tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20326437971966754202024-02-20T08:22:24.274-08:00ARISE (Animal Replacements Innovate Scientific Experimentation)The ARISE program, created by Animal Protection League of New Jersey, promotes non-animal research methodology, which is better science, more effective, and saves both human and non-human lives.ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-13484989711445770322014-09-07T19:59:00.000-07:002014-09-07T20:01:45.864-07:00A Blueprint for Studying Nonhuman Animals in a Post-vivisection World<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="textEdit" style="background-color: white; border-image: none; border: 1px solid rgb(236, 206, 104); margin-bottom: 5px;" styleclass=" style_QuickLinksBG style_QuickLinksBorder style_BlockMargin">
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Long time APLNJ member Cynthia Radnitz, Ph.D., wrote the following article published by the Journal of Critical Animal Studies, May 2014. We found the article very interesting and thought you would too. </div>
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Angi Metler, director<br />
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<strong>Applying the Argument from Marginal Cases to the Protection of Animal Subjects </strong><strong>in </strong><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Resea</strong></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><strong>rch: A Blueprint for Studying Nonhuman Animals in a Post-vivisection World</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Author: Cynthia Radnitz</span></div>
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Title: Pro<span style="font-size: 10pt;">fessor</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Affiliation: Fairleigh Dickinson University</span></div>
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Although experimentation on nonhuman animals for both research and product testing continues, there are some signs that we are on a trajectory toward abolition of animal model research due to the combined effects of pressure from animal activists, changing public attitudes toward animal research, improved replacement technologies for both scientific investigation and product testing, and the expense of purchasing, housing and studying animals. Nonetheless, just as we study humans, we may still be interested in studying animals using research paradigms that protect their rights. By applying the Argument from Marginal Cases to animal research guidelines, a plan is presented for shifting toward ensuring the rights of animals by affording them the same status for consideration in research studies as that given to two groups of humans classified as "vulnerable" in laws governing human subjects research, specifically young children and individuals with cognitive impairments. In doing so, we propose the idea of animal assent as an additional layer of protection so that animal research participants are adequately safeguarded.</div>
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Link to full article is <a href="http://www.criticalanimalstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/JCAS-Vol-12-Issue-2-May-20145.pdf" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: black; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" track="on">here</a>. Go to page 51.</div>
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ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-49238714501303179902012-03-12T06:08:00.000-07:002012-03-12T06:08:09.303-07:00GOOD NEWS: Research Halted at Harvard Medical School's Primate Research CenterThanks to Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! <a href="http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/">http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/</a><br />
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Full Story, with diagrams and charts: <a href="http://www.telegram.com/article/20120301/NEWS/103019866/1101/local">http://www.telegram.com/article/20120301/NEWS/103019866/1101/local</a><br />
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<b>New research halted after another monkey death at primate center in Southboro</b><br />
By Elaine Thomson, Telegram.com, Thursday, March 1, 2012<br />
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<b>SOUTHBORO</b> — Two months after a monkey died of dehydration at Harvard Medical School's New England Primate Research Center another one died Sunday of similar circumstances, bringing the total to four questionable monkey deaths at the facility since June 2010.<br />
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As a result all new research at the center has been halted. <br />
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This week's death will be part of an investigation the U.S. Department of Agriculture had already undertaken to determine what, if any, penalties will be imposed on Harvard Medical School. <br />
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“Four deaths in the last 18 months or so, that's unacceptable. They know they need to do better,” USDA spokesman David Sacks said. (The USDA) “is looking at penalty actions as a result of this, but that investigation has not been completed yet. We will continue to closely monitor them and see that they right their ship ... and get back on proper footing of giving these animals humane care, which I know is what they intend to do.” <br />
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Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier, dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard Medical School, in an email sent to the Telegram & Gazette yesterday, said new research has been stopped to allow time for personnel to create and implement a corrective action plan. <br />
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“I care deeply about this issue. The health and ethical treatment of the primates for which we are responsible are among my highest concerns. I want to assure you that the leadership of HMS will be unwavering in our commitment to providing for the welfare of these animals,” he said. <br />
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Mr. Sacks said Harvard, as with the other three deaths, self-reported the death that occurred Sunday to one of the USDA's inspectors. He said the federal Animal Welfare Act does not require research centers to report deaths partly because some animals die from natural causes and others die as a result of the research. The Animal Welfare Act, passed by Congress in 1966, requires research facilities to provide their animals with adequate care and treatment in the areas of housing, handling, sanitation, nutrition, water, veterinary care, and protection from extreme weather and temperatures. <br />
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Mr. Sacks said he is not sure of the circumstances surrounding the latest death. The Boston Globe, however, reported that a Harvard Medical School official said the elderly cotton top tamarin monkey likely died from a lack of water because it did not have a water bottle in its cage. Mr. Sacks said a USDA inspector will go to the center within the next several days. <br />
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The previous deaths occurred in June 2010, and October and December 2011. In the first incident, a monkey was found dead at the bottom of a cage washer after having gone through the washer. In October, a monkey escaped while being taken to a research procedure. It was caught, taken to the procedure and later found dead after being returned to its cage. On Dec. 26, a monkey died of dehydration after a water dispenser was not properly activated. That death was cited in a Jan. 31 USDA inspection report that also said a second monkey was dehydrated but survived. Two other non-compliances involved a monkey suffering a broken leg when the leg was caught under the drop door as it closed; and another injured its foot after it and several other monkeys were able to open the cage that was not properly secured and get outside. <br />
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Harvard Medical School said several aggressive steps and corrective measures have been put in place since last summer, including the creation of a quality control unit as a safety net, increased oversight at all levels, staff retraining, implementation of new systems and system redundancies, and MRI testing to improve monitoring and reporting. In September, a new director, interim associate director for administration and veterinary leadership were also brought on board at the research center. <br />
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Dr. Flier said the school will build upon those measures. <br />
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“I am personally marshaling all necessary resources to confront and resolve the systems, processes and human errors that appear to underlie the recent problems,” he said. <br />
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The additional corrective measures include the establishment of another oversight team of veterinary staff and supervisors who will perform additional daily rounds to verify the health and wellness of every animal at the center. The school is also assembling an independent review committee of external prominent experts to assess the primate's center's operations and to help develop a strategy to ensure similar problems don't occur. Co-reporting lines have also been established. The center's director and associate director are now required to report to senior leadership at the medical school, Dr. Flier noted. <br />
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Michael Budkie, spokesman for the Ohio-based watchdog group Stop Animal Exploitation Now, said he thinks even more needs to be done. He said the USDA should impose a fine on Harvard Medical School. He said that since 1986 when he started as an animal rights activist, he has never seen a research facility that has had as many negligent deaths of animals in such a short period of time. Harvard has received official warnings in the past, but to his knowledge, never a fine. He said that the National Institutes of Health, which provides the center with research grants, should also be involved in the investigation. <br />
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The New England Primate Research Center was established by Congress in 1962 and is one of eight regional primate centers in the country. The sprawling campus, tucked away in the woods from view of passers-by, is on 89 acres in Southboro and 42 acres in neighboring Marlboro, off Parmenter Road near Callahan State Park. According to its website, the center is a leader in primate biomedical research and has provided scientific resources and services to investigators throughout the world. <br />
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Dr. Flier said the center's mission is to eradicate disease. Key discoveries enabled by the center have contributed to the understanding of HIV/AIDS, colon cancer, sickle cell anemia, herpes virus, inflammatory bowel disease and Parkinson's disease among other disorders, he said. </div></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-32177952189676871432011-09-23T12:16:00.000-07:002011-09-23T12:16:31.035-07:00Princeton gets failing grades for treatment of animals in science research, study finds<a href="http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/09/princeton_gets_failing_grades.html">http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/09/princeton_gets_failing_grades.html</a><br />
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By <a href="http://connect.nj.com/user/BobConsidine/index.html">Bob Considine/The Star-Ledger </a><div class="clear" style="clear: both; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="box_gray_gray_ol" id="EntryStats" style="margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="entry-content" style="font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="entry_widget_large entry_widget_right" id="asset-10020043" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 380px !important;"><span class="adv-photo-large" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #f1f1f1; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; display: block; height: 345px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; max-width: 380px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><img alt="Animal-Research.JPG" class="adv-photo" height="273" original="http://media.nj.com/ledgerupdates_impact/photo/10020043-large.jpg" src="http://media.nj.com/ledgerupdates_impact/photo/10020043-large.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-width: initial; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 380px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="380" /><span class="photo-data" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: initial; display: block; font-size: 10px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px;"><span class="byline" style="display: block; float: right; line-height: 1.35em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: right; width: 220px;">Star-Ledger file photo</span><span class="caption" style="clear: both; display: block; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 3px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Two monkeys, which are part of a controlled experiment, play in their cage at the Huntingdon Life Sciences research lab in Somerset County in this file photo from April 2001.</span></span><span class="photo-bottom-left" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #f1f1f1; background-image: url(http://media.nj.com/design/baseline/img/corners.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: -28px -7px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 7px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: -7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 7px;"></span><span class="photo-bottom-right" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #f1f1f1; background-image: url(http://media.nj.com/design/baseline/img/corners.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: -35px -7px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: right; height: 7px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: -7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 7px;"></span></span></div><a href="http://www.nj.com/princeton" style="color: #305cb6; cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">PRINCETON</a> — Princeton University is receiving failing grades from a medical research group for its treatment of animals used by the school for scientific study.<div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a non-profit group that promotes animal rights and vegan diets, ranks Princeton as second worst among the eight Ivy League schools in adhering to minimal standards of the Animal Welfare Act.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">One of the school’s greatest offenses, the group says, is "a pattern of deliberate, excessive water restriction in primates" beyond the guidelines set in Animal Welfare Act — some of which resulted in a warning from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, earlier this year.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">"In this study, Princeton is an example of how much disregard there is for the Animal Welfare Act," said John Pippin, a cardiologist, director of academic affairs for the research group and author of the study, scheduled to be released Wednesday morning. "It’s also an example of and how little its university regulatory body really cares about saying to its own researchers, ‘You know, you really can’t do this.’"</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">The study, based on animal facility inspection reports by APHIS from January 2008 to July 2011, applied a score relative to violations, repeat violations and National Institutes of Health grant money.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">Princeton and Yale universities tied for second-worst with a score of 49, a distance from the worst-ranked school, the University of Pennsylvania, which received a score of 120. Harvard (48), Cornell (38) and Brown (35) and Dartmouth (33) finished with lower scores — meaning higher grades — than Princeton. Columbia University (25) yielded the best results.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">Princeton spokesman Martin Mbugua, said the university’s research methods meet approved protocols.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">"It’s unfortunate that some groups make efforts to influence the public’s understanding about beneficial research by taking the approach of this report," he said.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">Mbugua said all research involving animals is reviewed and approved by Princeton’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, including the use of water scheduling as a research protocol.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">In its report, the medical research group said "non-human primates were routinely forced to go more than 24 hours without water." But Mbugua said the report is misleading in its wording.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">During an APHIS inspection in late January, water was found to have been removed from two cages and not returned until over 24 hours later. Mbugua said this was an isolated incident caused by an "unanticipated delay" due to a miscommunication. Measures were put in place to avoid such miscommunication again, he said.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">In an inspection report, the USDA also admonished the school for not providing proper veterinary care for a pregnant marmoset that was in distress in March. The agency said the attending veterinarian was not informed of the marmoset’s condition.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">In response, Mbugua said "to have a veterinarian attend the birth is not common and is not a requirement," as marmosets sometimes deliver in the middle of the night, just as they do in the wild. But he also said a formal process has been implemented so an attending veterinarian is always notified of impending births.</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">APHIS sent the school an official warning of Violation of Federal Regulations in May, which could have resulted in fines. Mbugua said in an inspection on June 7, APHIS concluded the school had "taken corrective actions and all of the non-compliant items that were identified have either been corrected or corrective actions are in progress."</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;">Pippin, however, said warnings of fines are rare in APHIS correspondences with animal study programs at universities and the response to their criticism are "not just a sign of disrespect, but of arrogance."</div><div style="line-height: 1.55em; padding-bottom: 17px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px;"><em style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Star-Ledger staff writer Kelly Heyboer contributed to this report.</em></div></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-60394478196994165982011-04-05T07:45:00.000-07:002011-04-05T07:47:06.275-07:00Follow-up on Vivisection DebateDoris Lin attended the debate and wrote about it on her about.com Animal Rights blog, "<strong>Conversation with a Vivisector.</strong>" Professor Ringach started another debate with her. Read the comments, after the article. <br />
<a href="http://animalrights.about.com/b/2011/03/10/conversation-with-a-vivisector.htm">http://animalrights.about.com/b/2011/03/10/conversation-with-a-vivisector.htm</a><br />
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An attorney, Doris also holds a degree in Applied Biological Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-79598565016654391912011-03-25T13:40:00.000-07:002011-03-25T13:43:56.619-07:00Top 20 Most Painful Animal Labs<span style="font-family: inherit;">Michael Budkie, of Stop Animal Exploitation NOW, released a report on the top most painful labs in the United States. See the full report below. </span><a href="http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/articles-20110208-unrelievedpain.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/articles-20110208-unrelievedpain.html</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What can you do?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week is April 16th - 24th. Learn all you can and please get involved.</span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://all-creatures.org/wlalw/index.html">http://all-creatures.org/wlalw/index.html</a></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-30345327159498300482011-02-25T08:30:00.000-08:002011-02-25T08:34:25.785-08:00Vivisection Debate at Rutgers University - March 8 2011Gary Francione is debating vivisection at Rutgers on March 8, and it's open to the public:<br />
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<a href="http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/debate-the-use-of-nonhuman-animals-in-biomedical-research-a-moral-justification/">www.abolitionistapproach.com/debate-the-use-of-nonhuman-animals-in-biomedical-research-a-moral-justification/</a><br />
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The topic: <em>The Use of Nonhuman Animals in Biomedical Research: A Moral Justification?</em><br />
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Professor Ringach will argue that we are justified in using animals in experiments; I will argue that we cannot justify animal use in this or in any other context.<br />
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The debate will take place in the Baker Trial Courtroom at Rutgers University School of Law, 123 Washington Street, Newark, New Jersey, from 6-8 p.m. Vegan refreshments will be served following the debate, which will be videotaped and made available here and on Professor Ringach’s site. <br />
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The debate will be sponsored by the Student Bar Association, the American Constitutional Society, and the Federalist Society. The debate will be moderated by John J. Farmer, Jr., Dean and Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law-Newark. Dean Farmer served as Attorney General of the State of New Jersey and as General Counsel of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (commonly known as the 9/11 Commission).ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-33087736371596690062010-10-07T07:50:00.000-07:002010-10-10T17:09:56.231-07:00Let's End Vivisection in New Jersey<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael Budkie, exec director of Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN) gave a brilliant presentation at the Community Church of Keyport on October 5th as part of their "Life in the Lab: Hidden Truth about Animal Experiments" speaking tour.<span style="color: #c71f3d;"> See more on the tour: </span><a href="http://all-creatures.org/saen/event-eastern-tour-2010.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://all-creatures.org/saen/event-eastern-tour-2010.html</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael captivated the audience as he spoke about the types of experiments performed on animals, the funding sources, the waste, fraud, and abuse. He explained not only how vivisection harms animals, but how it translates to an incalculable cost to humans as well.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One example is how government spends about $50-60 million each year on addicting animals to drugs, which yields nothing useful to human drug addicts. Imagine how many addicts could be helped if that same $50-60 million were available to them in the form of resources, medical care, educational materials, drug rehab, etc.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael talked about how everyone can get more involved in this issue. You don't need to be a scientist to understand some basic principles. Human physiology is quite different from other species.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Laurie, who attend the presentation wrote the following:</span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Just when you think you know what is going on behind closed doors, trust me, you do not have a clue. The amount of cruelty and neglect is incredible. Ultimately for no reason other than to make money. Michael indicated that researchers on one hand claim that non-humane primates are just like us, therefore justifying the research. Yet on the other hand they say that non-humane primates are not like us, and do not feel pain or distress, justifying the agonizing experiments. Total contradiction!!!!! After sitting and listening to this unbelievable speaker you realize that non-humane primates are just like us when it comes to pain and suffering (whether mental or physical), and yet are not like us since they do not share the same physiological makeup , therefore, rendering experiments virtually useless. So much more was discussed, and so much more must be said on this subject. If you feel as I do that this must be stopped, I am asking everyone to get involved because we can make a difference."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Laurie is right. Making the commitment to get more involved is the first step to ending these atrocities. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1. Please visit our website to learn more about the basics and how vivisection has delayed advancements in the top disease categories: <a href="http://askuswhy.com/home.htm"><span style="color: blue;">http://askuswhy.com/home.htm</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2. Learn more about the issues. Michael's website has a wealth of information, links, resources, reports, etc. Please visit: <a href="http://all-creatures.org/saen/">http://all-creatures.org/saen/</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3. Read the reports online about experiments taking place near you:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://all-creatures.org/saen/res.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://all-creatures.org/saen/res.html</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4. Take information from the reports and send to the media. Here's a list of NJ media: <a href="http://www.usnpl.com/njnews.php"><span style="color: blue;">www.usnpl.com/njnews.php</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. There is no doubt that this information is painful to read, but in addition to being upset, we urge you to take action. Protest, rally, and educate everyone else you know:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">National Primate Liberation Week</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(October 16th - October 24th, 2010</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Please join Friends of Animals United New Jersey (<a href="http://www.faunnj.org/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.faunnj.org/</span></a>) and Animal Protection League of New Jersey (<a href="http://www.aplnj.org/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.aplnj.org/</span></a>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Friday, October 22nd, 2010 (Note: It's important to leaflet when they are present.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Where:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> UMDNJ Medical/Dental School, 185 S Orange Avenue, Newark, NJ 07101</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><div><span style="color: red;"><strong>**IMPORTANT PARKING UPDATE!!!!**</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PLEASE DO NOT park in the PathMark parking lot on Bergen St, across from the UMDNJ! We've learned that from 8am to 4pm on weekdays, this parking lot is monitored by PathMark employees, vigilant for people parking there and then walking across to the UMDNJ. Activists parking there and walking across Bergen St to join the protest MAY BE ticketed/towed at the owner's expense! </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">THERE IS, however, metered and unmetered parking all along this section of Bergen St, close to where it intersects w/ S. Orange Ave. On this part of Bergen St, there is also a Rite Aid, an IHOP and a KFC, all with ample parking. From any of these locations, you'll walk about half a block up Bergen to where it intersects w/ S.Orange Ave, then turn left onto S.Orange Ave, where we'll be gathered about 1/2 a block down on the left hand side (roughly where S. Orange intersects with Bruce St - in front of the facility where the actual animal testing is done). Please check the following link for a clear overview of the local layout:</span></div><br />
<div><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Option B for parking: There is an actual multi-level parking garage at the intersection of S. Orange and Bergen St, annexed to the UMDNJ facility itself. A HUGE sign for this parking garage at 160 Bergen St says P2 PARKING - that's it! This is more secure, obviously, than street parking, but there is a fee: $3.25 pays up to 2 hours/ $7.50 pays up to 12 hours in the parking garage. For those showing up after 4, $3.25 should be enough, since we'll be finishing at 6pm. If there are any additional questions about parking, please call (732) 693-9044 or email <a href="mailto:anthony@faunnj.org">anthony@faunnj.org</a></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><a name='more'></a><b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What can you do immediately: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Please call, write or email your two NJ Federal Senators (see below) to express your outrage over UMDNJ’s fraudulent “research” practices and their ongoing use of animals in experiments when so many non-animal methods exist that yield medically relevant and accurate results. If you are a New Jersey resident, your hard-earned tax dollars are funding this gratuitous torture and death of sentient beings. <i>Please do your part in helping us put a stop to it. </i></span><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Please call, write and/or e-mail:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Honorable Frank R. Lautenberg </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One Gateway Center, 23rd Floor</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Newark, NJ 07102 </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Voice: 973-639-8700</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fax: 973-639-8723</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Email Address: <a href="http://lautenberg.senate.gov/contact/index1.cfm"><span style="color: blue;">http://lautenberg.senate.gov/contact/index1.cfm</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Honorable Robert Menendez (Newark Office) </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One Gateway Center, 11th Floor </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Newark, NJ 07102 </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Voice: 973-645-3030</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Fax: 973-645-0502</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Email Address: </span><span style="color: #005caa; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://menendez.senate.gov/contact/"><span style="color: blue;">http://menendez.senate.gov/contact/</span></a></span><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The following excerpts come directly from official USDA Inspection Reports of a UMDNJ facility where invasive animal research is routinely conducted, at 185 South Orange Avenue in Newark, N.J. These Inspection Reports come directly from the USDA’s APHIS search engine, and can therefore be independently verified by any interested party using the Internet, and accessing the following: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #005caa; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://acissearch.aphis.usda.gov/LPASearch/faces/LPASearch.jspx"><span style="color: blue;">http://acissearch.aphis.usda.gov/LPASearch/faces/LPASearch.jspx</span></a></span><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Relevant terms for APHIS search engine:</span></b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Name:‘<u>Dentistry’</u> State: <u>‘NJ’</u> Customer type: <u>‘RESEARCH FACILITY’</u></span><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></u><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*A Partial Chronology of Lethal Incompetence & Cynical Indifference at the UMDNJ* </span></b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (Provided by Friends of Animals United New Jersey) </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aug 10, 2007:</span></b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Violation of APHIS Regulation 2.31 (e)(4), Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), which reads ~ "Procedures designed to assure that discomfort and pain to animals will be limited to that which is unavoidable for the conduct of scientifically valuable research, including provision for the use of analgesic, anesthetic, and tranquilizing drugs where indicated and appropriate to minimize discomfort and pain to animals."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Post inspection, Veterinary Medical Officer & APHIS Animal Care Inspector #5019, Michael J Smith reported:</span></b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><i><span style="color: #e31736; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I saw two pigs that had recent surgeries prior to my inspection. One pig was in a lateral recumbency, and reluctant to move, and the other was sitting and also reluctant to move. Pigs in other areas of the facility were very active and approaching the front of the enclosure as I toured the room. Records reviewed indicated analgesia was administered in the morning. Protocol 07004 did not describe the frequency of analgesic administration, but I was told it was provided twice per day, which is in the 8 hr work day. The two pigs that I saw went as long as 15 hrs between analgesic administrations. The protocol must describe procedures to assure that discomfort and pain to animals will be relieved." </span></i><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">June 9, 2010:</span></b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Violation of APHIS Regulation 2.33 (b) (3), Attending Veterinarian and Adequate Veterinary Care, which reads ~ "Each research facility shall establish and maintain programs of adequate veterinary care that include: That a mechanism of direct and frequent communication is required so that timely and accurate information on problems of animal health, behavior, and well-being is conveyed to the attending veterinarian." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Post inspection, Veterinary Medical Officer and USDA APHIS Animal Care Inspector #1008, John Lopinto, DVM, reported:</span></b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><i><span style="color: #e31736; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"On Mar 9, 2010, canine 755214 underwent a procedure for protocol 09091D0912. The protocol was approved for a clamping of the right renal artery and a wrapping of the left kidney. Medical records indicate the left renal artery was clamped. There was no documentation of what was done to the right kidney. Record showed minimal blood loss. Following an IACUC review, the investigator later submitted a letter indicating that during the surgery, he removed the right kidney due to excessive bleeding. He also wrapped the left kidney. None of this was documented in the medical record of the animal, and for 3 days following the procedure, the investigative staff said nothing to the veterinary staff about what had occurred. Eventually the animal died. The veterinarian must be kept informed of all occurrences, in particular, emergency procedures performed by the investigator or his staff, so that proper veterinary care can be administered. This affected 1 animal."<b> </b></span></i><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">June 9, 2010:</span></b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Violation of APHIS Regulation 2.33 (b) (5), Attending Veterinarian and Adequate Veterinary Care, which reads ~ "Each research facility shall establish and maintain a program of adequate veterinary care that includes: Adequate pre-procedural and post-procedural care in accordance with current established veterinary medical and nursing procedures."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Post inspection, Veterinary Medical Officer and USDA APHIS Animal Care Inspector #1008, John Lopinto, DVM, reported: </span></b><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><i><span style="color: #e31736; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Protocol D7-07107 involves surgery in hamsters. The protocol indicates that buprenorphine will be administered upon recovery and the morning after surgery. In reviewing medical records, there is no indication that the hamsters 1676188 and 1610920 received the administration of post-op analgesia the day after surgery. Medical records also failed to show any monitoring of the animals during surgery. In order to ensure proper veterinary care, and to avoid unnecessary pain, it is necessary to document the monitoring of animals during its procedures and document the administration of its post-op analgesics. This affected 2 animals." </span></i><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
The list goes on. Negligent violation after negligent violation, invariably resulting in suffering, mutilation and death for animals trapped in the UMDNJ’s research laboratories. If this chronology of shameful, irresponsible violations is any indication, there will be no end to it, unless thoughtful, compassionate individual citizens stand up and speak out to bring this atrocious, transparent lack of concern for the lives of sentient animals used at the UMDNJ to the attention of our representatives in government.<br />
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NO ONE benefits from the torture and death which result from UMDNJ researchers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;">Many thanks to Friends Of Animals United New Jersey (FAUN) for providing the inspection reports.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Friends Of Animals United New Jersey (FAUN)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PO Box 732</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Red Bank, NJ 07701 </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #221e1f; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.faunnj.org/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.faunnj.org/</span></a></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-28446299567403666292010-09-21T13:39:00.000-07:002010-09-21T13:39:31.792-07:00LIFE IN THE LAB - Hidden Truth about Animal Experimentation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">LIFE IN THE LAB - Hidden Truth about Animal Experimentation Presentation</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixsyLqg5-Nj7fo5pEDLTfWMnZkvQg-kgZDqzrW_jDhxGwQUBvHg8wTngvM0kmHm8It1UgzNQ09X7f0AQYkvJsApbf8za1vwhFSxLWxF-chTOG18BdseK1ajJexoHzvyb4jsqXVn7XNfFM/s1600/saen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixsyLqg5-Nj7fo5pEDLTfWMnZkvQg-kgZDqzrW_jDhxGwQUBvHg8wTngvM0kmHm8It1UgzNQ09X7f0AQYkvJsApbf8za1vwhFSxLWxF-chTOG18BdseK1ajJexoHzvyb4jsqXVn7XNfFM/s320/saen.jpg" /></a></div><!--StartFragment --><br />
Co-sponsored by the Animal Protection League of New Jersey (APLNJ) and Friends of Animals United NJ (FAUN).<br />
<br />
This event is free and open to the public.<br />
<br />
DATE: October 5, 2010<br />
TIME: 7 PM<br />
PLACE: Community Church of Keyport, 125 Division Street, Keyport, NJ,07733<br />
<br />
Directions: Copy and paste the link below into your browser. The address is contained within the link, giving each person the ability to put in their own address.<br />
<a href="http://mapq.st/h/5-A6ulME6O">http://mapq.st/h/5-A6ulME6O</a><br />
<br />
EVENT:<br />
Michael Budkie, Exec Director of SAEN - Stop Animal Exploitation Now, will be presenting the current state of animal experimentation on the national scale and at area NY labs followed by Q&A session.<br />
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Budkie's recent book, "Tear at the Jacket", blows the lab doors wide open by revealing the horrors of the daily lives of primates in laboratories across the United States. <span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">Copies of this book, SAEN t-shirts, and stainless steel water bottles will be available for purchase at the event for $15 each (cash or check only).</span></span>Come out and learn more about the plight of animals in labs. Also, a great chance to network and meet new friends.<br />
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Vegan RefreshmentsARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-7610653289854581122010-09-12T12:22:00.000-07:002010-09-12T12:22:52.678-07:00'Lung-on-a-Chip' Capable of Accurately Replicating Natural LungA new way to test medications that could replace animal tests has been developed by researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Dr. Donald Ingber is leading scientist. To learn more, please visit: <a href="http://askuswhy.com/lungchip.htm">http://askuswhy.com/lungchip.htm</a>.<br />
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<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_U9C_SpsZA4?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_U9C_SpsZA4?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-23328407156616063892010-08-18T17:14:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:43:08.988-07:00<span style="color: #783f04; font-size: large;"><strong>Here's What's Wrong With Vivisection:</strong></span><br />
By Gary Yourofsky<br />
<br />
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/237z9fg">Link </a><br />
<br />
Simulposted with ADAPTT<br />
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Humanitarian and British author George Bernard Shaw summed up vivisection best when he once proclaimed, “Those who won’t hesitate to vivisect, won’t hesitate to lie about it as well.”<br />
<br />
Vivisection is the act of cutting, drugging, burning, blinding, shocking, addicting, shooting, freezing, infecting and surgically mutilating live animals. Vivisection also happens to be more than just bloody science. It’s a bloody fraud. Every year in the US about 20 million monkeys, dogs, cats, pigs and rabbits, and nearly 50 million mice and rats are incarcerated and infected with mutations of human diseases. They are tortured in violent burn and brain-damage re-creation experiments. Then they are observed for meaningless data and killed.<br />
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First, let’s understand that animals are a completely different bio-mechanical entity than humans. The anatomical, physiological, immunological, histological [dealing with the cell structures] and even psychological differences between humans and animals are too great to overcome. At this moment, a formula for making animal-derived research relevant to human health is non-existent. Animal research has not, can not and will not save a human lives because information cannot be extrapolated from one species to another.<br />
<br />
Let me elucidate this point to you in a few ways. Everyday in veterinary schools all across this world, the fraud of vivisection is substantiated. After talking with several veterinarians who unfortunately have been fooled into believing that animal research can be beneficial to humans, I asked them when they were in vet school studying feline leukemia which animal they studied upon. Cats, of course, they all replied. I asked them why they didn’t study on dogs for feline leukemia. They each replied that studying on dogs for feline leukemia doesn’t make scientific sense. I then asked why would we use dogs and cats and other animals for human leukemia research. Their silence exposed the scam.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
Veterinarians invalidate the widespread use of species to species extrapolation because they use cats for feline leukemia research, horses for colic research, dogs for canine distemper research, and so on. They don’t use dogs for cats, pigs for dogs, and monkeys for horses.<br />
<br />
A footnote this topic. I do oppose what takes place in veterinary schools on ethical grounds. Understand, though, I cannot oppose it on scientific grounds because it is scientifically justifiable to research on the species in question when searching for treatments for that species. However, when it comes to using animals as research specimens for humans, I oppose this on scientific grounds as well as ethical grounds…ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-84202538337427209612009-12-28T06:55:00.001-08:002010-08-18T17:15:57.056-07:00<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As we end this year and prepare to welcome a new one, I want to reflect for a moment on the origins and future of the ARISE Anti-Vivisection campaign. </span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Prior to ARISE, I spent nearly two decades fighting against hunting, including the last four years working politically for animals. In the back of my mind, however, I always thought that someday I should try to help animals that are experimented on, for their suffering was truly terrifying to behold. But there was just too much work to be done and too little time to spare for any new ventures, so this remained unrealized. That changed in February of this year, when I received an email with a picture of a dog being vivisected. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><a name='more'></a><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We’ve all seen pictures such as these, but what struck me so deeply was how this sad creature looked exactly like my dog, Theseus. Both sets of eyes, dark and brown, were indistinguishable from each other, save for the fear and terror beaten into the dog being experimented on. I was transfixed and then unsteadied by the imagery, for I saw my own beloved dog strapped down and being cut open. I apologized to both of these dogs for not having done anything to fight vivisection before, and swore that one day I would, though when or if I could keep this promise where unknowns to me. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A few hours later I received my monthly newsletter from NJ Animal Rights Alliance (now the Animal Protection League of NJ) and saw that a position was open for someone willing to fight vivisection. With such a string of evenly placed events forming before me, the possibility of life was given to that promise I made, and so I leapt at the opportunity. I knew, however, that unlike other animal issues I had fought for, vivisection presented difficulties like no other. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Those who promote and profit from animal research exploit the base emotional reaction of “It’s your child or an animal,” and by doing so hope to bind reason and conscience and win the argument before it even starts. Emotions, on all sides, permeate so deeply that to enter this fray one must be armed with science and fact and armored with principles and morality.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And there is one fact that, in my opinion, is so stark and overwhelming in its implications that I repeat it as often as I can, for it is the battering ram that breaches and destroys the gates of the vivisection argument: Nine out of ten drugs tested on animals fail when tested on humans.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Nine out of ten. Ninety percent failure. This catastrophic number does not even include those drugs that are later recalled because they hurt or killed humans, so it is even worse than this. Scientists could literally throw darts at different drugs and have a better success rate than trying to substitute the biology of a mouse for a human being.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Is it your child or an animal? No, and it never was. It was your child versus bad science the entire time. It was the animal being used because there was neither the technology nor the innovation to use human cells and tissue, so they simply cut apart whatever they could get their hands on. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And you know what? Many of them know it and that is why there is such a hunger and realization that we need better tools if we are ever to turn such massive failure into real hope for humanities ills. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As we move forward, ARISE is going to to engage in a major campaign focused on the promotion of non-animal tests and technologies, for as soon as these means are approved, then lives, tens of thousands of them, will be saved. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It will be a different kind of campaign, less protest and more being proactive, and because of that it may be more difficult to see the goals, but they are there and they are real. Nothing is easy and this won’t be either. My hope, however, is that when we begin you will spare some of your precious time and work with us on this endeavor. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "lucida grande", tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Thank you for all of your support, and best wishes for the the new year to come.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-24730316831963971102009-12-19T09:58:00.001-08:002010-08-18T17:21:13.613-07:00<div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">When animal experiments are proposed, there are a series of steps that are supposed to occur to test the worthiness of the project. This is especially true in an academic setting.</span></span><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">This year, Yale and the University of Chicago performed nearly the exact same experiments, which were designed to weigh the effect of “loneliness” on small mammals who were given cancer. The Yale study used Norway Rats, while the U of C used genetically engineered mice. Both found a link between isolation and cancer, which was then extrapolated to human beings, leading to news stories titled like this: </span><a href="http://article.wn.com/view/2009/09/29/Lonely_women_are_more_at_risk_of_breast_cancer_claims_study/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“Lonely women could be at greater risk of breast cancer”</span></span></a></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">There is so much wrong here I can barely find the words to express myself. Fine. I’ll use </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8398728.stm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">this guy’s words</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> instead:</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“Ed Yong, of Cancer Research UK, said: "This study was done in rats.</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">"Overall, research in humans does not suggest there is a direct link between stress and breast cancer.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Simple, concise and right on point; it is nonsensical to have used rats to judge human reactions, especially when we already knew from human data what the true effects were. Okay, so the Yale study was pointless. What about the U of C experiment?</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Now this is where it gets really interesting. It turns out that that story was picked up by the British press, and in response the </span><a href="http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">British National Health Service</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> (NHS) devoted an entire</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> </span><a href="http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/09September/Pages/Loneliness-and-cancer-risk.aspx"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">page</span></span></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> to a discussion of the experiment. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><a name='more'></a><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“The news story is based on a laboratory study in genetically engineered mice and the results cannot be directly applied to humans. Although animal studies can be valuable for gaining a general understanding of how diseases develop, humans have a very different biology from mice.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">So that study was pointless as well. And way to go NHS for speaking so clearly of how you cannot translate animal data to human responses. They went on further:</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“This research was done on genetically engineered mice that were predisposed to developing mammary gland tumours. The work is valuable in understanding how environmental change may have an effect on the biological development of tumours but humans are very different from genetically engineered mice.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Though the NHS threw the researchers a bone by saying some part of the experiments produced valuable information, here’s exactly what we’ve learned: If you create mice who are likely to have cancer, they will get cancer. And if you take some of those animals away from their mothers and keep them imprisoned alone for the entirety of their life, they will be in worse shape than the mice that at least have others for comfort while they slowly die of the cancer you gave them. And none of this means anything for humans because “</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">we have a very different biology from mice</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.” Animal research at its highest art... </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">One more critical point from the NHS:</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“These findings cannot be interpreted to mean that being sociable protects you against breast cancer or any other cancer, or that being unsociable raises your risk, or gives you a worse prognosis or outlook.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Thank you. Cancer is not some creepy shadow villain that strikes people when they are alone and unprepared, or that can be beaten off by large groups of people huddled by fires and armed with sharp sticks and guns (although I bet I could sell that idea to the NRA).</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">What is true is that people who are sick do better when they have help. Is this somehow a surprise? Did we need to kill dozens of small animals to find it out? Of course we didn’t. As the previously quoted Mr. Yong said, all we need do is look at </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6245475/Loneliness-could-heighten-risk-of-breast-cancer-study-finds.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">human reactions:</span></span></a></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“Previous data from clinical trials have indicated that social support can improve the prospects of women with breast cancer.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“Epidemiological studies suggest that social isolation increases death rates associated with several chronic diseases.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">If you are sick and have friends helping you, of course you are going to at feel better than if you have no one. If you’re not sick and have friends, chances are you’ll feel better than the person who is alone as well. These are logical and reasonable assumptions based on anyone and everyone’s own life experiences. But, because we are not researchers who give mice cancer and then imprison them in solitude, logic and reason makes a bit more sense to us then to them.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">And that brings me back to my opening paragraph. There may be boards in place to judge the worthiness of experiments at academic institutions, but it seems to me that they are there more to paint a picture of responsibility than to actually enforce it, and to appease some general sense of concern the public has (rightfully) that lives are being taken and cruelty inflicted for no good reason. And no good reason is exactly why these experiments happened.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">***Bonus quote of the week***</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">I was sent </span><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/phys-ed-will-drinking-make-you-do-it/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">this article</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> a while back, but never had use for it for a blog (read the whole story for the full context). Since we are talking about mice here, I thought it relevant. The last line of the quote says it all:</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">“We were surprised,” Cureton says. “Based on the mouse studies, we had expected” that the supplement would have a positive impact. Obviously, he continues, one study is not definitive. Different doses of quercetin or use for a longer time might lead to different results. “But my conclusion is that it just is not ergogenic in humans,” Cureton says. It doesn’t improve performance. “The moral is that you can’t generalize from mouse studies to humans.”</span></i></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-81374305577976484262009-12-11T06:20:00.000-08:002010-08-18T17:19:25.118-07:00<div style="font: 18px Cracked; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-size: large;">Testosterone. Yeah, that’s right, I’ve got some - you want to fight about it? C’mon, I’ll take on you, your ugly brother, all his ugly friends, and anyone they ever had lunch with! GGGGGRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr....</span></span></span><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We all know that having too much testosterone makes a person more aggressive and prone to violence. We know this because of experiments performed on anima</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ls. That’s right; a vivisector castrated a bunch of rats, they became less hostile, and lack of testosterone was the given reason why. They used animals, so it must be right...</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Now mind you, it never occurred to the ‘scientists’ involved that the act of castration itself might instill enough fear in the rats to drive out any aggression they had (for the men reading this blog - just imagine a giant monster in a lab coat cutting your [censored] off with something the size of a scimitar, and you’ll understand what those poor rats went through).</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">At this point you are asking, and quite fairly, where am I going with this?</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I am going right </span><a href="http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/studies/testosterone_induce_aggression_145199.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">here</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, </span><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vnfv/ncurrent/abs/nature08711.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">here</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and </span><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6949048.ece"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">here</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">; three articles all covering a new study that shows, as one of the headlines states:</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Testosterone’s aggressive impact is a myth. It makes you friendlier.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Whoa - that’s, that’s, well....friendlier? Testosterone??? </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> testosterone? Yep.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This study was done on humans, while the original study was done on rats, and they produced opposite results. Yet again, animal research proves to have no bearing on human kind...except to completely ingrain utterly fraudulent information upon the public psyche. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Testosterone has become synonymous with aggression and this definition is part of our language and thought. Just watch any movie with two big guys staring each other down, and you’ll hear someone say that they can smell the testosterone in the room (they may be smelling something, but it isn’t testosterone).</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Here’s a quote from </span><a href="http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/studies/testosterone_induce_aggression_145199.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">one of the articles:</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 11px Verdana; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“</span></i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Popular scientific literature, art, and the media have been attributing the roll of aggression to the arguably best known sexual hormone for decades. Research appeared to confirm this - the castration of male rodents evidently led to a reduction in combativeness among the animals. The prejudice thus grew over decades that testosterone causes aggressive, risky, and egocentric behavior. The inference from these experiments with animals that testosterone produces the same effects in humans has proven to be false...”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I was recently asked, by another person in the anti-vivisection movement, how I respond to the often asked question about the role of animal experimentation in history. This new study, which exposed the fact that for decades false information produced by animal research misshaped and sent science down the wrong path, is the quintessential answer. Testosterone may be just the latest example of animal research getting it wrong, but it is emblematic of the distinct and fatal flaw of using animals to judge human reactions. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There is a seemingly endless cascade of faulty and unsound data produced by animal research. The question should not be what good animal experimentation has done for humanity, but just how bad the damage is.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-89520273054819270022009-12-06T07:27:00.001-08:002010-08-18T17:21:56.149-07:00<div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Of Baboons, Butchers and the Best of Science</span></span><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A very interesting turn of events occurred at Oklahoma State University last week. </span><a href="http://www.newsok.com/anthrax-study-rejected-by-osu/article/3421451"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Anthrax study rejected by OSU”</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> tells how the President of the University stopped an anthrax test that would have killed a number of baboons.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The real hero of the story appears to be Madeleine Pickens, who </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“...threatened to redirect a $5 million donation to the vet school because she did not agree with such practices.” </span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Good for her! Of course those who experiment on animals didn’t handle the news very well, as we can see in </span><a href="http://scienceblogs.com/erv/2009/11/ongoing_witch-hunt_against_okl_1.php"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">this blog post</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> from one student. I guess he missed the memo where, for PR sake, young vivisectors are supposed to hide all that rage and anger they have. If one day we see this guy on a PETA hidden camera smacking a few animals around in the lab, I for one would not be surprised.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">One quote from the article I want to discuss is this: </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“He said primates are the best animals to test treatments because they are similar biologically to humans.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 11px Arial; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">That one little phrase “...</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">because they are similar biologically to humans,” </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">has been used to justify the experimentation and torture of non-human primates by the thousands. And you know what? It doesn’t matter if they are similar to humans - they aren’t human, and that’s why it all goes wrong.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">When you get a chance, check out the </span><a href="http://www.askuswhy.com/specialreports.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Special Reports </span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">section of the </span><a href="http://www.askuswhy.com/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ARISE website</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. Specifically, </span><a href="http://www.askuswhy.com/hybrid.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">read this report on human-animal hybrid embryos.</span></span></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The experiments in question were supposed to create workable human-animal embryos, but they failed. Here’s the kicker though - the hybrid embryos were “99.9% human and 0.1% animal.” </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Forget being “...</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">similar biologically to humans,” </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">these embryos were within a hairs reach of total humanity, and they still didn’t work. As I wrote in that report, this is why we must move away from using animals as substitutes for human biology, because even a 0.1% difference is an infinite chasm to bridge.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Now let’s flip this issue and take a look at what some real scientists are doing. At the same time that the anthrax test cancellation story broke, this amazing article hit the press as well: </span><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2009/1201/1224259787253.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">'Toxichip' system may replace animal testing. </span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Now this is real science; groundbreaking technology without the bloodletting. It’s the future, where human cells are used to test drugs and toxicity for human beings. (Check out </span><a href="http://www.askuswhy.com/biochips.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">this page</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> on our site for information on other such technology).</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">With innovative tools like these in place, we will one day look back at the practices of modern animal experimentation with the same disdain we have for the diviners of ancient Rome, who cut animals open to prophesy fortunes of war. Though, with nine out of ten drugs tested on animals failing once tested on humans, we may find that those Roman butchers had a better success rate than today’s vivisector.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">All of this is why I am so unimpressed with the ‘scientists’ and students who are decrying the cancellation of the horrific anthrax tests, and why I am so impressed by scientists working to create a future without animal testing. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There is hope out there.</span></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-13710075729882666342009-11-29T18:41:00.001-08:002010-08-18T17:20:37.127-07:00<div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There’s been a lot in the news recently regarding Pharmaceutical companies and related issues, so, instead of focusing on one specific story, this time I am going to hit a few at a time.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I’ve written a lot about Big Pharma and their business practices. In this story from the NY Times, November 15, “</span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/business/16drugprices.html?scp=1&sq=Drug%2520Makers%2520Raise%2520Prices%2520in%2520Face%2520of%2520Health%2520Care%2520Reform&st=cse"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Drug Makers Raise Prices in Face of Health Care Reform</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">” we see how Big Pharma is preparing for health care reform by socking consumers with major hikes in prices. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992.”</span></i></span></div><a name='more'></a><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">With hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake, it is not hard to see why Big Pharma has so much power. What’s really interesting, however, is that they blame the high cost of research for the rise in prices. Now we know that 9 out of 10 drugs tested on animals fail in human clinical trials, that means that all those millions of dollars spent using animals was pointless. So not only are animal tests are cruel and poor indicators for how drugs will effect humans, but they’re bad for business as well.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Speaking of that “9 out of 10” quote, here’s the page where I first found it, on the FDA’s own </span><a href="http://www.fda.gov/oc/speeches/2006/fdateleconference0112.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">site.</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> The first thing you’ll note is that the page doesn’t exist anymore. I guess it’s a good thing I saved it way back when. Here it is on the ARISE website, where it is remains for posterity: </span><a href="http://www.askuswhy.com/fdaquote.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">http://www.askuswhy.com/fdaquote.html</span></span></a></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Now back to the news.</span></span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 12px Times; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-accutane7-2009nov07,0,2567627.story"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">New study may deal final blow to acne drug Accutane</span></a></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Swiss-based Roche Holding quietly pulled its blockbuster drug Accutane off the market in June amid early signs that the drug may be linked to inflammatory bowel disease. And last week, a study was released that quantified those risks, finding that users of the medication have almost twice the odds of developing a serious bowel disorder as nonusers.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“In its tumultuous 27-year history, the drug, also known as isotretinoin, has been found to cause serious birth defects if taken during pregnancy and to possibly increase the risk of depression, including suicidal behavior. Women who take it must register with the government, sign a consent form saying that they understand the medication's risks, use two forms of birth control, and submit to monthly pregnancy tests.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Of course the drug was approved for safety by using animals.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Here’s some important info for those getting flu shots. </span><a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ACAAI/16877"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ACAAI: Egg Allergy No Excuse for Skipping Flu Shot</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. While the story is meant to ease concerns for those allergic to eggs, it instead presents an ethical question for those vegans amongst us.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 12px Times; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">Finally, another in our series of Big Pharma gone bad:</span> </span><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a4yV1nYxCGoA&pos=10"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Pfizer Broke the Law by Promoting Drugs for Unapproved Uses.”</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Prosecutor Michael Loucks remembers clearly when lawyers for Pfizer inc. the world’s largest drug company, looked across the table and promised it wouldn’t break the law again.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“What Loucks, who’s now acting U.S. attorney in Boston, didn’t know until years later was that Pfizer managers were breaking that pledge not to practice so-called off-label marketing even before the ink was dry on their plea.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Times; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And that says it all.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br />
</span></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-80824677950161395582009-10-29T10:22:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:22:55.852-07:00<div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If you like this blog, and the other work that we do with the ARISE campaign, then please consider joining or making a donation to our mother organization, the Animal Protection League of NJ. APLNJ (formerly NJ Animal Rights Alliance) is a grass-roots group that has been fighting for animals for more than 25 years. Any donation you can make will truly be appreciated! </span><a href="http://aplnj.org/donation.htm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">http://aplnj.org/donation.htm</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Thank you!</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Animal Protection League of NJ</span></span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.askuswhy.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">www.AskUsWhy.com</span></a></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And now back to our regularly scheduled blog.</span></span></div><a name='more'></a><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">--------------</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Over There</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The outsourcing of Human Clinical Trials (HCT) to third world countries is big; big business for Big Pharma with big risks to the humans being experimented on. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Always bear in mind that HCT’s are “it,” meaning that the results of these trials literally hold billions of dollars in the balance. We’ve already seen how data from these trials have sometimes been falsified, or other fraud has occurred - and that’s just here in the United States, where there is supposed to be some form of protection. Imagine what it must be like over there...</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">One of the most notorious cases of an outsourced drug trial gone horribly wrong is the </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR2009040301877.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Pfizer/Nigerian Drug Trial disaster:</span></span></a></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Pfizer has reached a broad agreement to pay millions of dollars to Nigeria's Kano state to settle a criminal case alleging that the drug company illegally tested an experimental drug on gravely ill children during a 1996 meningitis epidemic.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Nigerian authorities say Pfizer's infamous trial of the antibiotic Trovan killed 11 children and disabled scores more.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Here’s a little more info on the drug in question, Trovan, which, of course, was tested for safety using animals:</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Trovan was never approved for use by American children. The Food and Drug Administration approved it for adults in 1998 but later severely restricted its use after reports of liver failure. The European Union banned the drug in 1999.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Once again, animal experimentation failed to protect people from harm.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Though this was just one high profile case, there are many serious problems with HCT abuse in third world countries. Things were so bad that a Chinese and European consortium, </span><a href="http://www.bionet-china.org/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">BIONET,</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> was founded to create some </span><a href="http://www.bionet-china.org/clinical_trials.htm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ethical guidelines</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“The starting point for ethical concerns about clinical trials is that they raise questions of therapeutic misconception and informed consent, especially among ‘vulnerable populations’ who may be susceptible to wrongful involvement either because they live under unfortunate socio-economic conditions or because they are in a desperate situation when suffering from certain diseases with little treatment options.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Another important general issue...is the conflict of interest between researchers and</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">clinicians: a clear differentiation should be made between provision of healthcare and clinical research. Yet, in practice, this has proved very difficult to achieve especially in situations where healthcare resources are scarce and institutions serve both purposes.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This probably isn’t a big surprise. I think we all know that the poor people of the world are often treated as expendable or are considered to be not worthy of the same rights and protections as the rest of us. So when the conflict between pharmaceutical researchers and doctors trying to save patients lives arises, we can guess who loses.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">To add insult to injury, even if these human tests lead to a successful drug, these vulnerable populations aren’t going to see a benefit --- because they can’t afford the cost of the drugs that their suffering helped create.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I’ll get back to the Bionet report in a future blog, but for now I want to stay with the issue of the exploitation of vulnerable people for pharmaceutical experiments.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">India, like China and Africa, where there are huge numbers of poor people, is seen like a gold mine to the pharmaceutical industry.</span><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FG23Df03.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> From Asia Times online:</span></span></a></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Yet even as India increasingly emerges as a preferred destination for outsourcing clinical trials - testing of new drugs on humans - the country may also be heading toward providing the greatest source of human guinea pigs for the global drug industry.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Almost all top names, including Novo Nordisk, Aventis, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, have started running clinical drug trials in India lately, while some, such as Eli Lilly and Pfizer, which started much earlier, conduct tests on a number of their new drugs.” </span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“However, in India particularly, unethical and illegal clinical trials are most rampant and are conducted without fear because, say critics, there is no law to safeguard the interests of volunteers, while regulatory authorities,"by design or default", fail to take action against such trials.” </span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Here’s one of the few times when someone did get caught in </span><a href="http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/doc-booked-for-illegal-clinical-trials/442963/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">India</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">:</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“A government doctor and a nurse from Saurashtra’s largest civil hospital...have been booked on charges of carrying out illegal drug trials using health department resources.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“...some staff members of the hospital had raised the issue claiming that lives of unsuspecting patients had been put on stake to benefit a private company’s research.</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The poor and the sick are easy victims for abuse, but so are the elderly. Here’s what happened in </span><a href="http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_1_29/05/2004_43374"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Greece</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">: </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“The government has ordered an in-depth inquiry into the operations of all old-age homes in Greece after an inspection at the Athens Old Age Home found that residents had been subjected to clinical trials without their written consent.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Why are human experiments so in demand? Why are large populations of “human guinea pigs” being exploited? </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Because experiments on animals are ineffective, faulty, and lead to dead ends...especially of human lives.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 16px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 16px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-78627683292788298702009-10-16T14:44:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:23:38.223-07:00<div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Tales from the Dark Side of Big Pharma, Part 14,638</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Never Ending Story</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">When I started the “Dark Side of Big Pharma” series, I envisioned three or four blogs that dealt with fraud and corruption within the Pharmaceutical industry. I thought that under this banner I could take a little time and explore the human ramifications of drug testing, and then go back to more animal centric experimentation.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Once I began to research these issues, and saw how seemingly endless the controversies regarding Human Clinical Trials and fraud were, what started out as “Dark Side” I, II, III, expanded quickly to IV, V, and then threatened to escalate to blogs X, XX and that most interesting of all Roman numeral combinations, good ol’ XXX (perhaps then I would have found a ‘happy ending’ to this series).</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In other words, I found so much corruption, misconduct and serious, even fatal, consequences of human testing of drugs, that this series just wasn’t going to end. So I’ll be dropping the “Dark Side” moniker, and from here on out all issues relating to the Pharmaceutical industry, both human and animal, will simply fall under the normal blog heading (until the next time I get it in my head to do a nice and tidy miniseries which spins completely out of control).</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Speaking of human experiments gone wild, this past week a major scandal broke regarding a drug study at </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Columbia University. Read about that </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/government-orders-columbi_n_312536.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">here.</span></span></a></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> I would also point you to </span><a href="http://www.askuswhy.com/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">our website</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, and the </span><a href="http://www.askuswhy.com/specialreports.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Special Report” </span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">section, where you will find a story titled </span><a href="http://www.askuswhy.com/animalresearchdisaster.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Animal Research Disaster: The ‘Elephant Man’ Drug Victims,”</span></span></a></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">another story of a clinical trial gone horribly wrong.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">These stories are so shocking and outrageous that by their nature they would be picked up by the media, but what if the harm caused was more subtle, and not of this magnitude? What if instead of dozens of people effected, just a few suffered long term detrimental effects from a clinical trial? With insignificant oversight from the FDA, and Institutional Review Boards shown to be open to fraud and corruption, is there really anyone looking out for the well being of human test subjects?</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And while all this is happening here in the United States, what is going on overseas, in third world countries, where human trials are being farmed out in exponential like numbers, and where the power of Big Pharma is nearly unrestrained? In Africa and Asia, in democracies and dictatorships...</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And that’s were we are headed to next time.</span></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-83524333260148870802009-10-05T18:01:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:24:08.644-07:00<div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Dark Side of Big Pharma V</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span>Over/sight</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I’ve been spending a lot of time exploring Human Clinical Trials (HCT), because they are the bridge between animal experiments and wide spread use of pharmaceutical drugs. This pivot is where millions of dollars and years of research are put to the test - a test that they fail </span><a href="http://www.askuswhy.com/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">90% of the time</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. The reason why HCT’s fail so dramatically is because animals are poor models for gauging human responses to drugs.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Even though the FDA has cited certain clinical trials for fraud and abuse, their oversight is merely the proverbial drop in the bucket. For this blog, I want to show you just how tiny that drop is - and why the FDA can’t even find the bucket.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In September of 2007, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, issued a </span><a href="http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-01-06-00160.pdf"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">report</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> on the FDA’s “Oversight of Clinical Trials.” Here’s what they found:</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“</span></i></b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Because FDA does not maintain a clinical trial registry, it is unable to identify all ongoing clinical trials and their associated trial sites. Further, because FDA does not maintain an IRB registry, it is unable to identify all IRBs.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Let’s deal with the enormity of these two findings. We already knew that HCT’s were potentially dangerous and fatal to the participants. Now we know that the FDA doesn’t have a clue as to how many of them there are out there. We also knew that not all IRB’s (Institutional Review Boards. See our blog from 9/22/09) are reliable and ethical - and now we know that the FDA doesn’t even have a registry of them. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">These trials are potentially worth billions to Pharmaceutical companies, are open to fraud and abuse, and could effect the lives of every participant, as well as all those who will take the drugs once approved. And the FDA is clueless as to how many of these are even out there. I like to keep this blog PG-13 so I’ll not write the hyphenated phrase that came to mind when I first read this, but you can feel free to insert your expletive of choice at this time. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Want to know just how bad the situation of the FDA’s oversight of HCT’s is? </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“We estimate that FDA inspected 1 percent of clinical trial sites during the fiscal year 2000–2005 period.” </span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Or, as I would prefer to write it, they do not inspect 99% of the experiments that happen to human beings. This is out of an estimated 350,000 trial sites, so you can see the importance of the issue. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And then there’s this: </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“FDA relies on voluntary compliance to correct violations of regulatory significance.”</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Yeah, this is as bad as it reads. IF a researcher is caught doing something wrong, they get to clean it up. It’s not even downplayed as if these are tiny infractions either. “Regulatory significance” means the violation is, well, significant. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In other words, the great FDA watchdog is really one of those big, fat, sweet old dogs that, even if they wake up long enough to notice that there is a thief in the house, they would probably only lick his hand a couple of times before the criminal departs with your good silverware and Wii console.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Another interesting fact from the Inspector General’s report was that there had been </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">previous </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Inspector General reports. These reports noted </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“... documented weaknesses in the oversight that FDA and IRBs provide for clinical trials,” “...that IRBs lacked the time and the expertise to sufficiently monitor the research taking place under their jurisdiction,” </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">and that </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“...IRBs often conducted minimal review of studies after the initial approval of the research.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 11px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">These older reports were done almost ten years before the one that I have been quoting, yet little has changed. I guess we’ll just have to hold out hope that the 2019 Inspector General report might be the one that finally gets the job done.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-45361130596647472652009-09-28T06:48:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:24:33.477-07:00<div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Dark Side of Big Pharma IV</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Fraudorama</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Fraud is a pretty powerful word. When something is painted as being a fraud, we immediately begin to dismiss it as being illegitimate, corrupt and deceitful. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It’s also a dangerous word to use, because the person wielding it can be dismissed if there is no evidence to back up their claim. It’s not something that I throw out casually and I am not at all comfortable simply accusing someone, or in this case members of the Pharmaceutical industry, of fraud. </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But I have no problem quoting it!</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/business/worldbusiness/26iht-26drug.20446569.html?_r=5"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Drug maker is accused of fraud</span></i></span></a></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></i></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“The Justice Department charged the drug maker </span></i><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/forest_laboratories_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Forest Laboratories</span></i></span></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> on Wednesday </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">with <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>defrauding the government of millions of dollars by illegally marketing the popular<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></i><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/antidepressants/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">antidepressants</span></i></span></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></i><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/celexa_drug/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Celexa</span></i></span></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and Lexapro for unapproved uses in children and teenagers.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I am going to get back to that article at the end of this blog, but for now, sit back and watch a cavalcade of fraud from some of the biggest names in the Pharmaceutical industry:</span></span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://www.jsonline.com/business/39719447.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Pfizer found guilty of defrauding state</span></i></span></a></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://www.industryweek.com/articles/aventis_to_pay_95_million_to_settle_fraud_charge_19260.aspx"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Aventis to Pay $95 Million to Settle Fraud Charge</span></i></span></a></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20080716-5.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Bristol-Myers Squibb settles Medicaid pharmaceutical pricing and marketing fraud </span></i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">allegations</span></i></span></a></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/20090813court_revives_fraud_claims_vs_johnson__johnson_subsidiary/"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Court revives fraud claims vs. Johnson & Johnson subsidiary</span></i></span></a></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://www.accessmylibrary.com/premium/0286/0286-29867063.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hearing On Fraud And Abuse Issues In Pharmaceutical Pricing.</span></i></span></a></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2008Jun30/0,4675,DrugSuit,00.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Ala. lawyer asks jury for $800M in drug fraud case</span></i></span></a></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“The state claims GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis engaged in fraud from 1991 to 2005, </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">depriving the cash-strapped Medicaid program of badly needed resources.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Most of these fraud stories dealt with pricing. But there are other, far more serious types of fraud going on in the industry, where data from Human Clinical Trials are either hidden or falsified:</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127003.500-drug-data-fraud-may-spark-marketing-crackdown.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Drug data fraud may spark marketing crackdown</span></i></span></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></i></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“A PROMINENT case of scientific fraud is being seized on by critics of the pharmaceutical </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">industry to highlight their calls for a crackdown on the use of scientific studies for </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">marketing <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>purposes.</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Starting in 1996, Scott Reuben of the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Massachusetts, published a series of trials testing whether painkillers, including Pfizer's </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Celebrex and Merck's Vioxx, relieve post-operative pain. Now 21 of Reuben's papers have </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">been shown to contain fabricated data, after he was investigated by Baystate officials. </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Many <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>have already been retracted.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/business/worldbusiness/06iht-06fda.13535280.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Facing criticism, U.S. agency bars 7 doctors from drug trials</span></i></span></a></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“The Food and Drug Administration disqualifies researchers that the agency finds were </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">involved in misconduct, including falsifying results, during studies.” </span></i></span></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 8px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 8px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/03/business/spitzer-sues-a-drug-maker-saying-it-hid-negative-data.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Spitzer Sues a Drug Maker, Saying It Hid Negative Data</span></i></span></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">*</span></i></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“In a novel claim testing the way that the $400 billion worldwide pharmaceutical industry </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">is regulated, the New York State attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, sued the British-based </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">drug giant GlaxoSmithKline yesterday, accusing the company of fraud in concealing </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">negative information about its popular antidepressant medicine Paxil.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">*Please note that that article came out when Eliot Spitzer was the respected Attorney General of New York, and not the creepy ex-governor that we know him to be today.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1991-10-08/business/fi-82_1_icn-pharmaceuticals"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Maker of AIDS Drug Accused of Securities Fraud -</span></i></span></a></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“The Securities and Exchange Commission Monday sued ICN Pharmaceuticals and its </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Viratek Inc. subsidiary for securities fraud, contending that they knowingly misled the </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">public about a Viratek drug's effectiveness in fighting the AIDS virus.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“In a separate clinical trial of individuals with AIDS-related complex (ARC), the SEC said, </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">the company knowingly withheld preliminary results showing that a disproportionate share </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">of those individuals on ribavirin had died.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I want to end this by going back to first article I quoted, which dealt with the drug Lexapro. At first glance it appears to be monetary fraud at hand, but look at what really was going on:</span></span></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“In a civil complaint filed by the United States attorney’s office in Boston, federal </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">prosecutors alleged that former top executives at Forest concealed for several years a </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">clinical study that showed that the drugs were not effective in children and might even </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">pose <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>risks to them, including causing some to become suicidal.</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 11px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“From 2001 to 2004, Forest heavily promoted results from another clinical trial it had </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">financed that showed that the drugs were effective, without disclosing the negative </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">study...”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hiding data on a drug that might cause children to commit suicide? </span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If proven, then this is a fraud perpetrated against humanity itself.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px 0px 15px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="color: #000099; font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/022653.html"></a></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-9032743061047391012009-09-22T07:24:00.001-07:002010-08-18T17:25:01.200-07:00<div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Dark Side of Big Pharma III:</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Institutional Review Boards</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The first line of defense against dangerous practices occurring in Human Clinical Trials are Institutional Review Boards (IRB). These boards are meant to monitor and approve research that has been taken to the human level, and, specifically, to protect the rights of people who are being tested.</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Thankfully, with these IRB’s Elliot Ness style of Untouchability, there are never any problems and corruption doesn’t exist at all within the biomedical/human research community. </span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Right.</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><a name='more'></a><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In March of this year, the </span><a href="http://www.gao.gov/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">United States Government Accountability Office (GAO)</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> released a </span><a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09448t.pdf"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">report</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> titled: </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Undercover Tests Show the Institutional Review Board System Is Vulnerable to Unethical Manipulation.”</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> And it gets so much worse from there:</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Our investigation shows that the IRB system is vulnerable to unethical manipulation, particularly by companies or individuals who intend to abuse the system or to commit fraud, or who lack the aptitude or qualifications to conduct and oversee clinical trials. This vulnerability elevates the risk that experimental products are approved for human subjects testing with little or no substantive due diligence.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The GAO goes on to give an example of how the failure of an IRB, and a poorly run human trial, had mortal ramifications:</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“For example, in 2002, a 47-year-old man died after his heart stopped beating while participating in an experimental trial of antipsychotic medication at a Texas research center. Before his death, the man spent 22 days suffering from fever, severe diarrhea, a rapid heartbeat, and kidney failure while under the care of researchers. The warning label for the experimental medication listed some of these serious side-effects and other signs of heart failure, but the IRB failed to ensure the risks were communicated to participants at the outset of the trial. During the clinical trial, the lead researcher continually delegated control of the clinical trial to a man who was unlicensed to practice medicine in the United States. In its follow-up investigation after the death, the FDA noted that the IRB repeatedly violated regulations governing the proper conduct of clinical trials and did not adequately supervise the clinical trial.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Another specific example of an IRB failing at its job comes from </span><a href="http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/EnforcementActivitiesbyFDA/WarningLettersandNoticeofViolationLetterstoPharmaceuticalCompanies/UCM179827.pdf"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">this letter</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> from the FDA to the “CHRISTUS Schumpert Health System.” The FDA listed counts against this IRB, including failing to provide informed consent to “subjects,” failure </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“...to conduct continuing review of research,” </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">and that oldie but goody, failure </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“...to ensure that no member participated in the initial or continuing review of a project in which the member had a conflicting interest...” </span></i></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And here’s a really sad story on IRB’s, because it deals with protecting </span><a href="http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/148128/aids_study_review_boards_lacked_focus/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">foster children with AIDS</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. </span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The job of appointing protective advocates for foster children in AIDS drug trials has been left up to local review boards at each study site. A recent review said those boards were overworked, were inappropriately dominated by scientists and lacked focus on patient safety.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There are thousands of IRB’s out there, each one supposedly watching out for the adults and children who are involved in human clinical trials. There’s no way to know how many of them are acting against the best interests of the people they are supposed to protect, but it really says something when we see just how easy the GAO nailed IRB’s, as is stated in their report. And that was just from a random selection of a handful of these boards. </span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Sometimes the story isn’t about the bad guys you catch - it’s about all the bad guys out there that you never will.</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-22971787736621134472009-09-12T21:52:00.001-07:002010-08-18T17:25:35.431-07:00<div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Dark Side of Big Pharma, Part II</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Because animal biology is so different than ours, and drugs react differently on different species, nine out of ten animal tested drugs fail when taken to the human level. This 90% failure rate means that when drugs are sent for human clinical trials, researchers are literally experimenting on human beings.</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">While we know of the poor translation of animal data to human use, there is a lot about human clinical trials that is not well known, such as what happens when experimental drugs are given to human test subjects, who watches out for these people, is it an honest process, and how do business concerns factor in?</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I’ll be exploring all of these questions and their ramifications in the coming weeks. First though, let’s take a look at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the government agency that investigates human clinical trials, and what information they have that sheds some light on these studies.</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><a name='more'></a><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">When the FDA discovers that there are problems with a clinical trial, they issue </span><a href="http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">warning letters</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, such as </span><a href="http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm177398.htm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">this one</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> that was sent just over a month ago to “Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, LLC” which is stationed right here in New Jersey. This letter goes into detail about the problems with the study, including </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Failure to ensure proper monitoring,” “Failure to ensure that an investigation was conducted in accordance with the general investigational plan,” “Failure to secure investigator compliance,”</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Failure to ensure that only investigators who were qualified by training and experience were selected as appropriate experts to investigate a drug.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Here are two more warning letters issues in 2009. This one to </span><a href="http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm176373.htm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Psypharma Clinical Research, Inc. </span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">and this one to </span><a href="http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm174744.htm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">HealthwoRx</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. You’ll notice in these and other such letters there are deep concerns over “informed consent” and poor record keeping. Here’s a particularly disturbing letter sent to the </span><a href="http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm172179.htm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Children's Hospital Boston</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> where, according to the letter, there was no information that consent was given for one child from their parent. </span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By the way, the use of the word “child” is my own design; in the letter and study they are referred to as being a “subject,” the same terminology used for rats, mice or any of the other millions of animals that are experimented on. It seems we all lose our individuality when the experimenters come to town.</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Bearing off from vivisection issues for a moment, check out some of the other warning letters the FDA has issued regarding animals that are slaughtered for food, such as this one sent on August 28 to a </span><a href="http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm181496.htm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">dairy farm</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> in Minnesota, and which you might want to pass on to your friends who eat meat and drink milk:</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px 0px 6px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“Our investigation also found that you hold animals under conditions that are so inadequate that medicated animals bearing potentially harmful drug residues are likely to enter the food supply.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The FDA also keeps a list of “Disqualified / Totally Restricted” Clinical Investigators, which can be found </span><a href="http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/DisqualifiedRestrictedAssuranceList/ucm131681.htm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">here</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. Here’s just one case, involving a </span><a href="http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/FOI/ElectronicReadingRoom/ucm144567.htm"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">William H. Ziering, M.D.</span></span></a></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (the Center) of the United States Food-and Drug Administration (FDA) has information indicating that your client, William H. Ziering, M.D., repeatedly and/or deliberately violated federal regulations in his capacity as an investigator in clinical trials with investigational new drugs. Additionally, the Center has information indicating that Dr. Ziering submitted false information to the sponsors of the clinical trials.”</span></i></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Falsified data in human clinical studies is a major issue, as are the problems with Institutional Review Boards, and human trials conducted in third world countries.</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And that’s where we are headed to in the next blog.</span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-35139069031464087642009-08-03T07:40:00.001-07:002010-08-18T17:26:40.192-07:00<div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">By Stuart Chaifetz</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The Dark Side of Big Pharma: </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Part 1 - Hitting Us Where it Hurts</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I’m kicking off another multi-part blog series, this time focusing on the actions of Pharmaceutical companies. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">As anyone who has a dog or cat knows, when you take them to the vet for a shot or medication, by the time you pay the bill, all that is left in your wallet is either a small puff of dust, or a credit card wilted and bruised from the electronic fiscal beating it had just taken.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the past couple of months I’ve felt this personally. Both of my dogs, Theseus and Tiberius, have had to make trips to the vet that left me wondering if that was an antibiotic my dog had, or did they just pump liquid gold into his backside. It turns out that it was both.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I happened upon this article <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/31drug.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">“Merck Selling Stake in Animal Venture,”</span></a> which drew my curiosity because I thought it might have something to do with using animals for experimental purposes. Turns out it had nothing to do with that, but was another Pharmaceutical merger/acquisition story. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">According to the report, Merck is selling <i>“its stake in a big animal-health joint venture for $4 billion,”</i> because of regulatory issues due to its merger with Schering-Plough. It’s somewhat complicated, and if you are interested in learning more I suggest that you read the whole story. The specific aspect of the article that I do want to talk about starts with this:</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>“Animal health has always been a natural fit for pharmaceutical companies...” </i>and then we get to the center of it: </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>“Moreover, because there are no insurers or national health officials trying to keep costs down, companies can set their own prices for animal medicines — products that are bought directly by veterinarians and the owners of pets or livestock.”</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Wow. Did anyone else just feel the pain in their assets like I just did? That’s a blunt and hardcore statement of what a killing Pharmaceutical companies can make off of dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, birds and every other animal that ever uses one of their products. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Bear in mind that this article was not an expose´ or meant to inform the public that we are being taken for all we are worth, but was instead meant to show how and why animal health is such an important financial issue for Big Pharma. Here’s another quote:</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i>“Animal health products “were traditionally the stepchild of the pharmaceutical industry because they had lower margins,” said David S. Moskowitz, chief of equity research at Caris & Company. “Now they are the crown jewels, because they are growing faster than traditional</i> pharmaceuticals.<i>””</i></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When Pharmaceutical companies “<i>can set their own prices for animal medicines,” </i> we who love and care for our animals are left to their mercy. It would take a stronger man than I who could look into the eyes of his animal in need and not be willing to pay any price to help them. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This effects all of us, and, as the article goes on to tell, it appears that it is going to get worse; with other coming mergers, power over a majority of animal health will fall into the hands of two Big Pharma companies. And that means it’s going to continue to get more expensive to visit the vet and get health care for our beloved animal family members.</span></div><div style="font: 13px Times; margin: 0px 0px 15px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-79982305748614339232009-07-24T18:38:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:28:04.154-07:00<div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;">By Stuart Chaifetz</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the spirit of the Summer movie season, and its long history of producing sequels and trilogies, I would like to offer a third and final take on stories of research ‘breakthroughs’ being front page news, while failures are either never reported, or are dumped into the business section (grab a keg of soda and a garbage bag full of popcorn that cost more than the computer I am writing on if you <i>really</i> want to get that movie theater experience while reading this).</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the course of my research on this issue, I found one exception to the rule that is stated above: For the first and perhaps last time, in May of 1998, scrutiny was poured over a front page story that over-promoted a supposed cure for cancer.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="color: #000099; font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;">The story <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1998/may/06/news/mn-46795"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"> “Cancer Drugs Face Long Road From Mice to Men”</span></a><b> - </b>published in the Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1998, was a direct response to this story - <span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/03/us/hope-lab-special-report-cautious-awe-greets-drugs-that-eradicate-tumors-mice.html?scp=2&sq=endostatin%2520%2520+%2520folkman&st=cse">“HOPE IN THE LAB: A special report.; A Cautious Awe Greets Drugs That Eradicate Tumors in Mice,” </a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">which was printed on the front page of the NY Times three days earlier.</span></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There were two things that appear to have set off the counter-reaction to the NY Times story; a massive rush of people wanting to get the ‘cure,’ which didn’t exist, and the fact that the reporter who wrote the story created a possible conflict of interest by trying to get a book deal on it the next day. The Times itself was forced to cover the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/08/us/cancer-drug-news-puts-a-focus-on-reporters-and-book-deals.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">scandal:</span></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>“...</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Peter Osnos, the publisher of Public Affairs Press, said: ''When a reporter writes a story that 24 hours later turns into a book proposal for which they're going to be paid a ton of money, that calls into a question the story they've written to begin with.”</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The LA Times story covering the controversy was something short of miraculous, for, once the glamor was lifted from the original article, a hard and honest look was finally taken regarding how cures in animals do not translate to cures in humans:</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>“</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">"The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse," said Dr. Richard Klausner, director of the National Cancer Institute. "We have cured mice of cancer for decades--and it simply didn't work in humans."</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Recent medical history is rife with stories of cancer "cures," such as interferon, interleukin and taxol, that produced exciting results in animals and later proved disappointing in humans.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Dr. LaMar McGinnis, an oncologist and medical consultant to the American Cancer Society, agreed. "We thought interferon was 'chicken soup' in the early '80s," he said. "I remember how excited everyone was; it seemed to work miracles in animals, but it didn't work in humans."”</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>“</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">"People do not understand how very far off this [clinical trials] is; these proteins are very difficult to make . . . and we are working very hard to make the human versions," Klausner said. "The mouse versions don't work in humans."”</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">These statements are devastating to the pro-animal research lobby, but the question is this; eleven years after the NY Times debacle, has the media learn its lesson? In my opinion, no. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Unfortunately, we still see screaming headlines telling us a cure for this disease or that one is just around the corner. And while that drives interest and support for research higher, these hopeful rays of light flash, fade, then dissolve into the darkness and reality that is the failure of animal research.</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b></b></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br />
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</span></div>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-32458466439786963962009-07-11T05:59:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:28:47.133-07:00By Stuart Chaifetz<br />
<br />
Front Page Hype - Back Page Reality<br />
<br />
Part II<br />
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In my last blog, I wrote about how news stories of supposed research breakthroughs burst through on the front page, while deaths due to pharmaceutical drugs are usually sent to the business section.<br />
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I want to focus a bit more on some of those front page headlines, but first, a comment on why I believe these type of stories have become so prevalent, yet there is almost never any follow up to see if these ‘miracle cures’ actually work.<br />
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It’s because our memory retention is awful. You, me, reporters and the media, politicians, all of us; unless a story touches us deeply and personally, we tend to forget what the media craze of the day is once it is replaced by the next one.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
So, when the big headline of June 22, 2009, is that <a href="http://www.siasat.com/english/content/total-cure-deadly-disease-possible-scientists-claim">“Total cure of deadly disease, possible: Scientists claim,”</a> by July 10, no one really remembers this. Except...while a year from now we’ll have forgotten to ask “hey, what happened to those scientists who said they could totally cure AIDS,” there is an overall impression left by repeated publication of such stories that science is always on the verge a cure.<br />
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And this is good for business. It’s good for the media because these stories sell papers, and it’s good for the pharmaceutical and animal experimentation industries because it keeps the money rolling in. Those involved get all of the benefit and praise of a story holding out hope for a cure, but none of the backlash when the drug fails, because the public rarely finds that out.<br />
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It’s a perfect strategy. After all, who would be able to go back in time and collect stories from decades past where vivisectors and scientists told us they were about to cure cancer - but never actually did?<br />
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How about anyone with an internet connection.<br />
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Better than Mr. Peabody’s WayBack machine, we have a little thing called “Google News Archive Search.” No need to sit through dusty old newspaper racks or microfilm for hours upon hours when at our desktop history can unfold in seconds.<br />
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From across the years and front pages of newspapers, here are a select few of ‘the cure is coming’ headlines that never quite worked out. The following headlines are real, but the comments after them are all mine (for those who are vulnerable to sarcasm, you might want to leave the room for the rest of this blog):<br />
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/18/us/virus-linked-to-colds-may-cure-cancer-scientists-say.html">Virus Linked To Colds May Cure Cancer, Scientists Say</a> October 18, 1996<br />
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• Tragically, the body count from sneezing to death made the whole thing moot.<br />
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<a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wh8MAAAAIBAJ&sjid=x10DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7071,3707181&dq=cure+cancer">Armand Hammer foresees cure for cancer by end of decade</a> March 5, 1983<br />
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• I believe Hammer also foresaw that 80’s big hair would never go out of style (who could have???) so maybe we should give him a pass on this.<br />
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<a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/961282342.html?dids=961282342:961282342&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Jan+31%252C+1971&author=&pub=The+Hartford+Courant&desc=Biologist+Claims+DDT+Can+Cure+Cancer+in+Man&pqatl=google"><br />
Biologist Claims DDT Can Cure Cancer in Man</a> January 31, 1971<br />
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• Ah...what?<br />
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<a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=u78TAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IcQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5956,3627052&dq=cure+cancer">Doctor Says Virus to Cure Cancer in Sight</a> October 5, 1951<br />
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• Might have just been a smudge on his glasses. That’s happened before.<br />
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<a href="http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2777664">POISON GAS USED TO CURE CANCER</a> May 5, 1950<br />
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• Clearly the influence for the great DDT cancer cure of two decades later. Personally, I am already hard at work on the nuclear waste and large vat of acid cure for cancer. Expect to see it on CNN once they run out of Michael Jackson tributes (is that even possible?)<br />
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<a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/439153242.html?FMT=ABS&dids=439153242:439153242&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Jan+29%252C+1934&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=FIND+SUBSTANCE+THAT+RATS+USE+TO+CURE+CANCER">FIND SUBSTANCE THAT RATS USE TO CURE CANCER</a> January 29, 1934<br />
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• So it turns out that rats themselves can cure cancer. Who knew? Maybe if we had just asked them nicely for it instead of experimenting, torturing and killing millions of them for decades, they might just have shared the secret. Damn, it’s the whole water-boarding debate again.<br />
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<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9402E2D81E3CE633A25752C2A9619C946396D6CF">CURE CANCER IN MICE; But Injections Beneficial In Their Case Kill Rats and Dogs. </a><br />
July 21, 1912<br />
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• To get serious for a minute - this is a fascinating article, as it exposes the inherit flaw with experimenting on animals; what works positively in one species of animals - mice - is deadly to others - rats and dogs. Unfortunately, nearly 97 years to the day this was published, the same mistakes are being made. Let us hope that 97 years from now they will have finally learned that we need to stop using animals and focus on using human tissue and cells.<br />
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And finally (drum roll please)...<br />
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<a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/428091931.html?dids=428091931:428091931&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&date=Oct+19%2C+1895&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=SCIENCE+FINDS+A+CURE+FOR+CANCER.&pqatl=google">SCIENCE FINDS A CURE FOR CANCER</a> Oct 19, 1895<br />
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Yes! Well, thank goodness cancer was cured in 1895.<br />
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I mean, if it’s in the newspaper, then it must be true...ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2032643797196675420.post-22360791002923920132009-07-02T11:14:00.000-07:002010-08-18T17:29:29.342-07:00<div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">By Stuart Chaietz</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">Front Page Hype - Back Page Reality </span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">Part I</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">When animal experimenters create monkeys with glowing feet (as we recently saw) or whatever the horror of the week is, the story is carried front and center in newspapers and on television. When no new breakthroughs occur - or worse - when people become ill or die from drugs tested on animals, the stories, if carried at all, are usually tucked away in the business section. Placed here, the major aspect of interest becomes the decline of the value of the pharmaceutical company, not of the individuals who have died or of the effect on their families.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">A case in point is this </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssHealthcareNews/idUSN2936029420090629"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">story</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">, from Monday, reporting on a drug called Tysabri, and that a tenth patient taking it has “developed a potentially deadly brain infection.” Something as serious as this should get prime news retail space, but when you look on the news site where it’s posted, you have to follow this path to find it: “</span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/home"><span style="font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">Home</span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"> > </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">Business & Finance</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"> > </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/industries"><span style="font-family: Times; text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">Industries</span></span></a></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"> > </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/industries/healthcare"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">Healthcare</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"> > Article.”</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><a name='more'></a><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">So, while we learn almost nothing in the article of the ten people who have the brain infection linked to Tysabri, we are given a bullet point that the shares of the parent company have fallen 6.8 percent, and that, “Sales of the drug have failed to live up to expectations.”</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">I can think of a number of things involving drugs tested on animals that have “failed to live up to expectations,” but sales is not one that would ever come to mind.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div></span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande';">If ten people get brain disease from watching the current Transformers movie (there’s a whole blog I could write on that alone) it would be next to the story of the train wreck or other catastrophe that has taken multiple lives. With a few exceptions however (as with the drug Vioxx, where the news coverage was propelled by massive lawsuits and numbers of people involved) stories of illness or death of patients, linked to a drug produced by a pharmaceutical company, are usually shunted into the finance section. </span></span>ARISEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06775180760899083215noreply@blogger.com0