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Originally published February 29 2004

Questioning Avastin - the latest example of corruption and influence by drug companies and the FDA

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

Headlines are blaring it everywhere: the FDA has approved the first anti-angiogenesis drug to treat colorectal cancer! The stock of the manufacturer, Genentech, leaped 7%, and newspapers all over the country are heralding this drug as a momentous breakthrough. Even the FDA Commissioner got into the act, stating, "These medical achievements reflect the innovation of drug developers and the hard work of FDA's cancer review teams, and they are proof of the promise offered by biomedical innovation. The dedication of everyone involved in these efforts is making a real difference in the lives of cancer patients.

But is it really making a difference? It's making a huge difference in the profits for Genetech, no doubt. The drug cashes in at over $4,000 a month for just one prescription! That could create hundreds of millions in profits for Genetech over the next several decades as doctors prescribe this drug that seemingly stops color cancer. But does it really?

As it turns out, the drug is only marginally better than taking nothing at all. Even with Genentech's own drug trials (and we all know the history of drug companies distorting study results in order to favor their own drugs), the overall response rate to the drug was barely higher than the control group. In the control group, 35% responded. In the Avastin group, the response rate was 45%.

And what does that "response" buy a patient? Does it reverse the colon cancer? Does it buy them a lifetime of quality living without cancer? Hardly: it buys them an average of five months. That's it: five months. They live five months longer than the control group. And during these five months, they get to look forward to an alarming list of side effects like diarrhea, high blood pressure, suppressed immune function, mouth sores, impaired wound healing, bleeding from the lungs, and even the formation of holes in the colon. All of which coincidentally require more prescription drugs, of course.

This is a miracle drug? This is worth $4,000 a month? From where I sit, this is nothing more than yet another example of the remarkable degree of corruption and influence of Western medicine. Let me lay this to you straight: you can get far more powerful anti-angiogenesis "drugs" by simply drinking broccoli juice. If you need something more powerful, take graviola tincture, which has been shown to be 10,000 times more effective than chemotherapy at shrinking tumors. If that's still not enough, eat ten grams of chlorella and spirulina each day.

This combination of foods, all by itself, is far more powerful in fighting and even reversing cancer than any drug. And the total cost? Less than a couple hundred dollars a month. And you don't even need a prescription.

Of course, broccoli juice doesn't make money for Genentech. Neither does chlorella. Nor raw garlic juice, graviola tincture, or a dozen other substances that have been very well documented to actually reverse cancers of the colon and other organs. Want proof? Read Eat To Beat Cancer by J. Hatherill.

Want to know what kind of corruption really goes on in the cancer industry and the FDA? Read Questioning Chemotherapy by Ralph Moss. Still not convinced? Check out Innocent Casualties by Elaine Feuer.

If you really take a look at what's going on here, it's nothing less than a monumental scam: the FDA approves a new "wonder" drug, the national press heralds it as a breakthrough, drug companies push it to doctors, and doctors routinely prescribe it to patients, regardless of the cost. But are patients really any better? That hardly seems to matter to drug companies. As long as the profits continue to flow, the fact that patients could do much better on raw broccoli juice is something they'd rather not talk about.



February 26, 2004 -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Avastin (bevacizumab) as a first-line treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer -- cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Avastin, a monoclonal antibody, is the first product to be approved that works by preventing the formation of new blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis. Avastin was shown to extend patients' lives by about five months when given intravenously as a combination treatment along with standard chemotherapy drugs for colon cancer (the "Saltz regimen" also known as IFL). This new monoclonal antibody is believed to work by targeting and inhibiting the function of a natural protein called "vascular endothelial growth factor" (VEGF) that stimulates new blood vessel formation.


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