Americans fed up with drug industry influence
I thought this was interesting, I have been reading more about drugs and the things they can do to your body, but this is beyond that.
The survey results, released today, are based on a telephone survey of 1,026 American adults conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. They reveal the Food and Drug Administration to be alarmingly out of touch with the concerns of the American people. Some of the most interesting results include:
• 96 percent agreed the government should have the power to require warning labels on drugs with known safety problems. As Consumer Reports explains, “Right now, the Food and Drug Administration must negotiate safety warning labels with a drug maker.”
• 84 percent agree that drug companies have “too much influence over the government officials who regulate them.” More than two-thirds of those surveyed are concerned that drug companies actually pay the FDA to review and approve their drugs. It’s a situation that turns drug companies into the “customers” of the FDA. (See related cartoon, The Puppets of Big Pharma)
• 92 percent agree that pharmaceutical companies should disclose the results of ALL clinical trials, not just the ones with positive results that they wish to publicize. (Currently, drug companies can bury negative drug trials, and the FDA has in fact been caught conspiring with drug companies to keep negative drug data secret from the public.)
• 93 percent think that the FDA should have the power to demand follow-up safety studies from drug companies. Currently, the FDA has no authority to require follow-up safety studies on drugs after they are introdued to the market. This is a serious oversight shortfall, given that many problems with drugs only appear after widespread use. (Patients are widely used as guinea pigs in any new drug launch.)
• 60 percent agreed that doctors and scientists with a financial conflict of interest should not be allowed to serve on FDA advisory boards (what were the other 40 percent thinking?). Currently, doctors who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in “consulting fees” from drug companies are not only allowed to vote on the recommendations for FDA approval of their drugs, there is not even any FDA requirement to disclose such conflicts of interest.
I read this stuff and get so aggravated with the situation because it makes me feel like one— i really don’t have a say and two—what can i do about it? Again the information is intresting. Thanks for keeping up.
It is my pleasure, it is scary to think that we really don’t have much say so over these issues. it is obvious that many people see there is something wrong, but what can we really do to change this?