NY Times Article | Arthritis Information

This article focuses on the incompatible goals of the FDA fast tracking meds and Big Pharma.

Pip

http://www.laleva.org/eng/2007/06/potentially_incompatible_g oals_at_fda.html

A tort lawyer's dream.

Brisen39269.8885069444That is a scary article. Sadly, it's not too surprising to me, bu thanks for
sharing it.Pip, thanks for this article. How scary and to think there are people still
taking these two drugs. I know I have been very negative about the meds
lately but it is because I personally do not like handing these out like
candy where I work. And yes, I am responsible if harm comes to a
patient. The other day, a patient I had given Dilaudid to, respiratory
arrested and I went home distressed even though it was a good outcome.
It may not have been had I not been right there. We have become a
society that thinks that a pill is going to fix us without doing whatever
else it takes to control the problem. Many diseases can be controlled
with diet alone such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia but
it is easier to pop a pill than eat a healthy diet and exercise. There are
other meds out there that are life savers but the bottom line is, try to take
as few meds as possible. If a problem can be taken care of with diet, do
that instead of the meds. I'm personally very tired of being part of the
problem(the dispenser) and not part of the solution. When someone is on
20 different meds, it is a problem. The more you take, the more
unhealthy you are. Not the opposite. That is just my opinion.

I agree Lori...it's important to try to minimize the drugs we take and make sure the benefits outweigh the risks. In the case of RA, that can be very difficult because the disease itself is so variable with flares and periods of at least partial remission. In my case, I've been fortunate to manage the first 5 years with a single medication, first MTX, and now Humira. I changed because MTX was causing a chronic thrush (candida) infection so I had to take additional meds to control the candida. After changing to Humira I slowly stopped the MTX to see if it was really contributing more to controlling the disease than just Humira alone. I couldn't tell any difference so I dropped it completely. I know that for more severe cases of RA, keeping to a single medication is not possible...all I'm saying is we need to make sure all the meds we take have real benefits because they all have real risks. One other thing...I'm committed to doing everything I can to supplement the meds I take, which for me, involves three things: 1) regular exercise (yoga and walking), 2) healthy diet, and 3) stress reduction (writing and playing music).

Alan

Pip - doesn't surprise me a bit. The biggest lie in America is calling it "health" care - they make money off of keeping us sick, there is no point in providing "wellness" care, too many have-mores portfolios at stake. justsaynoemore39270.4757407407

Thanks for the article! Brisen is right...this is a tort lawyers dream!!

FDA and drug companies will NEVER agree and will NEVER see eye to eye.

I thought that American tort laws were a lot weaker since Bush changed the
laws because it was too expensive for businesses to behave responsibly.
Here's a an old article about that. I would post the link but that never works
on this laptop, so I'll just post the url and those interested can cut and paste

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35084-2005Feb
18.html

You'll have to remove the spave between Feb and 18Gimpy-a-gogo39270.6191435185

But who's looking out for us? I have to find that article from the NY Times that said the FDA's budget in 2008 will be 2/3's of the fees from Big Pharma. I guess it was up from 50% this year. Nobody looks to closely at the hand that feeds them.

GoGo - good article. Not like the class action lawsuit ever helped me - my brains were too messed up to remember to contact anybody about it. All this means is after we get practically killed on some FDA approved medicine we aren't going to be able to do much about it.

You ever notice how the Feds use RICO laws whenever they can't bust a Mafioso. Then they started using RICO on other non-criminal related things. Like RICO was the catch-all? We need to RICO the FDA and Pharma.

Yea, like that will happen.

Pip