A top of the fold article in today's New York Times talks about the surge of counterfeit drugs that have flooded the European and American marketplace. It blames the recent establishment of Free Trade Zones that are characterized by little government oversight and regulations. Three months ago there was an announcement that authorities had seized [...]
Applying for Social Security Disability benefits has become a morass, which can take years to gain approval. State officials disapprove most initial applications. Once a denial has been issued, you have the option of appealing the decision. According to an article in today’s New York Times, hundreds of thousands of people are waiting for as [...]
Last night was the CNN and You Tube Republican presidential debate. I was very disappointed with the quality of questions that they chose to ask the candidates. It seemed that the selection of videos was not as serious as I would liked to have seen. The selection leaned heavily to the dramatic and the absurd. [...]
Many people have been very excited about this last week’s scientific advance in creating cells that act like embryonic stem cells from skin cells. The enthusiasm about this discovery surrounds the possibility that embryos might not have to be destroyed to develop stem cells, which would remove the political controversy about stem cell research. Unfortunately, [...]
Today I heard back from a representative of the FDA about my concern and complaints surrounding the treatment of the public at FDA advisory committee meetings (my post of 11-20-07). It was explained to me that at the time of the advisory committee meeting for Satraplatin when the public was relegated to the rear of [...]
On November 19, 2007, the FDA posted a consumer update entitled "New Steps to Improve Advisory Committee Processes." The stated goal of these actions is to strengthen its advisory committee process in ways which are consistent with recommendations of the Institute of Medicine. "One of FDA's strengths is that we routinely enlist the nation's leading [...]
Congress recently passed funding legislation (Labor-HHS-Education bill) which would have increased funding to the NIH by 2 billion dollars for a 2008 total of 30 billion dollars. However, President Bush vetoed the legislation citing his concern that there was too much “pork barrel” funding in the bill. He did not specify what specific parts of [...]
Rudy Giuliani’s fake numbers on prostate cancer survival in the United States vs. Europe still have not been corrected by the candidate. He lied and he continues to lie about our health care system and the significance of a prostate cancer diagnosis for long term survival. First, his lie about the “cure rate” discrepancy serves [...]
Congressman Edolphus (Ed) Towns (D), 10th District, New York, has proposed a very important piece of legislation for men with prostate cancer. The legislation, H.R. 1903, the “Post-Prostate Cancer Treatment Act of 2007”, will allow some 6,000 men each year to pay for penile implants under their private insurance plans as they seek a reconstructive [...]
from the Wash. Post 11-4-07 AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION Off Target in the War on Cancer By Devra Davis Sunday, November 4, 2007; Page B01 We've been fighting the war on cancer for almost four decades now, since President Richard M. Nixon officially launched it in 1971. It's time to admit that our efforts have [...]
