Articles by Keyword for

After 50 years the FDA is pulling Darvon off the market. What took so long and what does it reflect in terms of how the FDA works and how Big Pharma withholds what it knows about the side effects of its drugs. Thousands of people have died from heart rhythm disturbances. The lack of ethics, the conflicts of interest, and the dishonesty of the pharmaceutical industry...

If you are frustrated with the limited time your doctor has during your office visit, be prepared for this to get even worse. According to a study published in the October 2014 issue of the International Journal of Health Services, the average doctor now spends nearly 17% of his or her time on billing, obtaining insurance approvals for services, financial...

Physicians can use an FDA approved drug for whatever purpose they choose. This is off label use. Drug companies cannot promote drugs for off label indications, but they do. 20% of drugs are used as off-label.

  Americans last year got access to 24 new medications before they became available in Europe. User fees from drug companies made this possible; they now provide about 1/3 of all funding that the FDA gets. This sets up a serious conflict of interest for the FDA that makes them beholden to Big Pharma's wishes. Far too many look alike drugs are...

According to a Yale School of Medicine study published in the January 22, 2014 issue of JAMA, reviewed 188 drugs and technologies from 2005-2012 and documented that more than 1/3 of the drugs were approved not only on the basis of a single clinical trial, but also were often small, short, and involved surrogate metrics rather than clear clinical endpoints. It...

We are guinea pigs whenever a new drug comes onto the market. This is especially true for drugs that are "fast tracked" through the FDA. Post approval clinical trials are required in this setting by the FDA from big pharma, but often they are not done. Older drugs that have been on the market for decades are generally better tested and safer.