Saturday, July 08, 2006

Did the MHRA collude with corporate scientific fraud over SSRI's?

Highly possible according to a report this week in the British Medical Journal [Healy, British Medical Journal 2006; 333: 92-95]. An accompanying editorial by BMJ editor Fiona Godlee argues the drug industry is badly regulated, and that companies must be prevented from evaluating their own products.

The question is whether the UK regulators were simply inept or whether they knowingly and deliberately assisted GlaxoSmithKline to deceive clinicians and the public.

"The regulators seem stuck in a world where balancing evidence of potential benefit against actual risk causes real problems"

GSK documents now acknowledge a possible six-fold suicide risk for adults on Paxil:

www.gsk.com/media/paroxetine_adult.htm
www.gsk.com/media/paroxetine/adult_hcp_letter.pdf

A 2003 enquiry by the regulator was halted when it emerged that half the members of the so called "expert group" held shares in GSK.

"Following the path of least resistance
is what makes rivers and men crooked."
--Unknown

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Never attribute to conspiracy that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
- paraphrase of "Hanlon's Razor" (fm R. Heinlein)

The MHRA certainly gives a good impression of stupidity.

Good looking blog so far --- keep going.

Anonymous said...

"Never attribute to conspiracy that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
- paraphrase of "Hanlon's Razor" (fm R. Heinlein)

The MHRA certainly gives a good impression of stupidity.

Good looking blog so far --- keep going.

Fid said...

It would be easier to contact the President of the United States than it is to get answers from the MHRA. A law unto themselves.

Despite countless requests for them to release information regarding the Seroxat trials in adults - they still smokescreen us. Hardly suprising as two of the MHRA's members used to work closely with Seroxat.