Source : BBC
Secret emails reveal that the UK’s biggest drug company distorted trial results of an anti-depressant, covering up a link with suicide in teenagers.

Panorama reveals that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) attempted to show that Seroxat worked for depressed children despite failed clinical trials. And that GSK-employed ghostwriters influenced ‘independent’ academics.

Source : Link
Public comments are now being accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its newly proposed federal regulation regarding the testing of chemicals and pesticides on human subjects. On August 2, 2005, Congress had mandated the EPA create a rule that permanently bans chemical testing on pregnant women and children. But the EPA’s newly proposed rule, misleadingly titled “Protections for Subjects in Human Research,” puts industry profits ahead of children’s welfare. The rule allows for government and industry scientists to treat children as human guinea pigs in chemical experiments in the following situations:

1. Children who “cannot be reasonably consulted,” such as those that are mentally handicapped or orphaned newborns may be tested on. With permission from the institution or guardian in charge of the individual, the child may be exposed to chemicals for the sake of research.

2. Parental consent forms are not necessary for testing on children who have been neglected or abused.

3. Chemical studies on any children outside of the U.S. are acceptable.

This site contains a lot of information on, amongst other things; Roche and the global price fixing cartel. Bayer and others defrauding Medicaid. Bayer and others selling AIDS infected products. Abbott and others defrauding Medicaid. Novartis. Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. Baxter and its home infusion record. Bristol-Myers Squibb and others about market abuses and tax issues. Merck, Mylan, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Schering-Plough. Direct to Customer advertising. Quality Control Issues. Avotex controlling research results, and Vaccines of Wyeth-Ayerst.

Here’s a must-read article for anyone interested in learning how the pharmaceutical industry really operates. It’s a case of aggressive marketing gone bad, with a mixture of corrupt physicians, underhanded payola and a near-total disregard for patient health. And yet it’s business as usual in the pharmaceutical industry: drug maker Schering-Plough, one of the largest drug companies in the world, has been outright bribing physicians to prescribe drugs and operate sham clinical trials.

Source : medpagetoday.com
ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 8, 2005. The FDA warned doctors today that preliminary results implicate the antidepressant Paxil (paroxetine) with an increased risk of birth defects. The FDA informed doctors that results of new studies suggest that Paxil use during the first trimester increases the risk of congenital heart defects in the developing fetus.

Source : fortune.com
But the Witczak case, which may play out in court next spring, is likely to put SSRIs on trial as never before. For one thing, Kim Witczak has emerged as a formidable crusader. Poised and articulate, she has appeared at congressional and Food and Drug Administration hearings (most recently this month) to tell of her tragedy and the dangers of SSRIs. What’s more, her suit is likely to spotlight disturbing information that drug companies and U.S. regulators have been aware of for years—but that most doctors prescribing the drugs have known little or nothing about.

Source : The Guardian, UK
Mr Day said the case was the strongest against a pharmaceutical company in 10 years, because it was supported by “gold standard” scientific studies showing a significant risk of adverse effects compared with similar drugs. He said the failure to get funding for the case spelled “the end of litigation against drug companies in the UK,” adding: “If this case can’t get into the courts here, then I don’t know what will.

Source : niagarafallsreporter.com
The bill (S. 1873) — a big congressional wet kiss to the drug industry — is dressed up in a noble-sounding title: “Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act.” In essence, however, it would force Americans to receive inoculations against a disease that has yet to kill one of them, while removing their constitutional right to seek redress in our courts in case of injury or death from the shots because of company negligence. The proposal, now moving its way through the Senate, would also ban citizens from using the Freedom of Information Act and other popular informational laws to discover whether the new vaccine (when it is finally produced) was effective and safe, and even whether anyone had suffered adverse reactions to it.

Related items: Mountain Views: Bird flu scam to cost us plenty

Source : Japan Today
TOKYO, Two teenage boys who took the antiviral drug Tamiflu exhibited abnormal behavior that led to their deaths, with one jumping in front of an oncoming truck last year and the other falling from the ninth floor of a building earlier this year, health ministry and other sources said Saturday. The drug in Japan carries a note listing impaired consciousness, abnormal behaviors, hallucination and other psychological and neurological symptoms as possible serious side effects. The ministry is considering making a fresh warning about them, following its decision to increase the stockpile of the drug amid growing fears about a possible pandemic of a new type of influenza as bird flu deaths rise across Asia.

Source : Global Research
Finally, the pieces of the puzzle start to add up. Not long ago, President Bush sought to instill panic in this country by telling us a minimum of 200,000 people will die from the avian flu pandemic, but it could be as bad as 2 million deaths in this country alone.

This hoax is then used to justify the immediate purchase of 80 million doses of Tamiflu, a worthless drug that in no way shape or form treats the avian flu, but only decreases the amount of days one is sick and can actually contribute to the virus having more lethal mutations. So the U.S. placed an order for 20 million doses of this worthless drug at a price of $100 per dose. That comes to a staggering $2 billion.