Quit hiding the truth, Big Pharma
The recent news that Avandia, a popular drug used to treat diabetes, is linked to an increased risk of heart problems leads to a very important question.
Without full disclosure, what other drug-safety issues are lurking out there that we just don’t know about yet?
You see, no one knew about the studies showing higher rates of heart risk among Avandia users until one doctor combed through a study that was only made available because of a legal settlement between the state of New York and GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Avandia, over another drug, the antidepressant Paxil.
The doctor and his team of researchers were stunned to find that these originally secret studies showed that those people who took Avandia were 64 percent more likely to die from cardiovascular disease and 43 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack than were people who didn’t.
To thicken the plot, the FDA has been aware of this risk for five years! A secret memo from its own staff scientists shows that they had called for a “black box” warning on the Avandia label due to the heart-related risk. Results of a test they conducted had shown that over an eight-year period, up to 100,000 heart attacks were linked to Avandia. The FDA has the audacity to say it’s continuing to study it! And they have the arrogance to say they plan to continue studying it for another two years before they’ll take any action!
How many more victims does the FDA need? There are millions of people on this drug! They need more than 100,000 heart attacks to make them believers?
To Big Pharma and the FDA, it’s all about risk and reward. And apparently, a figure of 100,000 heart attacks doesn’t indicate enough risk to justify losing $2.2 billion in Avandia sales.
What’s needed is FULL disclosure. Some advocacy groups, a number of researchers, and even some states are pushing for this too, and it’s about time!
That way, researchers will be able to compare all study results—not just the positive findings the drug companies choose to reveal—so they can determine the efficacy of competing drugs and place study findings in a wider context.
Meanwhile, the drug companies claim they are concerned about confusing the public. They’re the only ones confusing the public with their false and misleading ads!
Instead of their worrying about how drug-study results are interpreted—I think it’s more important that they be concerned with getting everyone to communicate, honestly and openly, and prevent unnecessary trauma and deaths. It’s unconscionable to do otherwise.
Another front that the drug companies are keeping an eye on revolves around the recent activity by some individual states that are looking to legislate mandatory release of all study findings. In fact, Maine recently passed a bill to do so. I imagine more states will be following suit. The drug companies say some states’ disclosure requirements may be “unreasonable.”
I say that what’s unreasonable is hiding data linking a product to heart disease in patients. If the FDA won’t force Big Pharma to put people before profits, I’m all in favor of getting behind these states that will take the initiative to force them to do so.
I’ll keep you posted.
