26 October 2010

More Drug Company Misdeeds

Again I published a blog too soon. This should be no surprise as I am sure we will continue to be bombarded with more information that is being withheld by drug companies. This article comes to us from the British Medical Journal (BMJ) by way of the BBC News.

This time Pfizer is bring taken to task for their withholding relevant information. For once the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) seems to have taken the right path and rejected an ineffective drug.

Again the cry is about some trial results not being published. The experts say in the (BMJ) the pharmaceutical companies should be forced to publish all data. The Germans use Pfizer's drug roboxetine as their problem. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care says the unpublished data could change views about the drug.

The article states that in the US, it is a requirement that all data be published. I have to wonder how so much data and trials got by the FDA in the case of Avandia and Actos.

European ministers have promised to tighten laws requiring drug firms to disclose all data from clinical trials. GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) has been given a pass for Seroxat misinformation, but GSK has been warned.

The UK regulator MHRA (The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) says that the European initiative to provide public access to all clinical trails should be in effect by late 2011 or early 2012.

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