Comments on: Inside the human guinea pig capital of North America

By: irb member

irb member — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:28:23 +0000

who is keeping track of all the different drugs being given to these subjects as they move from one trial to another? More variables are being put into play by promotiong this kind of "Volunteer participation".

By: MCBellecourt

MCBellecourt — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 11:26:31 +0000

Well said, cleargreen. I, too, am old enough to remember when politicians were at least somewhat accountable. I write this from B.C., and what we are seeing in this province is the polar opposite to accountability on all fronts, including and especially health care. The only upside from it is that people living in other provinces who haven't yet swung as far to the right as B.C. has, can observe and learn from the resulting damage, which, if allowed to continue, may be irrepairable.

By: cleargreen

cleargreen — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:55:57 +0000

So some of the richest multinational corps on the planet also enjoy massive tax breaks and subsidies for testing their products, thanks a lot Ottawa.
I seem to recall a story a few years ago regarding one of these "highly trained, highly qualified, highly ethical scientists and physicians" as per the Corman quote in the article. They were speaking out about negative data being suppressed, skewed results published, and inadequate testing. I cannot remember the brave lady doctors name, I can see her potentially career ending cry for help was put to good use by our politicians.
The patent life of these drugs was also doubled a few years ago in order to enable these money making machines to double the time they were able to hold citizens hostage to their profit margins and deny competition.
Perhaps it is time for a law that allows us to hold these under-performing politicians liable for not acting in the best interests of the citizens? Sorry… a fantasy I know, but I am old enough to remember when politicians actually used to at least pretend they represented the people that voted them into office… shame on every single one of you.

By: Cleaves M Bennett MD

Cleaves M Bennett MD — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:39:51 +0000

Calling LDL cholesterol “bad” and HDL cholesterol “good” is the most successful marketing strategy in history. To this day, execs in marketing at Pfizer, Merck and others must shake their heads in wonder at our collective naiveté. We all bought into it, even the doctors. You never see or hear the word “cholesterol” mentioned anywhere without the modifier “good” or “bad” in front of it. Changing the law to allow Direct to Consumer ads for drugs on TV was a bad idea. It happened because Big Pharma owns the US Congress. Those ads are expensive. Those ads work! (I call Big Pharma the Somali pirates of the HealthCare industry.)
That marketing strategy has paid off big time. You convince the public they have a bunch of bad stuff in their blood and all they have to do is take this pill…. Well, the rest is history. Annual profits for statins are in the billions of dollars

By: SisyphusThis

SisyphusThis — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:16:54 +0000

Oh, why do they even bother. It's so much more simple ..... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/health/research...