Sep/09/2008 06:16
Twelve
of the 26 researchers involved disclosed they had
received fees or other financial support from
manufacturers of the monitoring
devices. This is
at the end of a story on continuous glucose monitors
and diabetics that appeared in today's
Wall
Street Journal. Fees?
Other financial support? The question arises again
"should researchers take money from the companies
whose product they are researching? "
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More...
Sep/05/2008 04:10
The
government on Friday began posting a
list of prescription
drugs under
investigation for potential safety problems, in an
effort to better inform doctors and patients. The
first list is a bare-bones compilation naming 20
medications and the potential issue for each. It
provides no indication of how widespread or
serious the problems might be, leading some
consumer advocates to question its usefulness, and
prompting industry worries that skittish patients
might stop taking a useful medication if they see
it listed. What are consumers expected to think
from this list? There is not much information and
a trip to the doctors office could take weeks and
then there is the chance that physicians won't
anything about the potential issue. If the FDA is
trying to scare people from taking their
medications they are doing a great job.
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Sep/04/2008 01:09
On
Tuesday, Sept 2, FDA launched two new Web sites to
provide information for consumers and industry about
how FDA regulates the promotion of medical products.
The “Advertising Prescription Drugs and
Medical Devices” Web
site provides a “one-stop shop” portal to
information on FDA regulation of medical product
promotion. Industry and policy users can get
directly to relevant laws, regulations, and
guidances. This site can be found at The
direct-to-consumer (DTC) Web site,
“Be Smart about Prescription Drug
Advertising: A Guide for Consumers”
is
designed to educate consumers about how to view
such advertising to help inform their discussions
with healthcare providers, and consequently to
help improve patient understanding and medical
care. Read
More...
Aug/11/2008 08:03
According to
a video report on
CNN.com, there have been
9,749 adverse events and 21 deaths from Gardasil
since 2006. Rather than reassure the patient
population Merck issues the following statement
“Merck has
analyzed the adverse events reported for GARDASIL
relating to the recent reports of death and
paralysis, and based on the data available to
Merck, believes that no safety issue related to
the vaccine has been identified. These types of
events are events that could also be seen in the
general population, even in the absence of
vaccination. An adverse experience report
describes an event that occurred after vaccination
and does not necessarily mean that the vaccine
caused or contributed to the event. The vast
majority of adverse events that have been reported
to Merck are non-serious and the most common
include dizziness and syncope (fainting).
Read
More...
Jun/17/2008 03:32
If
you believe that DTC serves a purpose, to inform
patients and consumers about treatment options and be
proactive in their healthcare choices, than the
agreement of some drug makers to limit DTC for new
products for six months after approval is a copout
and stinks of executives who are not willing to walk
the walk and talk the talk when it comes to DTC. This
is a bad agreement for everyone but perhaps the
biggest losers in this agreement are
consumers. Read
More...
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