The FDA: Friend or Foe?

The FDA - Friend or Foe?

The Federal Drug Administration was originally founded to “protect” we, the people of the United States, from unscrupulous drug companies and “snake oil” salesmen.  However, it has grown into a protector of those same unscrupulous drug companies (known as Big Pharma).  Not only does the FDA “NOT” protect the public any more, but it actually contributes to the harming of it.  Let’s take a better look at this Government agency that is supposed to protect you and me.

    1. In June 2000, A very secret (no-notes) meeting was held between the FDA, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and the major producers of infant vaccines.  (GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur).  What was the topic discussed at this meeting?  A study by Tom Verstraeten of the CDC that clearly showed that mercury (Thimerosal) in current vaccines was a major cause of ADD, ADHD, Autism and other brain problems in children.  

Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteen fold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.

The “rumors” about this problem had been around for some years, but had been ignored by the FDA.  Now, there was definite proof!  So, faced with this information, did the FDA (and/or the CDC) “leap” into action to protect our children?  NO!  Why not?  A major reason has to have been that the vaccine makers still had a large supply of these vaccines to sell.  There’s also the possibility that some could be sued and lose even more money.  Not to mention the “black eye” that the FDA might rightfully get!  So the FDA sold out the public again in favor of Big Pharma’s profits.  Who cares about some dumb kids when there’s money involved?  For more details on this meeting, check out http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0616-31.htm.

    2. A 2002 study, done by the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general, showed that about 20 percent of FDA scientists said they were pressured to approve or recommend approval of a medicine despite reservations about risks or effectiveness.  A question comes to my mind - how many others actually took bribes to approve such drugs?  Remember that there are billions of bucks involved.  Let’s take a look at just the category of artificial sweeteners to illustrate this point.

        a. Aspartame (NutraSweet) was shown by animal testing to be neurotoxic, with the potential of dangerous brain injury.  This information was ignored, and it was approved.  Despite thousands of cases, and some deaths, it still remains on the list.  Billions of bucks were involved.  How many FDA “scientists” got theirs?

        b. Sucralose (Splenda) was also shown by animal testing to be dangerous to humans, causing liver damage.  Splenda is a “modified sugar” containing chlorine, and this molecule kills everything around it.  But, in spite of these tests, it got approved, and is now the major sweetener in diet drinks.  Again billions of bucks are involved.

        c. Saccharine was banned by the FDA for a time when one “researcher” found the possibility of “cancer in mice” from using it.  Never mind that the dosage was some 2-3000 times that which would be used.- it certainly scared the public off, and onto the above sweeteners. That decision made billions in profits for Big Pharma.  Saccharine is now known by many to be completely safe, but many also believe it causes cancer.  Where is the FDA now?

    3.  The above doesn’t even consider the really dangerous drugs that have been approved by the FDA which actually kill people.  That list is endless.  It has been estimated that well over 7000 persons per year die from drugs prescribed by their MD.  Some more questions need to be answered.  How did these drugs that made millions of dollars for Big Pharma before the occurring deaths get approved?  Why does the FDA stall recalling such drugs?  How many FDA so-called scientists got rich because of this, and how many people died?  

I was amazed to learn that the FDA approval board for new drugs has a majority of members that are actually employees of major drug companies, and they “wash each others backs”!  Untold numbers of new drugs are “approved” without good data on safety, or actual falsified data.  New products, which are often old products touted as new are approved even as the old ones are withdrawn because of problems.  (And the new ones are usually more costly.

You are aware of some of the drugs that have killed people from the news.  How did they get thru the “screening” required tests of the FDA?  How much data was falsified in the grab for “big bucks”?  Let’s look at just one recent case.

In the first six months of 2006, Novartis, the maker of Gleevec a cancer drug had worldwide sales of 1.2 BILLION.  Yet, it is known that this drug can damage the heart.  10 leukemia patients taking Gleevec developed severe congestive heart failure and died.  A study showed that Gleevec kills heart muscle cells.   Is the drug suspended or recalled?  NO.  Why not?  Novartis argued that further research was needed to fully understand the potential dangers.  At $63 million a day let’s not turn off the “cash cow” just because a few ”nearly” terminal patients might die. 

That seems to be the morality of Big Pharma, and they have the Big Bucks to completely corrupt the agency that is supposed to protect us.

    4.  The Bush government and the FDA not long ago was busy “scaring” the public about the “Bird flu” epidemic that is supposedly coming.  This, in spite of most real scientists saying that the “avian flu” has little or no chance of mutation into a human form.  Do you think it’s a coincidence that Tamiflu, the vaccine for “bird flu was developed by a company called Gilead, with Donald Rumsfeld (Sec of Defense) as the major stockholder?  He makes millions from the sale of 2 billion dollars of Tamiflu to be stockpiled “just in case”.  This administration is famous for “scare tactics”. 

    5.  Big Pharma has been trying for years to control the “health food” industry.  It’s only due to the vigilance of a few persons that they haven’t succeeded.   The fact is that vitamin and mineral and other supplements do help keep people healthier, and that, of course is not in the interests of the drug companies (or, if you think about it - your doctor).  In Europe, they have mostly succeeded.  In most countries you have to have a prescription to get vitamin pills! 

    6.Let’s take another look at the FDA record on “protecting the public”.  In the late 80’s, one (out of three) Japanese company manufacturing L-Tryptophan had one “bad batch” that made several people sick.  The FDA leaped into action (whipped on by Big Pharma) and immediately banned all Tryptophan.  The other two companies had never had any problems, but they were banned as well.  Hooray for the FDA.  The actually “protected” us from a Japanese made normally harmless amino acid. 

It took several years for Tryptophan to re-appear on the market, and lo and behold, it was produced by Big Pharma under the name of 5htp.  Suddenly, it was safe again. 

Let’s compare this to Tylenol.  A “bad batch” of this poisoned several persons.  It was recalled, and we - the public - were protected.  However, a few weeks later, it was back on the shelves - seemingly no worse for the wear.  What was the difference?  The only one I could find was that in one case a Japanese company was making money, and in the other cases American companies.  Could there really be “hanky-panky” at the FDA?  Is the fox really running the henhouse?

    7.  Some of the FDA rules are ridiculous.  The use of EEG biofeedback (AKA neurofeedback) has been proved for over 35 years in over a half million cases that it can “cure” many “brain problems”.  These include the ADD-Autism continuum, depression, insomnia, epilepsy, and even some forms of schizophrenia.   But, no psychologist or other clinician can say “cure” for fear of the wrath of the FDA.  It seems that no one except an MD using dangerous drugs can “cure anything”.  Anyone else has to be a “quack”.  So, clinicians “tiptoe” around the “cure” word.  EEG biofeedback “trains” or “teaches”, and does not “cure”. 

I invented a simple method of brain wave amplification that is analogous to EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback in 2004, and in tests to date, it has been shown to be as successful.   But I cannot say it can “cure”, or I would be arrested by the FDA as “practicing medicine without a license”.  (Free speech - Hah!)  And, since my new method will replace a lot of the current dangerous drugs used for mental problems, you can be sure that Big Pharma will be “pushing” their friends at the FDA to “shut me down”.

The FDA has gone from “protecting the public” to “protecting the drug industry”, and we, the people, are much poorer for this change.  Money, unfortunately, not only talks, but it corrupts as well.