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Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |  In fact, there was no requirement whatsoever that these decision makers even reveal their conflicts of interest! They could take hundreds of thousands of dollars from the very drug companies impacted by their votes, and yet sit on the decision panel and cast votes. (See the CounterThink cartoon conflicts of interest for a humorous depiction of this.)
None of the FDA leaders saw any problem with this policy of tolerated corruption. In fact, they still resist the idea that Congress is passing new laws to place restrictions on such obvious conflicts of interest. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |  In terms of potential conflicts of interest, I have far more credibility than the AMA, a shady organization that remains mired in blatant conflicts of interest and a frightening agenda of pushing drugs, surgery and radiation onto as many Americans as possible.
Now, here's a common sense way to quickly realize the JAMA research is complete nonsense. Round up 100 people who are taking multiple pharmaceuticals, and compare their health to 100 people who are taking vitamins and nutritional supplements. Guess who's healthier? The supplement crowd will be healthier every time. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |  Currently, doctors who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in "consulting fees" from drug companies are not only allowed to vote on the recommendations for FDA approval of their drugs, there is not even any FDA requirement to disclose such conflicts of interest. (See related cartoon on FDA conflicts of interest)
New rules proposed by the FDA would reduce this level of corruption by allowing doctors to receive a maximum of $50,000 per year from companies impacted by their decisions. | | FDA conflicts of interest. Click to view full cartoon. | 60 percent agreed that doctors and scientists with a financial conflict of interest should not be allowed to serve on FDA advisory boards (what were the other 40 percent thinking?). Currently, doctors who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in "consulting fees" from drug companies are not only allowed to vote on the recommendations for FDA approval of their drugs, there is not even any FDA requirement to disclose such conflicts of interest. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Durbin argued the obvious point that hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake as well as the lives of Americans and that such flagrant conflicts of interest must be stopped. He pointed out that the FDA Advisory Committee that ruled on the safety of Vioxx had 10 "experts" on the Big Pharma bankroll, resulting in over 50,000 deaths. Kennedy and Enzi argued that these conflicts of interest were necessary and a fact of life and needed for science to progress. The vote was Big Pharma 47 -- Americans 47, and in this case the tie went to Big Pharma and the amendment was defeated. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| See the CounterThink cartoon conflicts of interest for a humorous depiction of this.)
None of the FDA leaders saw any problem with this policy of tolerated corruption. In fact, they still resist the idea that Congress is passing new laws to place restrictions on such obvious conflicts of interest. Corruption is so endemic in the FDA that the agency is incapable of even recognizing corruption. The agency thinks it is above the law (much like the White House) and that it must answer to no one. This is the view of its leaders, at least. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
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 While there are many dedicated public servants and scientists working at the FDA, it is run by political appointees and where there are politics, there are the seeds for conflicts of interest. It has been described as a revolving door — from the drug industry to the FDA just in time to chair a panel responsible for approving a drug application from the company he or she used to work for; the drug gets approved; and within a few months, perhaps a year it's, "See ya, FDA," and back to the company whose drug was just approved.
According to Byron J. |
Dr. Timothy Scott
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 And industry funding of academic institutions has now surpassed federal funding, so this is no minor issue.46) conflicts of interest can either be very clear and manifest or very subtle and unspoken.47
To their credit the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine, arguably two of America's most prestigious medical journals, have both published several studies in recent years which have revealed conflicts of interest in drug research. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| Rigged its drug safety review panels with decision makers who have substantial financial ties to drug companies, even while refusing to disclose such blatant conflicts of interest.
Planned, organized, and took part in armed "SWAT-style" raids on vitamin shops, pet food stores, and even a church.
Knowingly approved harmful food additives for widespread use in the food supply (such as aspartame, which has a rather dubious history and has been proven toxic in several studies), even when its own safety experts recommended denying approval. |
Hyla Cass
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 The FDA is making new rulings to eliminate conflicts of interest between doctors who work for the FDA and get paid by drug companies to research and promote their products. Consumers are also becoming more active in researching the drugs their doctors prescribe and working with their medical teams to make educated decisions about what to take—or not. (One source for checking out a drug is the manufacturer's website, which includes full disclosure of all side effects. Information on nutrient depletions can often be found on those sites as well. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 End conflicts of interest at the FDA. Require, by law, that anyone who works for the FDA, advises the FDA or participates in FDA decision processes has no financial ties whatsoever to drug companies or medical device makers. No consulting fees, bribes, stock options or incentives. The people who make decisions about the safety of the drugs approved in this country should have no financial ties to the companies impacted by their decisions. It's common sense.
Pretty simple, huh? Five reforms that would restore some honesty and integrity to the FDA. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 This kind of cowardly approach to health is prevalent across conventional medicine, and it usually involves conflicts of interest with the big corporations funding many of today's most prominent disease organizations. The American Diabetes Association, for example, accepted millions of dollars from soft drink companies and candy manufacturers. None of these disease organizations have been willing to stand up and tell the truth about nutrition and chemical toxicity. |
Bottom Line Health
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| We make up 5% of the world's population, but we buy 50% of all prescription medicine. conflicts of interest abound—from your doctor, who may be on the payroll of a pharmaceutical firm, to your favorite celebrity, who may get a kickback for hawking powerful meds.
To help you make the best health-care choices, we interviewed Alan Cassels, a pharmaceutical policy researcher. He believes that we need to protect ourselves from a culture that insists on "medicalizing" every problem in our lives...
•Why has our society become overmed-icated? |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Big Pharma operates a system of routine bribery of doctors and FDA decision panel "experts" who vote on the approval of new drugs. conflicts of interest run so deep in the FDA that the very idea of even disclosing such conflicts has been strenuously argued against by FDA bureaucrats.
5) State medical licensing boards run secret investigations to frame and "catch" doctors prescribing vitamins or alternative therapies. Those doctors are then targeted for prosecution or revocation of their medical licenses. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| Kennedy and Enzi argued that these conflicts of interest were necessary and a fact of life and needed for science to progress. The vote was Big Pharma 47 -- Americans 47, and in this case the tie went to Big Pharma and the amendment was defeated. Click here to see how your senators voted.
Two-faced senators threw a dog bone to those promoting safety, as a second Grassley amendment that called for stiffer civil penalties against Big Pharma wrongdoing was approved.
The Senate has punted when given a major opportunity to protect the health and well being of Americans. |
Kevin Trudeau
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 There are always conflicts of interest. You never know who is telling the truth. You are scared. You are nervous. You don't know what to do. That's the problem. Here's the solution. Let's go back to the beginning. You have found out that you have prostate cancer, or any disease for that matter. What do you do? Who do you call? Not Ghostbusters. You go to www.naturalcures.com. You log in. There are no conflicts of interest. Nobody at NaturalCures.com has anything to sell. We are only interested in your health. |
Too Profitable to CureBrent Hoadley, Ph.D.
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| Nemeroff, Emory University, probably holds some sort of record for conflicts of interest.16 Besides receiving funds for academic research, he serves as consultant, owns stock in, and/or is a member of the speaker's bureau for virtually every pharmaceutical company that manufactures drugs for treating mental illness. As a member of the speaker's bureau, he gives talks to other physicians on behalf of the companies who "employ" him. At a minimum, this actively puts patients' rights at a disadvantage.
This interwoven network is pointed out quite well by Paone in "When Big Pharma Courts Academia. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| None of these blatant conflicts of interest, which are also primary safety issues, seemed to bother any senators at all.
Hypocrisy Gone Wild
The bill claimed to be a safety bill and all arguments from either side on any issue were always presented as safety related. Thus, every Senator was using the same set of words to describe both sides of the issue. Each side claimed the other was using the safety term hypocritically, resulting in a bewildering debate. All of this was staged to confuse the public and perpetuate a myth that safety legislation was being meaningfully debated. |
Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D.
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 DeAngelis, Catherine D. "Conflicts of Interest and the Public Trust." Journal of the American Medical
Association 284 (2000): 2237-38. DesMaisons, Kathleen. The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program. New York: Ballantine, 2000. The Diabetes Monitor. "Is Stevia Safe? Depends Who You Ask." http://www.diabetesmonitor.com/ stevia.htm.
Donn, Jeff. "Respected Journal Says Conflicts Compromising Science." Associated Press, May 18, 2000. Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, s.v. "cyclamate." MerckSource website, http:// www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| In fact, they still resist the idea that Congress is passing new laws to place restrictions on such obvious conflicts of interest. Corruption is so endemic in the FDA that the agency is incapable of even recognizing corruption. The agency thinks it is above the law (much like the White House) and that it must answer to no one. This is the view of its leaders, at least. Many of the people who work inside the agency see the corruption all around them. The problem is, when they try to speak up about it, they get fired or blackballed... |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 The country has become an absurdity, where lawmakers actually bicker about how much bribery and corruption should be allowed in the FDA drug approval decision process rather than simply agreeing to ban all bribery and conflicts of interest, which is what sane lawmakers would do.
Stand back and watch the bonfire
Over the last few months, I have come to the conclusion that it is no longer worth attempting to stop American's self-destruction at the hands of Big Pharma, corrupt politicians and greedy fractional reserve bankers. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 EDUCATION" shall mean propaganda, as in, "These TV ads sure are educating those patients about the benefits of prescription drugs!"
"CONFLICTS OF INTEREST" shall be banned from the English language entirely, since there is no such thing as any conflict of interest at the FDA or anywhere in medicine.
"SAFE" shall mean any drug that makes at least a billion dollars in profit while killing less than a hundred thousand Americans each year.
"SCIENTIFIC" shall mean any opinion statement or fraudulent statistical distortion that supports the definition of "safe," above. |
Dr. Timothy Scott
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| Despite the lack of openness concerning conflicts of interest, investigative reporters have been successful in gathering sufficient data to make it clear the system is extremely tainted today. USA Today reporters found that though, as already noted, federal law does not allow the experts who vote to approve a new drug to have a direct financial interest in the drug they are evaluating, more than half of the experts do have these conflicts of interest. But if the law does not allow this, how could this be possible? The answer is found in the fact that the experts are given waivers by the FDA. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Junk science and faulty conclusions
Aside from these obvious and worrisome conflicts of interest, the conclusions being made about autism and vaccines in the mainstream media are simply not supported by the study. The (distorted) logic we're hearing goes like this:
Yes, vaccines used to contain mercury. And yes, all those little kids were injected with mercury. And yes, autism rates skyrocketed. But then when the mercury was taken out of the vaccines, the autism rates didn't come back down. Therefore, the logic goes, vaccines are safe! |
Dr. Timothy Scott
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| In an investigation into whether or not the journals with the best "conflicts of interest" policies were adequately monitoring the admissions of private industry ties, the CSPI researchers found they were not. Even at JAMA the CSPI researchers discovered that 11% of the articles were written by authors who failed to disclose their financial conflicts of interest.5 regularly (44% attend two or more each month). This same study noted, "Students regard the pharmaceutical industry as one of their most important sources of pharmaceutical information. |
| To their credit the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine, arguably two of America's most prestigious medical journals, have both published several studies in recent years which have revealed conflicts of interest in drug research. An example is the study by Justin Bekelman and his colleagues entitled "Scope and impact of financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research: A systematic review" which appeared in JAMA. |
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