Lilly ‘Ghostwrote’ Articles to Market Drug, Files Say (Update2)

By Elizabeth Lopatto, Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- Eli Lilly & Co. officials wrote medical journal studies about the antipsychotic Zyprexa and then asked doctors to put their names on the articles, a practice called “ghostwriting,” according to unsealed company files.

Lilly employees also compiled a guide to hiring scientists to write favorable articles, complained to journal editors when publication was delayed and submitted rejected articles to other outlets, according to documents filed in drug-overpricing suits against the Indianapolis-based company, the largest manufacturer of psychiatric medicines.

Drugmakers’ use of ghostwriters has created “a huge body of medical literature that society can’t trust,” said Carl Elliott, a University of Minnesota bioethicist who has written about the practice.

Lilly sought to make Zyprexa “the number one selling psychotropic in history,” according to a 2000 plan distributed to its product team. The memo was among more than 10,000 pages of internal documents unsealed last month in lawsuits by insurers and pension funds seeking to recoup money spent on the drug. They allege Lilly exaggerated Zyprexa’s effectiveness.

More at link

Twelve Things We'd Say About Health

... if we weren't afraid of getting sued"
Link

Movie Trailer: The Idiot Cycle

Official trailer for "The Idiot Cycle" feature length documentary produced by Emmanuelle Schick Garcia and Laila Tahhar. To be released Fall 2009. www.theidiotcycle.com.

From the site:
"It has now been scientifically demonstrated that there is indeed a link between chemical products and the appearance of diseases, such as cancers, infertility, degenerative diseases of the central nervous system and allergies."
CPME - Standing Committee of European Doctors, 2005
"There is little direct evidence of widespread ill health or ecosystem damage by the use of man-made chemicals."
Alan Perroy, Director General of the European Chemical Industry Council, in a 2001 letter to European Members of Parliament.

Once upon a time, a king accumulated most of the gold in his kingdom. His subjects were very poor, without land to grow food. When the subjects began to starve and watch their families perish, they realized they had nothing to lose.

They stormed the castle and found the king in a large room, cowering next to his mounds of gold, begging them not to steal his gold.

The subjects did not take the gold. But they left the room and locked the king inside.

Upon leaving they called out, "now you will be able to see the real worth of your gold."

The king, trapped in the room with no water, air or food, realized the gold was useless.

This story became the impetus for The Idiot Cycle - a film about cancer.

"Everyone should know that the 'war on cancer' is largely a fraud."
Dr. Linus Pauling, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize in chemistry

Rough Aunties take Sundance by Storm

Warning: contains materials related to sexual abuse of minors, and may trigger for some.

"Sisters in Law director Kim Longinotto brings viewers an intimate portrait of change in Africa with this documentary following the efforts of five women in ensuring that the abused and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa still have a fighting chance despite getting a rough start in life. Thuli, Mildred, Sudula, Jackie, and Eureka are a multiracial cadre of women who have dedicated their lives to the common cause of helping the most vulnerable and disenfranchised components of their communities - the children. Together, these five women form a united force powerful enough to overcome social and racial divisions while doing battle against the destructive forces of corruption, greed, and apathy. In post-apartheid South Africa, it's the hope and energy of groups like the Rough Aunties that help to transform a nation while inspiring positive change." ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A movie has been made about the "Rough Aunties" - and it has taken the Sundance Film Festival by storm.
Link

The film is reviewed here.

"Operation Bobbi Bear exists to:
Rescue and uphold the rights of sexually abused children.
Minimise their risk of HIV infection.
Help them towards wholeness."




Looks like one Rough Auntie is better for peace of mind than any number of tranquilizers. Make a donation and become a Rough Auntie: http://roughaunties.com/

London, Ontario - WOTCH

From the site:
"WOTCH Community Mental Health Services is dedicated to serving adults in South Western Ontario who live with serious mental illness. The skilled mental health professionals at WOTCH help clients achieve realistic goals and to live interdependently within the community.

With a history extending back to 1970, WOTCH (Western Ontario Therapeutic Community Hostel) is the lead agency in Middlesex County for mental health housing and is a strong component in the mental health support system in the areas of case management, community integration and life skills support, employment programs, treatment programs, clinical programs and women's mental health programs.

Approximately 120 employees provide service to more than 1,000 adult clients annually. WOTCH is a registered non-profit corporation and a registered charitable organization. WOTCH programs and services are governed by an independent Board of Trustees."

That's quite a lot of medico-social work jobs.

Here is the information on the site about what is offered at this program:

"Clinics and groups are offered to individuals as well as one-on-one assessments and interventions that include:

* Consultation Clinic with a psychiatrist
* Medical Clinic with a family physician
* Diabetes screening and self management program
* Free Foot care Clinics
* Collective Kitchen
* Nutrition Clinic"

We will enquire further as to the components of WOTCH "assessments" and the "nutrition clinic" to determine if they know about the 29 CAUSES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA.

Nutrition is the basis of good mental and physical health. "Nutrition Clinic"is last on this group's list, but Psychiatrist is first. We fear that clients in this program will be given drugs which merely substitute one problem for another - and necessitate yet another intervention, or morbidity and early mortality. See Anatomy of an Epidemic.

The staff have really nice clothes, though.

OBIT: Colin Downes-Grainger, Benzo Activist

Sad news - Colin Downes-Grainger, one of the best writers in the fight for sanity in pharmaceutical psychoactive drug use, has died. A terrible loss.
We will miss him very much. But his work remains.

PRESCRIPTION FOR INJURY

Colin Downes-Grainger
August, 2007

"This book examines the question of how it is that medicine inflicts widespread damage through mind altering drugs in particular but also a range of other drugs. It goes into the reasons why so often dangerous drugs are sold to regulators and doctors as safe and it is left to patients to discover later that this is far from true. The history of tranquillisers has been pulled together to show that doctors are not as expert as they think they are when they prescribe, that drug companies routinely exploit the existing medical system in the UK, that politicians and regulators fail to protect public health while saying that they do and that the British legal system allows almost no possibility of redress.

The Department of Health has no idea how many have been affected by tranquillisers, SSRIs and many other controversial drugs, and it does not seem to want to know. But many thousands have told their stories in the media and on the internet. The thousands who died have sadly been unable to tell their stories. In respect of tranquillisers, some people who died or who were injured did not themselves take the drugs-they were killed or injured in accidents by those who had. The benzodiazepine story is most notable because of the huge numbers of people to whom tranquillisers were prescribed-and because many of them subsequently became very sick due to over-prescribing. The history of tranquillisers is a clear description of a system which out-sources drug production to profit motivated private enterprise but then maintains a system of drugs regulation which it is almost impossible to penetrate. Medicine, Pharma and politicians defend what happens to patients in order to defend the system they have jointly created. This is the reason why they show no desire to listen, and continue to learn nothing from the chequered history of drugs.

Prescription for Injury shows clearly what the UK government would not wish included in its description of 'our way of life' - including what benzodiazepines have done to a great many patients for nearly fifty years. The question might be asked, "Is the first duty of the state really the protection of its citizens?" If it is then government has failed to protect. This examination of the past raises the suspicion that the maintenance of a failing but profitable system and the avoidance of responsibility, is seen by government as being politically more desirable than the introduction of an efficient protective healthcare agenda. The only protections that patients have against drug disasters are the enlightenment of doctors, strictly honest science and effective regulation, but all of these health safeguards have regularly failed in the past, particularly with psychotropic drugs, and the true enormity of these failings is clearly illustrated by benzodiazepines. The book is now available online."

Click to download the PDF file here.

Thank you, Colin.

Nicotinic receptor - and Niacin

"AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical group, today announced its biggest deal of the year with a plan to tap into the global market for antidepressants, estimated to be worth more than $20bn (£12bn).

The company, headed by David Brennan, is teaming up with US biotech specialist Targacept, which is developing an antidepressant drug that works on the brain in a different way to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac and Seroxat, known as Paxil in the United States.

Under the terms of the transaction, AstraZeneca will pay Targacept $200m and a further $1bn if the medicine gets regulatory clearance and meets certain sales targets. The drug will undergo final clinical trials over the next year and is expected to be filed with the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, in 2012.

The licensing agreement means that Brennan's company will contribute to further development costs and market the drug worldwide, providing it gets regulatory clearance.

According to AstraZeneca, the deal is significant because the new product could offer a new alternative to millions of people whose depression fails to respond to SSRIs. A recent study found that SSRIs did not work for up to two-thirds of patients."

Link


"Targacept, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the design, discovery and development of NNR Therapeutics(TM), a new class of drugs for the treatment of multiple diseases and disorders of the central nervous system. Our NNR Therapeutics selectively target neuronal nicotinic receptors, or NNRs. NNRs are found on nerve cells throughout the nervous system and serve as key regulators of nervous system activity.

We currently have a robust clinical-stage product pipeline and multiple preclinical product candidates. Our most advanced product candidates are in development for major depressive disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.

Targacept is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina."
Targacept

Nicotinic receptors indicate NIACIN - Vitamin B3 - which has health-restoring effects in ALL of the conditions
mentioned above. If Niacin does no harm and is cheap, why not try B3 first?




Image: The Emperor's New Clothes