Scientist Who Cited Drug's Risks Is Barred From F.D.A. Panel

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/13/politics/13fda.html

Well, I won't be trying out any newly approved drugs for awhile -- at least until there's a Dem in the White House.

the guy teaches in a red state and maybe will help people there understand how dangerous these fools are.

"The scientist, Dr. Curt D. Furberg, a professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C....."

from drug companies, but won't allow a critic..Is that how it works?

What else did you expect from an Administration who won't allow critics? Think about it. First-Amendment Zones, loyalthy oaths, a fucking "Pledge of Allegiance" to George Duhhhhh-bya Fucking Bush...you had to know this was coming, too!

Where's them "unsafe" Canadian drugs, and may I have some, please?
:wtf:

They're not concerned with ethics, they're stacking the panel in favor of industry. Every week the drugs stay on the market means millions for the drug companies. Anyone who stands in the way of huge profits get steam-rollered.

Someone stepped in to make the (un)invite!!


.....Dr. Furberg said yesterday that he was surprised to be removed from the advisory committee.

"I had a call yesterday, out of the blue," from the F.D.A., "disinviting me," he said. The agency, he said, told him "the reason is that I have publicly expressed my views."

The F.D.A.'s decision is not unreasonable, said Dr. David Orentlicher, a physician, lawyer and ethicist at Indiana University. It is analogous to situations in which potential jurors with strong opinions about a case are excluded from juries, and judges with such opinions are recused from hearing cases. "It's a concern about open minds if you are asked to be a neutral, detached observer," he said.

There is a risk, however, Dr. Orentlicher said, and it is the same one that arises in death penalty trials, which exclude jurors who are strongly opposed to capital punishment. .....

...were invited to the FDA first advisory committee meeting regarding dexfenfluramine approval. The committee vote was jimmied as the questions were changed after some attendees left the meeting. Another meeting was held and the pulmonary experts were not invited. Offers to conduct pulmonary studies in conjunction with industry were rejected. Top industry representative lied under oath about reported heart valve incident reporting at the second meeting. Reports of valvular heart disease from the field were mislabled, ignored and unreported to the FDA. Politicians like Alexander Haig, Newt Gingrich, and Congressman McDermott were lobbied to interfere in Committee and FDA oversight.

Business as usual in Washington D.C.

When I get to the edge of the world I am not going to jump. You are just going to have to push me off the edge.

of those who took Vioxx regularly...she wasn't feeling well some months back..didn't connect it to Vioxx..went for tests and discovered her heart was leaking blood...

I guess now we know what caused it - (she thought it was some kind
of malformation she was born with)

Of course since she's in Florida there would be a cap on what she could sue the manufacturer for.

Cheney and Bush's corporate buddies rule.

I sure hope Barbara has been taking Vioxx.

But out of curiosity, how do you know Vioxx caused her heart to leak blood?

Clinical trials are almost a joke. If you are in a clinical trial and begin experiencing extreme adverse effects, you are removed from the trial. Naturally, that affects the final results.

I've listened to plenty of expert testimony in cases of drugs which prove to be dangerous, and I'm not saying that the people who run the trials are unethical. It's just the way the system is set up, that they simply do not test enough people. And then when you add in the mix of other drugs that people might be taking, you never know which drug "cocktail" will be your undoing.

Anyone who takes a new drug is a guinea pig for the drug cos.



"MANDATE" MY ASS:thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

The FDA is seriously screwed up. Probably because most of the people who work there are long time bureaucrats and are not beholden to either the people or politicians. One only has to read about how aspartame (Nutrasweet) got on the market and its dangers to realize that. If you read the essay I did about it this great book (You Are Being Lied To) you would never in a million years touch the crap. FYI if you drink diet soft drinks don't let them sit in your garage for a long period of time during the summer. Aspartame starts breaking down when its subjected to temps over 80 degrees. It finally ends up as formic acid after a while. That is the same chemical that ants use to kill their pray.

drug, but the awol backed big pharmaceticals have
a bottom line to meet. Who loses here?

A new class of drugs called COX-2 Inhibitors? This wouldn't be reverse viagra, would it?

John Ashcrack.

Now that he's not busy shredding your constitution, he can get back to pushing dangerous drugs.

Oh yeah, remind me of why there's a war on drugs again?

by stopping us from getting our drugs in Canada!!
:wtf:

The Democrats are nearly as culpable as the Republicans. Clinton is the one who changed the rules for the FDA making it an agency for promoting the drug companies instead of protecting us from dangerous drugs. Kerry is no better than Clinton as he is a corporate pawn who would not put above mentioned doctor on any safety panel. Yes, there is a difference between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans spit in your eye while they screw you. Democrats try to pretend they are on your side while they aren't. Keeps them from being quite as evil as the Republicans, but Democrats are no longer the people's party if they ever were. Regardless of whether Dubya cheated to win this election, Kerry screwed us when he was so eager to concede after he promised he would fight for us and that every vote would be counted. Don't forget his wealth and that of his wife is corporate wealth, likely, a massive investment in the pharmaceutical industry. Regardless of what Clinton or Kerry say, their vested interests are with the corporate oligarchy. We need a revolutionary change of the sort that Nader advocates where we limit the power of the corporations to own and run the government and politics of this nation, massive changes in funding, and special interests. Otherwise, the next Democratic candidate, probably Hillary, will be much the same as Clinton, Gore and Kerry, simply corporate and pharmaceutical industry pawns.

Vicki

His argument for doing this was to expedite antiretroviral drugs to the market so that HIV patients could benefit. I am not an expert by far on this but maybe someone who knows could answer this: Did WJC do this with good intentions not forseeing that the drug companies would abuse it, or was he covertly looking out for the pharmaceutical companies?

possible.

What a sell out he was... both at the FDA and the FCC. Come to thinkof it- at most of the federal agencies.

Some of the best medical advice I ever got was to not use any prescription drug that had not been on the market at least 5 years. I was told the FDA pushed drugs through to market without adequate testing and pharmaceutial companies too easily get away with covering up problems with their new drugs.

Now, if someone has a chronic condition and embraces a new drug, they should not be faulted for that choice. It is especially for those people that the FDA and drug companies need to be held accountable.

The clinical testing documents are tens of thousands of pages. The facts get buried literally. Do you think some diligent scientist is going to go through all those records to find a PROBLEM signal or statistically significant trend. Absolutely, not.

The panel advisers are part time contractors who manage their time for a fee. They listen to industry reps who have millions resting on approval that everything is just fine, no problems. Any FDA doctor or outsider who tries to come in and report that he thinks that there is a problem or that certain warnings need to be put on the label, like a BLACK BOX WARNING is disparaged, ridiculed, or blocked from the proceedings.