(NaturalNews) GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the diabetes drug Avandia, knew the drug was linked to tens of thousands of heart attacks but went out of its way to hide this information from the public, says a 334-page report just released by the Senate Finance Committee. (
http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2010/prg022010a.pdf)
This report also accuses the FDA of betraying the public trust, explaining that FDA bureaucrats intentionally dismissed safety concerns found by the agency's own scientists.
The report says that Big Pharma's
drugs "put public safety at risk because
the FDA has been too cozy with
drug makers and has been regularly outmaneuvered by
companies that have a financial interest in downplaying or under-exploring potential safety risks." Sales of
Avandia were $3.2 billion (yes, billion) in 2006.
According to a statistical analysis in the report, if all the diabetics currently taking Avandia were put on a "safer" drug, it would avert 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of
heart failure every month in the United States alone. Presently, hundreds of thousands of Americans are still taking this drug, and hundreds will continue to die each month as a result, according to the report estimates.
This report, championed by U.S. Senators Grassley and Baucus, is the result of investigators pouring through more than 250,000 pages of documentation gathered from
GlaxoSmithKline and the FDA. The document reveals some rather startling facts about the dangers of Avandia, including
evidence from the FDA's own
scientists who concluded that
Avandia was associated with 83,000 heart attacks.
GlaxoSmithKline intimidates scientists
This investigative report also reveals that
GSK engaged in the intimidation of
physicians, saying: "GSK executives attempted to intimidate independent physicians, focused on strategies to minimize or misrepresent findings that Avandia may increase cardiovascular
risk and sought ways to downplay findings that a competing drug might reduce cardiovascular risk."
"Patients trust drug companies with their
health and their lives, and GlaxoSmithKline abused that trust." said Sen. Baucus. (Gee, really? Is anyone really surprised that GSK put its own financial interests ahead of a few thousand human lives?)
A separate letter sent to
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg by Senators Baucus and Grassley added, "the totality of evidence suggests that GSK was aware of the possible cardiac
risks associated with Avandia years before such evidence became public."
The FDA's own
research also showed Avandia to be associated with a significant increase in
heart attack risk, yet the FDA did nothing to protect the public. The agency's own scientists wrote in 2008, "There is strong evidence that
rosiglitazone [Avandia] confers an increased risk of [heart attacks] and heart
failure compared to pioglitazone [a rival drug on market]." This evidence went completely ignored at the FDA.
The FDA's famous Dr
David Graham -- the key whistleblower on the Vioxx scandal -- concluded from his own research, "Rosiglitazone should be removed from the market."
Even the American Medical Association -- a long-time defender of Big Pharma's drugs -- admitted Avandia was dangerous. Its journal, JAMA, wrote in 2007: "Among
patients with impaired glucose tolerance or type 2
diabetes, rosiglitazone use for at least 12 months is associated with a significantly increased risk of myocardial infarction and heart failure, without a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular mortality."
The New England Journal of Medicine also warned about the
safety of the drug in an article published in 2007.
Despite these multiple warnings, an FDA panel voted 22 - 1 in favor of keeping Avandia on the market. This is no surprise, of course, to those who know how the FDA really operates (and where its priorities really lie).
Analysis: What does it all mean?
Are you kidding me? A drug company hid data that its high-profit drug was linked to increased risk of heart attacks? A drug company intimidated physicians and got away with hoodwinking the public while raking in billions of dollars in sales for a drug that the FDA's own scientists said should be pulled from the market?
Sounds like
business as usual at the FDA, the "sweep it under the rug" division of the pharmaceutical
industry. Once again, Dr David Graham turns out to be the sharpest guy in the room while having the courage to tell the truth even when surrounded by an agency full of morons and criminals.
The drug industry must hate this guy. But they can't get rid of him because he's one of the very few scientists in the FDA who is actually committed to
protecting the public. Gee, what a concept, huh? The FDA as a whole abandoned that idea so long ago that virtually nobody there even remembers what it means. Protect the public? What do you mean? As in,
lose profits by banning dangerous drugs that just happen to be making big
money?
That's unthinkable at the FDA as we know it today. The agency exists
to promote pharmaceuticals, not to limit their sales just because a hundred thousand people happen to drop dead each year from taking FDA-approved drugs.
When it comes to safety vs. profits, the FDA chooses profits for
Big Pharma time and time again.
Do the math on this: If Avandia is linked to 83,000 heart attacks, and if roughly 50% of those are fatal (that's just an estimate), then Avandia could conceivably be the cause of
40,000 deaths. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 killed roughly 3,000 Americans, and yet just one drug that has been mysteriously kept on the market by the FDA appears to have killed
more than ten times as many Americans as the terrorists.
So what does that make the FDA? More dangerous than the terrorists, of course!
So why is the FDA still allowed to operate in
America if it's such a dangerous organization that's killing so many American citizens?
Because it's profitable, of course!There's one thing that's true about both WAR and MEDICINE: As long as the right corporations are making money, it really doesn't matter how many people die in the process.
And for all those diabetic Americans struggling to find improved health right now, there's something you desperately need to know: There's a price to putting your faith in the FDA, the drug companies and your pill-pushing doctor. That price may very well be your own life.
Diabetes has a cure, you know. You can reverse it in as little as four days by changing your diet. Read the books on diabetes by Dr Gabriel Cousens or Dr Julian Whitaker. Or read more about diabetes right here on
NaturalNews:
http://naturalnews.com/diabetes.htmlHere's the full report from the U.S.
Senate (PDF):
http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2010/prg022010a.pdfSources for this story include:CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/20/avandia.study/?hpt=T1NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/health/policy/20avandia.htmlPharmaTimes
http://www.pharmatimes.com/WorldNews/article.aspx?id=17434
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. In 2010, Adams created NaturalNews.TV, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living 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 volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, martial arts and organic gardening. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
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Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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