behind it.

Recommend checking this site out: it's run by Act-up and some may consider this group "partisan" -- but there is a good "primer" about the history of the FDA
FDA Action Handbook -- 9-12-88 http://www.actupny.org/documents/FDAhandbook2.html

Drug Advertising Skyrockets Feb. 13, 2002 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/02/13/health/main329293.shtml

Drug firms increased their spending on television advertising to consumers seven-fold from 1996 to 2000, but the spots still accounted for only a small fraction of promotional expenditures, according to research published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Overall advertising spending aimed at ordinary people tripled between 1996 and 2000 to nearly $2.5 billion a year.

The finding cast some doubt on a perception among some health insurers and other groups that direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs has mushroomed into a dominant promotional method that distracts doctors and leads to needless prescriptions.

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the FDA does not do testing -- it relies on reports/data provided by the company applying for approval. Why would a drug company submit a report/data that shows a drug to be harmful?

The FDA is no more than a rubber stamp for drug companies to give the appearance it is watching out for the public's health and safety. It's one big drug pusher.

Time for us to JUST SAY NO?

Under the current repug dominance in Congress and White House -- there is little chance that any significant investigations will occur regarding drug companies and the FDA. Not with this kind of money flowing into pockets.

Who is getting the money from lobby groups? http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?Ind=H04
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus_gif6.asp?ind=H04

so what can we do? suggestions?