Email about FDA failure, dabetes drug...from Dem leader in Ga.

If you read the news on Monday you may have already seen that GlaxoSmithKline's blockbuster diabetes drug, Avandia, raises the risk of heart attacks by 30%. Shockingly the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withheld this information for over a month. This is unacceptable.

For much too long the "D" in the FDA has stood for "dysfunctional" as demonstrated by its track record of approving dangerous and deadly prescription drugs like Vioxx, Paxil, and now Avandia.

The House is considering drug safety legislation next month and must take action to reform and refocus the FDA on its original mission of ensuring that Americans receive safe medicines.

You can help by taking action now! Just click on the link below or paste it into your browser:
http://www.uspirg.org/action/health-care/house-committee?id4=ES

Then, ask your friends and family to help too by forwarding this e-mail to them.


Background

As the Senate passed a watered-down prescription drug safety bill this month, the Food and Drug Administration sat on information that indicated GlaxoSmithKline's "blockbuster diabetes drug, Avandia, raised patients' heart disease risk by 30%."

For more information see this USA Today article:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-05-21-diabetes-drug-risks_N.htm

This is a very familiar story. When Merck, the makers of Vioxx, first learned that their drug could cause serious health problems including heart attack and stroke, they could have told doctors and their patients. They didn't. When GlaxoSmithKline, makers of the antidepressant Paxil, learned that it was linked to an increased risk of suicidal behavior in children, they could have sounded the alarm. They didn't.

These companies had the opportunity to do the right thing by giving doctors and patients the information they needed to make safe and informed medical decisions. They consciously chose not to tell the public the whole truth.

The problem is clear and there is bi-partisan agreement in Washington that something needs to be done. The pharmaceutical industry can't, and has proven that it won't, police itself. Lawmakers must reform the Food and Drug Administration so that it focuses on its original mission of ensuring that our medicines are safe.

The House is considering drug safety legislation next month and must take action to reform and refocus the FDA on its original mission of ensuring that American consumers receive safe medicines.

The House bill should require that more FDA resources be allocated towards drug safety. The majority--as much as 90%--of the FDA's budget for drug evaluation and research is spent on expediting the approval of new drugs. This is a short-sighted and dangerous policy.

The House bill should also require the FDA to publicly post the results of most clinical trials so researchers, doctors and patients can fully weigh the risks and benefits of various medications. We cannot depend "on an obscure company website" for this vital information.

You can help by taking action now! Just click on the link below or paste it into your browser:
http://www.uspirg.org/linkhere?id4=ES


We really need to get the damn FDA to do uts JOB!

they are allowed to receive "Consulting Fees" some were making Much more than their FDA pay checks.

what do you expect.. the tests have been allowed to be so very short that they end before the long term effects appear, stuff like Strattera was not even really tested and many children as young as 12 have committed suicide while taking it.. i took it and hallucinated a world of death and rotting corpses.. a hopeless place where i had decided to just go look for some place to sit and wait for death.. i was 57 at the time.. i do not have ADD i have Aspergers Syndrome, i was not diagnosed i had no tests done at all. and Strattera is a failed antidepressant, a Nigerian Mathematician did some math and turned it into something to give children.. it is a class of drugs that have a danger for suicide.. google: strattera failed antidepressant or google: Ritalin death

My mom has Alzheimer's and diabetes. When she heard the news about Avandia, she tried to call her broker (she still has control of her assets) and get him to buy stock in the company, but I noticed and intervened (I pulled the plug on her phone. She didnt notice. By the time the phone got "fixed", she had forgotten all about it)