Drug companies are strongly resisting the idea that they should be required to publish the results of their drug trials on a publicly accessible database. Why? Because then they wouldn't be able to suppress the enormous number of studies that show their drugs don't work -- or that show them causing dangerous side effects like suicide (a common side effect of antidepressant drugs).
See, the way the pharmaceutical industry gets approvals today is by engaging in a rather shady shell game where multiple clinical trials are run, but only the trials showing positive results are published or forwarded to the FDA. The rest are simply buried. Even the FDA, you see, doesn't have access to the unfavorable trials. And just to make sure the trials turn out as favorable as, drug companies make sure that the people who run clinical trials won't find future work if they don't deliver results that support the financial interests of the manufacturer.
Undeniably, it's all a scam. And extremely dangerous drugs with little or no scientific merit whatsoever are regularly approved by the FDA, prescribed by doctors, and taken by tens of millions of patients who are often injured -- or even killed -- by these toxic chemicals. That's where the true clinical trial begins -- the public trial, where tens of millions of Americans play the role of guinea pigs, and sometimes tens of thousands are killed or injured before dangerous drugs are pulled from the market.
To counter all this, some Senators (Democratic, of course, since Republicans tend to have close ties to drug companies) are suggesting that the results of all drug trials be posted to a government-run publicly-searchable online database so that researchers, doctors and even ordinary consumers can check the study results of drug trials. The drug companies, of course, are going to strongly resist this. The last thing they want is an open book policy on their clinical trials, because if you bother to take a close look at the statistics behind these studies, you'll find that prescription drugs are, in fact, causing far more harm than good. Publishing the facts about prescription drugs in an online database could be just the trigger that puts an end to the era of "drugs as medicine," an outmoded, short-lived phase of medical history that saw unprecedented fraud, abuses and exploitation of public health for nothing more than corporate profit.
That's why I'm strongly in favor of this public database. It's time for pharmaceutical companies to stop committing fraud with their studies. It's time to stop hiding the unfavorable studies while publishing the favorable ones in prestigious medical journals. It's time for us, as a society, to stop dosing our children with drugs that cause them to become violent and commit suicide. It's time for us to wake up and realize that 100,000 deaths each year from prescription drugs is unacceptable. And it's time to put an end to Big Medicine's exploitation of the public for their own greed and power.
A global, public database of all drug trials would be one step towards that goal.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In mid 2010, Adams produced NaturalNews.TV, a natural health video sharing website offering user-generated videos on nutrition, green living, fitness and more. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a veteran of the software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and pursues hobbies such as martial arts, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known as the 'Health Ranger,' Adams' personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org
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Monday, July 12, 2004
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