In article <[email hidden]>,
Ilena said:CORRUPT "Science"...Made-To-Order "Facts" For Sale to Highest Bidder
Quoted message said:From: [email hidden]
Quoted message said:Subject: CORRUPT "Science"...Made-To-Order "Facts" For Sale to Highest
Bidder!
Quoted message said:Date: 06 Jun 2000 00:00:00 GMT
Quoted message said:SOURCE:
Quoted message said:Surge In Corporate Cash Taints Integrity Of Academic Science
Quoted message said:By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN And ANDREW JULIEN
Quoted message said:The Hartford Courant
Quoted message said:April 09, 2000
Quoted message said:Twenty-eight men and women were already dead.
Quoted message said:In the ballroom of a Maryland hotel, an expert panel was huddling to
decide what government regulators should do about Warner-Lambert's
controversial diabetes drug Rezulin. They heard warnings that day that
the risk of liver failure associated with the drug was perilously
high.
Perilously high? I believe that for metformin, a different
type of diabetes drug, is as high or higher. I have not
seen the comparison with that for Tylenol.
Quoted message said:But they also heard from a procession of nine prominent university
researchers who downplayed concerns that the drug was killing
patients. The scientists, from Harvard, UCLA and other schools, all
urged the Food and Drug Administration to keep Rezulin on the market.
Quoted message said:And they all had financial ties to the drug's manufacturer.
Quoted message said:Another year would pass - and 33 more deaths would be reported -
before Rezulin was pulled from the market March 21. But while the
incident focused public attention on internal squabbles at the FDA,
the financial links between Warner-Lambert and the researchers
illuminate a deeper, far-reaching problem.
Not all of the deaths were from Rezulin; other things cause
liver failure. And this involved 3 million patients.
Rezulin would not have been pulled if Avandia and Actos
were not on the scene. BTW, they do not cause liver
failure, but they seem to cause death by edema in some.
NOTHING is safe and effective.
Quoted message said:A growing reliance of university scientists on corporate cash is
threatening the basic tenets of openness, honesty and objectivity in
academic medical research.
...................
Quoted message said:It wasn't always this way. For decades after World War II, bright
scientists planted themselves in university labs and enjoyed a
reliable stream of government support. But as federal money tightened
in the 1970s, scientists hungry for research dollars turned to an
obliging private sector.
And by the 1970s, the government had taken over the
direction of research. Before the postwar government
support, there were more than 100 independent sources of
research funding; the government, by merely providing
money, killed off the need for universities to use their
funds to support research, and this had already stifled
original ideas.
Quoted message said:Although the federal government remains the primary source of funding
for academic medical research, the amount - and influence - of
corporate cash has grown dramatically over the last 20 years.
Medicine is in a better state than most other fields.
Real original research, not corresponding to the whims
of those in positions to allocate, had greatly suffered.
We need to restore university-funded research, and this
is not going to be easy. Government funding of research
is a major part of the entire budget at good universities.
Also, government policies make it difficult for private
corporations and foundations to fund real research. We
need to separate from the government tar baby.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Deptartment of Statistics, Purdue University
[email hidden] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558