Truth About the Drug Companies

[Guest guest]

Truth About the Drug Companies

I spent the last week searching several months of postings and I was

surprised at the amount and different types of drugs given to our

kids. Maybe I'm sensitive over this subject in light of the

recent

scandal revolving around Merck's super drug Vioxx. The company

manipulated and/or suppressed negative clinical test results that

showed this anti-inflammatory drug caused heart disease. Estimates

indicate that it may have resulted in 55,000 deaths over the past 5

years. It would be foolish on our part to ignore the possibility of

a similar scandal involving drugs given to RSS kids. The whole

mess with Merck raises ethical questions when it comes to the

accuracy of clinical trials for testing the safety and long-term

adverse affects. Were the clinical tests on GH, Lupron, etc.

conducted in a proper manner, were the test results altered?

After reading Marcia Angell's newly released book The Truth About

the Drug Companies, I have to question the ethical nature of the

drug companies and sadly to say that of many doctors. Angell should

know the inside story, for the past 20 years she was the editor-in-

chief of The New England Journal of Medicine and now is a member of

Harvard Medical School's Department of Social Medicine. Time

Magazine named her one of the twenty-five most influential people in

America.

By Angell's account, the current slide toward corruption of clinical

research coincided with the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980

when a new set of laws permitted and encouraged universities to

patent discoveries from research sponsored by the NIH. Research paid

for by the public to serve the public instantly became private, and

a product that could be sold. Unfortunately, this was the time

period when GH was first clinically tested.

Angell tells of the high-priced junkets offered to doctors,

basically given as educational opportunities that seem to constitute

little more than bribes. She tells of doctors who tampered with

tests results and others with gross conflicts of interest that were

hidden from the public. The prognosis for reform is a grim one,

Angell indicates, due to the massive cash and lobbying efforts of

drug companies. Additionally, the FDA which is suppose to be the

watch dog for the industry, now gets " user fees " from drug

companies

which represents a substantial part of the FDA budget. In fact,

it's more than half the budget for the Center for Disease

Evaluation

and Research, which is responsible for approving new drugs. One FDA

drug safety reviewer, Dr Graham, told a Congressional panel

this past week that the federal drug regulators were " virtually

incapable of protecting America. "

Based on Angell's analysis, the drug companies are now primarily

a

marketing machine that sells drugs of questionable benefit. This

industry uses its wealth and power to influence every institution

that might stand in its way, including the US Congress, the FDA,

academic medical centers, and the medical profession itself. The

drug companies are rigging clinical trails to make their products

better than they are and covering up any truly independent damaging

research.

With my kid's health at stake, this fiasco makes me angry. This

is

a great way of introducing myself to the list, and now would like to

listen to other parents' perspectives.

Jill