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KARACHI: A toddler died allegedly after being administered expired measles vaccine at a private clinic in Gulberg Town on Thursday.

According to the child’s father, he took his one-and-a-half-year old son Abdullah to a private clinic near his residence in Yousuf Plaza, Block-16, Federal-B Area, for the routine measles vaccine.

However, his son developed high fever after returning home, and he was rushed to a hospital, but he died there during treatment.

The police reached the spot and immediately arrested a doctor named Qamar while two other doctors Ghani and Asad managed to escape.

Adelaide Now

From correspondents in Washington: AFP
July 14, 2010

Glaxo 'covered up diabetes drug's risks, conducted secret research'

BRITISH pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline hid the dangers of its top-selling diabetes drug Avandia and secretly wrote scientific articles about it, two US politicians charged overnight.

The allegations came as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opened a two-day meeting of experts who will weigh whether to pull Avandia from the market over safety concerns.

In a letter dated on Monday and addressed to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, Senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley accused Glaxo of covering up scientific studies that found problems with Avandia and of including the drug in a "ghostwriting" program.

The drug company Pfizer is best known for Lipitor, a drug that brings cholesterol down and Viagra, a drug that brings other things up.

But the "world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company" which sits between Goldman Sachs and Marathon Oil on the Fortune 500, is also closely associated with a seemingly never-ending series of scandals.

To say Pfizer's been accused of wrongdoing is like saying BP had an oil spill. Other drug companies have a portfolio of products, Pfizer has a portfolio of scandals including, but not limited to, Chantix, Lipitor, Viagra, Geodon, Trovan, Bextra, Celebrex, Lyrica, Zoloft, Halcion and drugs for osteoarthritis, Parkinson's disease, kidney transplants and leukemia.

During one week in June Pfizer 1) agreed to pull its 10-year-old leukemia drug Mylotarg from the market because it caused more, not less patient deaths 2) Suspended pediatric trials of Geodon two months after the FDA said children were being overdosed 3) Suspended trials of tanezumab, an osteoarthritis pain drug, because patients got worse not better, some needing joint replacements (pattern, anyone?) 4) Was investigated by the House for off-label marketing of kidney transplant drug Rapamune and targeting African-Americans 5) Saw a researcher who helped established its Bextra, Celebrex and Lyrica as effective pain meds, Scott S Reuben, MD, trotted off to prison for research fraud 6) was sued by Blue Cross Blue Shield to recoup money it overpaid for Bextra and other drugs 7) received a letter from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) requesting its whistleblower policy and 8) had its appeal to end lawsuits by Nigerian families who accuse it of illegal trials of the antibiotic Trovan in which 11 children died, rejected by the Supreme Court. And how was your week?

In 1986, The International Journal of the Addictions published a very important literature review by Richard Scarnati. It was called “An Outline of Hazardous Side Effects of Ritalin (Methylphenidate)” [v.21(7), pp. 837-841].

Scarnati listed a large number of adverse affects of Ritalin and cited published journal articles which reported each of these symptoms.

For every one of the following Ritalin effects, there is at least one confirming source in the medical literature:

FILE - In this Dec. 22, 2009 file photo, swine flu vaccines are sorted at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. A whopping 40 million doses of swine flu vaccine expired on Wednesday, June 30, and will be destroyed _ an amount that is believed to be a record loss of flu vaccine.(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

ATLANTA — About a quarter of the swine flu vaccine produced for the U.S. public has expired — meaning that a whopping 40 million doses worth about $260 million are being written off as trash.

"It's a lot, by historical standards," said Jerry Weir, who oversees vaccine research and review for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The outdated vaccine, some of which expired Wednesday, will be incinerated. The amount, as much as four times the usual leftover seasonal flu vaccine, likely sets a record. And that's not even all of it.

About 30 million more doses will expire later and may go unused, according to one government estimate. If all that vaccine expires, more than 43 percent of the supply for the U.S. public will have gone to waste.

Threats of a swine flu pandemic were 'vastly over-rated' by the World Health Organisation, an inquiry has concluded.

The Council of Europe last night also accused the UN's health arm of 'grave shortcomings' in the process that led it to declare a pandemic last year.

Plummeting confidence in health advice could prove 'disastrous' in the event of a severe future pandemic, parliamentarians at the Strasbourg-based senate said.

Fears: Swine Flu concerns led to huge public expenditure and even the wearing of masks. (Posed by model)

An Exclusive Interview With Barbara Starfield

The American health system, like clockwork, causes a mind-boggling number of deaths every year.

The figures have been known for a decade. The story was covered briefly when a landmark study surfaced, and then it sank like a stone.

The truth was inconvenient for many interests. That has not changed. "Medical coverage for all" is a banner that conceals ugly facts.

On July 26, 2000, the US medical community received a titanic shock to the system, when one of its most respected public-health experts, Dr. Barbara Starfield, revealed her findings on healthcare in America. Starfield was, and still is, associated with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

The Starfield study, "Is US health really the best in the world?", published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, came to the following conclusions:

Prescription drugs taken as directed kill 100,000 Americans a year. That's one person every five minutes. How did we get here?

June 25, 2010  | How many people do you know who regularly use a prescription medication? If your social group is like most Americans', the answer is most. Sixty-five percent of the country takes a prescription drug these days. In 2005 alone, we spent $250 billion on them.

I recently caught up with Melody Petersen, author of Our Daily Meds, an in-depth look at the pharmaceutical companies that have taken the reins of our faltering health care system by cleverly hawking every kind of drug imaginable. We discussed how this powerful industry has our health in its hands.

'WASTE OF MONEY': Newport West MP Paul Flynn

A GWENT MP slammed the worldwide health body that declared swine flu a pandemic last year in a report for a European organisation.

Newport West MP Paul Flynn said the World Health Organisation had “cried wolf” over the virus and was in danger of being ignored by the public in future.

In a report written for the Council of Europe and to be presented to it later in the week, Mr Flynn argues governments wasted huge sums of money on vaccines that were not needed.

Alliance for Natural health
June 8, 2010

The Vaccine Firestorm

Last Friday's shocking news--the revelation of hidden financial ties and influence-peddling behind the World Health Organization's declaration of a worldwide H1N1 pandemic--is only one of our articles this week on the controversial issue of immunization. We'll tell you about flu vaccine deaths, fetal death and injury from mercury, a high government official formerly in charge of vaccines who now works for a drug and vaccine maker, and yet another tragic miscarriage of justice in the case of a pioneer of autism research.

Although the health issues involved are the most troubling, we show how the truth can be uncovered, as always, by heeding that old adage: "Follow the money."

The WHO's H1N1 (Swine Flu) Vaccine Scandal

Last Friday, two different European groups released reports accusing the World Health Organization (WHO) of exaggerating the threat posed by the H1N1 virus, and of having been influenced by the pharmaceutical industry in its recommendations about how countries should respond.

Natural News
June 09, 2010
by: David Gutierrez, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Sales of alternative medical products are on the rise in spite of -- and perhaps in part because of -- tough economic times.

According to a study reported in The Daily Mail, the British alternative medicines market has grown by 18 percent in the past two years, to a yearly value of £213 million ($333 million). This value is expected to rise to £282million, or another 33 percent, in the next four years. This increase has been seen across the board, even in less well-known treatments such as traditional Indian ayurvedic medicine.

In the United States, retail sales of vitamins and supplements totaled almost $639 million between October and December 2009, a nearly 10 percent increase from the same period in 2007. Sales of herbal supplements have increased 6 percent. The true scale might even be higher, as the figures do not include sales from Wal-Mart or club stores, where people are more likely to turn when there budgets become more restricted.

Age of Autism
June 08, 2010

North Hollywood, California, June 2, 2010 -- If the FDA, the AMA, and the CDC are not to going to ask this question - then TruthAboutGardasil.org (TAG) will keep asking until the families of the injured girls have the answers, the medical attention and vaccine injury compensation they deserve.

On May 11, 2010, an interview with TruthAboutGardasil.org co-founder Rosemary Mathis was aired on NBC affiliate WXII12 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The expose titled: Mom Blames Teen's Illness on HPV Vaccine, (HERE) has been read and the video viewed by thousands of people globally. What was unexpected was the high number of comments from mothers whose daughters have been injured by the vaccines.

Natural News
June 5, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) A stunning new report reveals that top scientists who convinced the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare H1N1 a global pandemic held close financial ties to the drug companies that profited from the sale of those vaccines. This report, published in the British Medical Journal, exposes the hidden ties that drove WHO to declare a pandemic, resulting in billions of dollars in profits for vaccine manufacturers.

Several key advisors who urged WHO to declare a pandemic received direct financial compensation from the very same vaccine manufacturers who received a windfall of profits from the pandemic announcement. During all this, WHO refused to disclose any conflicts of interests between its top advisors and the drug companies who would financially benefit from its decisions.

All the kickbacks, in other words, were swept under the table and kept silent, and WHO somehow didn't think it was important to let the world know that it was receiving policy advice from individuals who stood to make millions of dollars when a pandemic was declared.

(NaturalNews) In the midst of runaway economic problem in Greece, the pharmaceutical industry has decided to blackmail the nation and halt shipments of medicines to Greece until it agrees to pay full price for the drugs. In order to cut costs during its severe debt crisis, Greece had announced it would pay drug companies 25 percent less for their products, but this loss of profit was enough to convince several pharmaceutical companies supplying key drugs to the country to initiate their own medical blockade where they simply refuse to deliver any more medicines.

In doing this, Big Pharma shows its true character. When the profits are flowing and the companies are raking in full-price profits, they're you're best friend. But when budgets get tight and everybody is asked to take a cut, Big Pharma betrays your country and its citizens, withholding medicines in a thinly-veiled blackmail attempt to force you to cough up more cash.

Natural News

April 30, 2010

by David Gutierrez, staff writer

(NaturalNews) The World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued a fact sheet warning about the corruption and unethical practices that are endemic to every step of the pharmaceuticals business.

"Corruption in the pharmaceutical sector occurs throughout all stages of the medicine chain, from research and development to dispensing and promotion," the fact sheet reads.

The medicine chain refers to each step involved in getting drugs into the hands of patients, including drug creation, regulation, management and consumption. According to WHO data, unethical practices such as bribery, falsification of evidence, and mismanagement of conflicts of interest are "common throughout the medicine chain."

The fact sheet also highlights other forms of corruption specific to particular steps in the chain. For example, clinical trials may be conducted without proper regulatory approval, royalties may be collected through manipulation or disregard of the patent system, and products may be registered with incorrect or insufficient information. Drugs may be produced through substandard or counterfeit methods, leading to products that are less effective at best, and hazardous at worst. Corruption can also occur during the drug inspection process, allowing such shoddy products to be given a government seal of approval.

St. Louis Business Journal
April 23, 2010 | Modified: Sunday, April 25, 2010, 6:00am CDT
St. Louis Business Journal - by Evan Binns

Dr. Robert Belshe traveled throughout rural Missouri and Illinois last year to discuss flu vaccines during the H1N1 scare. Drug companies Merck & Co. Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline helped pick up the tab.

Belshe, head of Saint Louis University’s Center for Vaccine Development, spoke at more than 20 educational forums on behalf of the drug companies, and he was paid roughly $18,000 in speaker’s fees and travel expenses, according to the companies’ financial disclosures.

“Companies come to me because I have a deep background in vaccines and because of my training,” Belshe said. “And if I’m available, they compensate me for that.”

The One Click group

The Economic Times

April, 23, 2010

Nearly 2,000 doctors named for taking pharma firms' gifts

NEW DELHI: Nearly 2,000 doctors have violated professional ethics by receiving gifts, hospitality, or monetary grants from pharmaceutical companies in the last three years, according to the Medical Council of India (MCI), parliament was informed Friday.

"The Medical Council of India has informed that out of a total of 1,992 complaints received against doctors during the last three years and the current year, 31 doctors have either been warned or their names temporarily removed from the Indian Medical Register," Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told the Lok Sabha on Friday.

theoneclickgroup  

Pharmalot

April 21st, 2010

FDA Warns Pfizer Over Geodon Trial Overdosing

By Ed Silverman

The drugmaker was cited for failing to properly monitor pediatric clinical trials in which at least 13 children with bipolar disorder experienced overdosing that led to restless legs, tremors, involuntary facial movements and skin petechiae, which results from bleeding under the skin. The FDA cited Pfizer in an April 9 warning letter that noted the problem was originally found during FDA reviews in 2005.

The FDA wrote that "Pfizer failed to properly ensure monitoring of the study referenced above. As a result of inadequate monitoring, widespread overdosing of study subjects at multiple study sites was neither detected nor corrected in a timely manner," according to the letter.

OpEdNews
April 15, 2010
By Martha Rosenberg

Last month, the New York Times reported that researchers were "puzzled" by the role of bisphosphonate osteoporosis drugs like Fosamax in "rare thighbone fractures."

Patients, on the other hand, are neither puzzled nor do they believe the fractures are rare.

"I broke the left femur (shattered it 2 times in 2006 and 2007)," while on Fosamax writes a 72-year-old patient this week on askapatient.com. "I now walk with a walker and the Dr. says it can never be repaired."

"I twisted my left leg while shopping & broke left femur in two places, requiring surgery, pins and a rod," wrote a 61-year-old patient on the site after taking Fosamax for 13 years. "Then in 2/08 I jarred same side foot coming off a step & developed a stress fracture that won't heal. I now have a stress fracture on the right side femur after walking on the beach."

"After six years of taking Fosamax, I slipped in ice in my driveway and broke my femur (thigh bone). Two years later, still taking Fosamax, I fell in the snow and my other femur snapped before I hit the ground," wrote another woman.

"I did nothing really physical except water therapy, yet I have a break" in the 3rd lumbar vertebrae posts a 67-year-old patient who had been taking Fosamax for 14 months.

AlterNet / By Martha Rosenberg

Sleep sweating? Here are some new ways the pharmaceutical plans to make money.

April 16, 2010 | Since direct-to-consumer drug advertising debuted in 1997, pharma's credo has been When The Medication Is Ready, The Disease (and Patients) Will Appear. Who knew so many people suffered from restless legs?

But pharma's recent plan to move from mass-market molecules into more lucrative vaccines and biologics did not see the anti-vaxer movement coming: millions of Americans saying You Want to Vaccinate Me -- and My Child -- with WHAT?? and condemning vials of H1N1, rotavirus and MMR vaccines to sit, well, way past their expiration dates. Nor were fears of an international vaccine conspiracy helped by former CDC Director Julie Gerberding resurfacing as President of Merck Vaccines in December. (Nice revolving door if you can catch it.)

The One Click Group

April 03, 2010
Scientist `deceived' by drugs giant
By Richard Guilliatt

A LEADING Australian medical researcher says the pharmaceutical giant Wyeth duped him into publishing a scientific paper that became part of the company's clandestine campaign to play down the dangers of its drugs for menopausal women.

John Eden, an associate professor at the University of NSW and director of the Sydney Menopause Centre, says he has been shocked to learn that a paper he published in the prestigious American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology was one of more than 40 scientific articles Wyeth orchestrated to try to increase sales of its lucrative hormone-replacement drugs.

Washington Examiner

By: Barbara Hollingsworth

Local Opinion Editor

March 30, 2010

Cervical cancer accounts for less than 1 percent of all cancer deaths, so it was somewhat surprising when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked approval of Gardasil, a Merck vaccine targeting the human papilloma virus that causes the disease, in 2006.

As of Jan. 31, 2010, 49 unexplained deaths following Gardasil injections have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (http://vaers.hhs.gov/index). By contrast, 52 deaths are attributed to unintended acceleration in Toyotas, which triggered a $2 billion recall.

No recall for Gardasil, which is required for sixth-grade girls in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and many other states. Parents can opt out, but few know the true risks.

Hägersten 3/29/2010 07:31 PM GMT (TransWorldNews)

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued the pharmaceutical company Forest Labs about the marketing of the antidepressant Celexa for use by children. It’s an affair about bribery, illegal marketing and cover-up of a drug trial with negative results. The company has set aside $170 million to settle the civil aspects of the matter with the government. That does not cover the potential criminal law violations. What has not been told is the important role played by the renowned European Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Anne-Liis von Knorring in this affair. She not only helped the company to cover up the bad results of her clinical trial of Celexa, she also actively misled doctors and the public about it.

Read the full story on http://jannel.se/celexa-cover-up.pdf

Janne Larsson
Reporter - investigating psychiatry
Sweden

Sott.net
Ethan Huff
NaturalNews
March 27, 2010

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) is reporting that a Miami psychiatrist has prescribed nearly 14 million pills to Medicaid patients since 2004. According to the report, Fernando Mendez-Villamil wrote about 285,000 prescriptions in just six years with a total taxpayer cost of $43 million.

The astounding find is part of an investigation into the legitimacy of Mendez-Villamil's practice; after all, the numbers suggest that he would have had to prescribe about 4,000 prescriptions a month, or 1,000 a week, in order to achieve the large total.

Mendez-Villamil is already recognized as the most profuse drug prescriber in the state of Florida. Prior to the state's implementation of new computer tracking protocols around 2007, Mendez-Villamil's prescription rate was at its highest; after those measures began taking effect, his prescription rate slowed by almost 33 percent.

The One Click Group

One Click Note: Congratulations and thanks are due to Labour's Paul Flynn MP, working for the best interests of British voters.

**********

guardian.co.uk
28 March 2010

WHO accused of losing public confidence over flu pandemic

Loss of credibility could endanger lives, says vice chair of Council of Europe's health committee

By Sarah Boseley

Incompetent Swine Flu Drug Dealers Flying Pigs Club UK, from left:
Andrew Burnham MP - Health Secretary of State
Fear Marketeer Sir Liam Donaldson - Chief Medical Officer (soon to be ex)
'Vaccines Basil, Professor David Salisbury - UK Government Vaccines Director
Gillian Merron MP - Parliamentary vaccines propagandist
(Caption & Pic Courtesy Of One Click)

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

March 28, 2010

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has been ordered to pay $142 million US in damages for fraudulently marketing gabapentin, an anti-seizure drug marketed under the name Neurontin.

A federal jury in Boston ruled Thursday that Pfizer fraudulently marketed the drug and promoted it for unapproved uses. The jury sided with California-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, the first to try a gabapentin case against Pfizer.

The one click group

Reuters

March 22, 2010

Saudi Arabia suspends Glaxo diabetes drug Avandia

By Ben Hirschler

* Saudi move first of its kind, after controversy over drug

* Six-month suspension gives Glaxo chance to put its case

LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has suspended GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK.L) diabetes drug Avandia for six months, arguing that potential heart risks outweigh its benefits.

The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) was the first healthcare regulator to take such action. Its decision means detailing and advertising of Avandia is banned and patients on Avandia will be referred to their doctor for consultation. The SFDA said on its website it was concerned about the safety of Avandia, or rosiglitazone, based on growing evidence from clinical studies indicating serious cardiovascular risks. (link.reuters.com/zab74j)

Natural News

March 17, 2010

by: David Gutierrez, staff writer

(NaturalNews) A Philadelphia jury has found drug giant Pfizer Inc. guilty of deliberately ignoring evidence that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drug Prempro increased women's risk of breast cancer, ordering it to pay unspecified damages to defendant Connie Barton.

Millions of women used Prempro and other HRT drugs up until 2002, when the groundbreaking Women's Health Initiative study found that taking the drugs significantly increased women's risk of breast cancer and death from cardiovascular disease. The risk was so striking that researchers called an early halt to the study out of concern for participants' lives. The drugs were -- and still are -- marketed to relieve the symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, mood swings and night sweats.

More recent research suggests that HRT drugs also increase women's risk of dying from lung cancer.

The Michigan Messenger

March 16, 2010

State denies transparency on H1N1 spending

By Todd A. Heywood

MDCH invokes terrorism to refuse FOIA request

LANSING — The state of Michigan passed out millions of dollars in federal funds to private and public groups during the H1N1 crisis in 2009, but where that money actually went appears to be a closely guarded secret.

A Michigan Messenger investigation has found that the state used much of the $42 million from the federal government to fund activities at various health agencies, hospitals, clinics and pharmacies, but the Michigan Department of Community Health refuses to release the identities of those organizations receiving money — and they base that refusal on Michigan’s anti-terrorism laws.

OpEdNews

March 4, 2010

By Evelyn Pringle

A month before the first Paxil birth defect trial against GlaxoSmithKline was set to begin, the Associated Press ran the headline, "Glaxo Used Ghostwriting Program to Promote Paxil," in reporting on a program called "CASPPER," which allowed doctors to "take credit for medical journal articles mainly written by company consultants."

"Drug companies frequently hire outside firms to draft a manuscript touting a company's drug, retain a physician to sign off as the author and then find a publisher to unwittingly publish the work," the Associated Press said on August 19, 2009. "Drug company salespeople often present medical journal articles to physicians as independent proof that their drugs are safe and effective."

www.opednews.com
July 15, 2009
by Allen L Roland

During the great Swine Flu scare of 1976 ~ 46 million Americans took the vaccine and 4000 ended up seeking damages which amounted to 3.5 Billion dollars. Most of the problems were neurological and death. Mike Wallace nailed the Center for Disease Control official in a 60 Minutes interview that was only shown once and is eerily similar to the current Swine Flu scare : Allen L Roland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ~ Recently saying the new H1N1 ( Swine Flu ) virus is "unstoppable", the World Health Organization ( WHO ) gave drug makers a full go-ahead to manufacture vaccines against the pandemic influenza strain on Monday and said healthcare workers should be the first to get one.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the federal government is committing more than $800 million to buy more of the two key ingredients to make the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

Alternet
Dara Colwell
March 27, 2009

While Uncle Sam's scramble for new revenue sources has recently kicked up the marijuana debate -- to legalize and tax, or not? -- hemp's feasibility as a stimulus plan has received less airtime.

But with a North American market that exceeds $300 million in annual retail sales and continued rising demand, industrial hemp could generate thousands of sustainable new jobs, helping America to get back on track.

"We're in the midst of a dark economic transition, but I believe hemp is an important facet and has tremendous economic potential," says Patrick Goggin, a board member on the California Council for Vote Hemp, the nation's leading industrial hemp-farming advocacy group. "Economically and environmentally, industrial hemp is an important part of the sustainability pie."

With 25,000 known applications from paper, clothing and food products -- which, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal this January, is the fastest growing new food category in North America -- to construction and automotive materials, hemp could be just the crop to jump-start America's green economy.

Washington Post
Shankar Vedantam
March 18, 2009

The study would come to be called "cursed," but it started out just as Study 15.

It was a long-term trial of the antipsychotic drug Seroquel. The common wisdom in psychiatric circles was that newer drugs were far better than older drugs, but Study 15's results suggested otherwise.

As a result, newly unearthed documents show, Study 15 suffered the same fate as many industry-sponsored trials that yield data drugmakers don't like: It got buried. It took eight years before a taxpayer-funded study rediscovered what Study 15 had found -- and raised serious concerns about an entire new class of expensive drugs.

Study 15 was silenced in 1997, the same year Seroquel was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat schizophrenia. The drug went on to be prescribed to hundreds of thousands of patients around the world and has earned billions for London-based AstraZeneca International-- including nearly $12 billion in the past three years.

Crimes against humanity and nature have been committed and hidden on the back pages of newspapers around the world. The Monsanto Corporation, with the help of corporation-friendly judiciaries around the world, has been systematically aiming for complete agricultural hegemony through abusive litigation, aggressive lobbying and questionable patent law interpretation.

In case you don't know who Monsanto is, they were founded in 1901 and helped introduce caffeine into Coca-Cola. Not too bad for the average college student, but their major spring board into becoming one of the top 10 chemical producers in the United States was the manufacture of DDT, which was a major cause in endangering the bald eagle, and Agent Orange, which was used in Vietnam and whose effects on both American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians are so notorious.

Monsanto is listed as being a "potentially responsible party" for 56 EPA "Superfund" sites, where there is a high risk of danger to human life due to toxic waste contamination, and that's just in the United States alone.

WDDTY
12 March 2009

A large consignment of seasonal flu vaccine, which was due to be circulated to 18 European countries, has been infected with deadly live avian flu virus. Had the contamination not been detected, the vaccines may have started an avian flu pandemic, killing hundreds of thousands of people.

The World Health Organization is carrying out investigations at the Austrian research facility of Baxter International, the pharmaceutical company, where the contamination happened. Baxter has confirmed that the consignment contained live H5N1 virus, which causes avian flu.

A researcher in the Czech Republic discovered the lethal contamination when laboratory ferrets that he had injected with the H3N2 flu vaccine suddenly died. The H5N1 virus becomes lethal as an injection only when it is mixed with H3N2, a process known as reassortment.

The WHO investigation team says it doesn’t have evidence to suggest that Baxter had deliberately reassorted the two viruses, but “what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the Baxter facility,” a WHO official said.

NewsWithViews.com
By Byron J. Richards, CCN
March 6, 2009

In a stunning and unexpected 6-3 ruling the right-leaning Supreme Court went against the wishes of the last president, took the wind out of the sails of health care reform of the current president, sent irresponsible Big Pharma a major wake up call, and bluntly told the arrogant FDA that they are indeed not above the rule of law. It is a major victory for every American citizen.

Central to the issue is a power struggle between the federal government and states, which in this situation meant the federal government authority to pre-empt your state rights to sue if you are injured by a drug. The FDA, acting on behalf of the Bush administration and on the side of Big Pharma, has helped tie up thousands of drug injury lawsuits across the country. The FDA, who is supposed to be protecting consumers from drug injury and ensuring a correct risk/safety picture for any person taking a drug, was instead trying to shirk their responsibility and simply claim that Americans had no right to sue.

The New York Times
By GARDINER HARRIS
March 4, 2009

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials and prosecutors, frustrated that they have been unable to stop illegal kickbacks to doctors from drug and device companies, are investigating doctors who take money for using these products.

For years, prosecutors rarely pursued doctors because they believed that juries would sympathize with respected clinicians. But within a few months, officials plan to file civil and criminal charges against a number of surgeons who they say demanded profitable consulting agreements from device makers in exchange for using their products.

“What we need to do is make examples of a couple of doctors so that their colleagues see that this isn’t worth it,” said Lewis Morris, chief counsel to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. “We want to send the message to the physician community — particularly surgeons — that you can’t do this.”

The move against doctors is part of a diverse campaign to curb industry marketing tactics that enrich doctors but increase health care costs and sometimes endanger patients. Taken together, the new measures are likely to transform the relationship between medicine and industry.

By Martha Rosenberg, AlterNet
February 28, 2009

Pfizer is planting fake medical articles and issuing unbranded "PSAs" to push pills? Again? Say it ain't so.

Even as new reports surface about alleged fake medical articles Pfizer planted to sell seizure drug Neurontin for unapproved uses from 1995 to 2002, it looks like deja vu all over again.

Pfizer gave nonprofits $2.1 million in grants in 2008 for medical courses about the pain-and-fatigue ailment fibromyalgia for which its Neurontin follow-up pill, Lyrica, just happens to be approved.

Lyrica (pregablin), facetiously called Son of Neurontin at Pfizer, was discovered by Northwestern University chemist Richard Silverman in 1989, earning the university a cool $700 million when it sold royalties in late 2007.

It is funding the $100 million Richard and Barbara Silverman Hall for Molecular Therapeutics & Diagnostics, under construction now, which will employ 245 faculty, staff and research assistants and hopefully lead to other promising molecules.

Like Neurontin (gabapentin), Lyrica (Pregablin) is an antiepilepsy drug (AED) that modulates calcium channels to dampen the excitability of nerve endings and seizure activity. And, like Neurontin which made $3 billion a year from unapproved uses like bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder and restless legs syndrome, Pfizer has high hopes for its "crossover appeal."

AlterNet
By Martha Rosenberg, AlterNet
February 17, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/127393/

Many are outraged that Eli Lilly gave nonprofits $3.9 million in grants last year for medical courses to "educate" doctors about the pain-and-fatigue ailment fibromyalgia--more than it spent for diabetes and Alzheimer's which people already know they have.

But finding new diseases to justify a drug's existence is the normal way pharma operates.

Especially Lilly who agreed to pay $1.42 billion for illegal marketing of its anti-psychotic Zyprexa last month--$615 million for criminally promoting it for dementia--another $62 million to 32 states for illegal pediatric marketing and agreed to resolve Medicaid fraud investigations into "rebates" at the same time. (And how was your year?)

And whose diabetes treatment Byetta is tanking since reports last summer of six deaths, at least two from pancreatitis.

Planet Chiropractic News
June 9, 2008
By Michael Dorausch, DC

Call it a psycho conflict of interest affecting the health and lives of thousands of children, an Iowa senator has discovered 3 Harvard researchers earned millions of dollars in consulting fees from drug companies, for performing research and evangelizing antipsychotic drug use in children.

Charles Ernest "Chuck" Grassley, a senior United States Senator from Iowa, launched a congressional investigation to determine whether research psychiatrists were receiving drug money payments and failing to disclose that information to the federal government and university departments.

According to congressional investigators, researchers failed to report millions of dollars in income earned while consulting for various drug companies. According to news reports, these were well-known child psychiatrists practicing research out of Harvard University. Among the research doctors were psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Biederman, of the psychiatry department at Harvard Medical School. Investigators believe the three psychiatrists may have violated federal rules created to vet out potential conflicts of interest in pharmaceutical research, some of which is financed by government grants.

AlterNet
By Scott Thill
February 14, 2008

The media pounced on his admitted love of weed and coke but did little to investigate the prescription drugs that did him in.

"This would have never happened with weed."

I made that declaration for back in May 2007, when Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma pled guilty to criminal charges of misleading customers about the lethality of their product, promising to pay $600-plus million and be real good people going forward. But with the accidental overdose of Heath Ledger, the first sentence of this article is proving to be a tag line with serious staying power.

Last year was the latest in a series of banner years for Oxycontin, which kicked heroin and cocaine to the metaphorical curb to become one of the most popularly abused substances of the 21st century. Of course, it has been joined by painkillers like Vicodin, sleeping pills like Restoril, anti-anxiety poppers like Valium and Xanax, and even antihistamines like Unisom, all of which were found in Ledger's system during his autopsy. The official verdict, sent in written form by medical examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove, avoided marketing buzzwords in favor of designations more scientific, which is to say obscure: "Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine. We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications."

What's in a name, you ask? Oblivion. Wait until you hear the numbers.

OpEdNews
January 23, 2008
By F. William Engdahl
Global Research
December 4, 2007

One thing Microsoft founder Bill Gates can't be accused of is sloth. He was already programming at 14, founded Microsoft at age 20 while still a student at Harvard. By 1995 he had been listed by Forbes as the world's richest man from being the largest shareholder in his Microsoft, a company which his relentless drive built into a de facto monopoly in software systems for personal computers.

In 2006 when most people in such a situation might think of retiring to a quiet Pacific island, Bill Gates decided to devote his energies to his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest 'transparent' private foundation as it says, with a whopping $34.6 billion endowment and a legal necessity to spend $1.5 billion a year on charitable projects around the world to maintain its tax free charitable status. A gift from friend and business associate, mega-investor Warren Buffett in 2006, of some $30 billion worth of shares in Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway put the Gates' foundation into the league where it spends almost the amount of the entire annual budget of the United Nations' World Health Organization.

Global Research
December 4, 2007
By F. William Engdahl

One thing Microsoft founder Bill Gates can’t be accused of is sloth. He was already programming at 14, founded Microsoft at age 20 while still a student at Harvard. By 1995 he had been listed by Forbes as the world’s richest man from being the largest shareholder in his Microsoft, a company which his relentless drive built into a de facto monopoly in software systems for personal computers.

By Byron J. Richards, CCN
April 5, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

Americans are up in arms that our pets are being injured and killed by a toxin sent to America by a Chinese company. Melamine, a toxic fertilizer used in China, is the suspected culprit behind the deaths and injuries to potentially hundreds of thousands of our pets. The FDA assures us that this toxin has not entered the human food supply – does anyone believe in the competence of the FDA? It is only a matter of time before this type of problem happens to humans, as the inept FDA has no control over imported food intended for humans, let alone pets.

Melamine was used to help grow wheat, a practice that is legal in China and illegal in the U.S. This poison ended up in wheat gluten used as a protein source and thickening agent in pet food. Why were all these pet food companies, many claiming to be producers of fine quality pet food, buying wheat gluten from China when the U.S. is one of the top producers of wheat in the world? These companies sacrificed the health of your pet to make a profit, buying the cheapest source of wheat gluten they could find. This is the new way of the global economy, find the cheapest price and forget about health implications.

NewsTarget.com
April 4 2006
By Mike Adams

This is an article about the disease economy. That's a term I coined because I could find no other existing term to describe what I'm observing in our economy today. I call it the disease economy because such a huge percentage of the economic activity and economic growth I see in this country is based on the manufacturing, marketing and selling of products and services based on disease. That is, products and services that either cause diseases or "treat" those diseases.

A Justice of the peace in the southern Italian town Lecce has decided that the Italian Central Bank's practice to retain the seignorage on paper money for its own profit is illegal and that the money should be turned over to its rightful owners - the citizens of Italy. The amount in question is a total of 5 billion Euro for Italian Lira paper-money issued in the time period from 1996 to 2003. After 2003, the issue of paper money became part of the European Central Bank's mandate. Seignorage is the difference between the cost of producing banknotes and the nominal value of the notes.

The legal case was sustained by the Italian consumers association ADUSBEF, which deals especially with consumer implications of banking, financial and postal services as well as insurances. Elio Lannutti, the president of the association says that while the case is for one individual only, it opens a way for restitution of all the money illegally put into its own coffers by the Italian Central Bank, which is owned by Italian commercial banks. Lannutti says "we would like the money to go to the victims of financial cracks" adding that the government fund for that purpose is woefully lacking behind.

Drug Companies Wooing GOP Pols at RNC
Wednesday September 1, 2004 11:46 AM
By SHARON THEIMER
Associated Press Writer
Source: The Guardian

NEW YORK (AP) - The pharmaceutical industry, fighting to defeat proposals that would give U.S. patients easier access to cheaper Canadian drugs, is making the most of its chance for face time with lawmakers at the GOP convention.

Drug companies are well-represented on the social calendar in New York with events large and small.

They include an afternoon tea with New York state first lady Libby Pataki, sponsored by AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals; a nomination-night party for top members of President Bush's re-election team, co-sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb; and a breast-cancer awareness luncheon funded by Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

Pfizer is one of the most active drug makers. Its events include a supper for the Colorado delegation at Tavern on the Green and an evening reception at the landmark Rainbow Room in honor of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

What are the Main Problems with the Present Money System?

Richard Douthwaite
18th January 2003
Source: Global Public Media

Most people don't realize that we are using a particular sort of money at the moment. We are using a debt-based money. That is, virtually all free money that is used in industrialized countries at the moment only exists because somebody has borrowed it. So, for example, if you have paid off all your debts, you don't owe anything on your house or your car, you don't owe anything to the bank and you've got a positive bank balance, then you have money because someone somewhere has borrowed that money and he's paying interest on it.

The Italian Daily La Repubblica carried an article on 17 December which announces an officially sanctioned experiment with a local currency - the Eco-Aspromonte - intended to lift the economic fortunes of one of the most economically depressed areas of the Italian South, the Aspromonte region.

Usury-free community currencies have been the subject of discussion of the recent International Seminar About Financial Responsibilities and UsuryFree Community Currencies at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

We may need to expand upon this idea, if we ever are to restore balance in this world's economics.

Here is an English translation of the article:

Our current monetary system is deeply inequitable, leaving the producers of value with crumbs, while a large part of what is produced is automatically transferred to those who happen to have accumulated great piles of monetary resources.

Tommy-Usury: Free reports from the ongoing International Seminar About Financial Responsibilities and UsuryFree Community Currencies at UQAM, the University of Quebec in Montreal.

22 November 2003
In the first interim report, Tommy says Bernard Lietaer presented the concept of complementary community currencies. Litaer's prediction: "Orthodox economics will fight complementary community currencies just like conventional medicine fights the introduction of acupuncture and other alternative healing methods."

27 November 2003
A second interim report on the presentation of Molly Scott, Professor at the University of Wales, who relates of experiments with local currencies, designed to liven up the economies of villages that suffered from the closure of coal mines - their former principal source of income and economic activity.

28 November 2003
The third interim report relates the talk of Michael Linton, the software engineer who designed the original usuryfree LETS (Local Employment Trading System) software in the early 1980's. Tommy also adds his own thoughts on how to expand the local employment trading system into an internet-based world wide exchange of "hours", the currency LETS are based on.