How I learned about “trade secret deaths.” When Traci Johnson was found hanging dead in a Eli Lilly’s Pharma laboratory—it pulled back the bed covers on a dirty secret at FDA: when pharma or device makers declare the deaths of patients injured during clinical trials as “confidential, commercial information,” the FDA honors their secret.
Read MoreHow threats by industry weakened one of the few previously independent agencies, which evaluates medical interventions, and how the USPSTF has subsequently issued guidelines that a number of experts say are contributing to overdiagnosis and overtreatment.
Read MoreWritten with widely respected cancer doctor and methodologist, Vinay Prasad, this article reviews the failure of many cancer screening tests to “save lives”
Read MoreThe ugly (and true) history of the FDA’s rejection of advisors who raised concerns about drug and device safety while relying on advisors with ties to industry:
Read MoreThe title says it all.
Read MoreLittle known to the public and even to some CDC employees, the CDC takes money from industry and promotes their commercial messaging. Examples given.
Read MoreThe flu hype – and the money behind the CDC’s “Take 3” campaign.
Read MoreSeveral organisations have recommended greatly expanded screening for hepatitis C infection.
Read MoreWhy the majority of neurosurgeons said they would continue complying with a guideline they believed was useless at best and deadly at worst
Read MoreJournalists often forget that conflicts of interest may bias the opinions of their expert sources. Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee explain how, in an attempt to disentangle commercial messages from science, they have compiled a list of nearly 100 independent medical experts to whom reporters can turn
Read MoreWhen doctors recommend tests, drugs or surgeries to prevent bad outcomes (think cholesterol-lowering agents to prevent strokes or cardiac stents to prevent heart attacks) they tap into our deepest sense of what constitutes common sense: An ounce of prevention. Catch it early. A stitch in time.
Read MoreA panel of independent experts reports this week that drugs used to treat mild cases of high blood pressure have not been shown to reduce heart attacks, strokes, or overall deaths.
Read MoreAs chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, Otis Webb Brawley — who is also a professor of oncology and epidemiology at Emory University — is the public face of the cancer establishment.
Read MoreAfter revelations that the CDC is receiving some funding from industry, Jeanne Lenzer investigates how it might have affected the organisation’s decisions
Read MoreDespite repeated calls to prohibit or limit conflicts of interests among authors and sponsors of clinical guidelines, the problem persists.
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