My daughter, Jessica, recently asked me why she wasn’t vaccinated with the HPV vaccine (Gardisil). Jessi told me all her friends have received the vaccine. I told her that there were two major reasons that I felt were important enough to not let her get this vaccine. Number one...
I receive letters weekly (sometimes daily) from Big Pharma Cartel promoting their newest drugs. This weeks announcement stated, “Acorda Therapeutics is pleased to announce the availability of AMPYRA (dalfampridine) Extended Release 10mg tablets. AMPYRA is the first in new class of approved multiple sclerosis agents indicated as a treatment...
Sometimes, I feel like we are living in the movie, Alice in Wonderland, where up is down and down is up. The article in USA Today (4.30.2010) is titled, “Breakthrough cancer therapy is a go-for $93K.” Last week, the FDA approved the first vaccine to treat prostate cancer. The...
The FDA announced on 3.10.2010 that there was no “clear connection” between bisphosphonate (e.g., Fosamax, Zometa, Boniva, and Didroneo) use and femur fracture risk. The agency had no evidence to conclude that osteoporosis drugs increase the risk of femur fractures just below the hip joint. The FDA stated, “At...
The article is titled, “Rise in thyroid cancer among young woman baffles experts.” (KHOU.com. Accessed 1.10.10). The article states that over 27,000 women will be diagnosed with thyroid cancer this year which is a six percent increase from 2009. The article also states that the reason the number of...
As I am sitting home on a Tuesday morning (I have a bad cold) instead of seeing patients, I became incensed over the Big Pharma Cartel. No longer will I refer to them as Big Pharma as they have crossed a line. Big Pharma Cartel more accurately portrays what...
A series of articles in JAMA (4.16.08) documented how Merck misrepresented the data on the early Vioxx trials and manipulated the clinical research. This series of articles came to light due to the litigation over the 50,000 people who died by taking Vioxx. The authors of this series were...
Big Pharma is now making a push that cholesterol lowering medications should be used in anyone with signs of inflammation. The Jupitor study (NEJM. VOl 359; 2008) looked at the use of Crestor (a statin drug) in “healthy” individuals who had elevated laboratory tests showing inflammation (via a blood...
By far, the most frequent question I am asked is, “Do you think I should get the flu vaccine?” Of course, the question in present time refers to the swine flu (H1N1) vaccine. The CDC is recommending five target groups of individuals to be vaccinated including: pregnant women, persons...
What if 26 major scientific papers that shaped and guided medical therapies for over 10 years were not actually written by the authors stated in the papers? What if the papers only promoted the positive effects of a particular therapy and de-emphasized the negative effects in order to increase...