The Trouble with Medicine
The watchdog of medicine the world over is the Federal Food and Drug Administration in the US, the beloved FDA. Oh, to be sure, each sovereign country has its own organization in place to conduct this vital role, but realistically, they all seem to take their lead from the FDA. In Canada, we have Health Canada and do a credible job of tinkering but it is widely acknowledged that if a Canadian pharmaceutical company wishes to sell a new drug, it would be wise to convince the FDA first. Health Canada will then practically rubber stamp the thing.
Recently, however, serious cracks are showing in the FDA. Numerous allegations have been heard of corruption, lack of objectivity, nepotism, suppression of research that would hurt drug sales and overt motives of caring more for the pharmaceutical industry's welfare than the public's. Not too long ago, the FDA changed its policy and is now allowing pharmaceutical companies to pay some of its administrative expenses. In February of this year, it was revealed that 10 of the 32 members of the key FDA drug advisory panel had been paid to consult for various drug companies. This august body has been castigated from many quarters for its complete failure to fulfill its mandate of protecting the public; instead the FDA seems bent on allowing the market to be flooded by all manner of expensive medications. Often these new medications go through the "Fast Track" policy in which new drugs can be approved based on studies with as few as 200 people. The promise made by the new policy is that these fast-tracked drugs would, after being released, then be subjected to more extensive research, but this follow through simply isn't happening.
Let's face it: there's no such thing as a "safe" drug. All drugs, by their very nature are toxic and all have side-effects. Using the risk/reward ratio, groups like the FDA try to ascertain if the side-effects are tolerable. This makes sense only if the information and data that you have is accurate and honest. Many times, it seems, this is simply not the case. The recent uproar over the drug group called Cox-2 Inhibitors is a case-in-point.
The Cox-2 drug Celebrex was brought to market in the mid-90's and quickly became the most prescribed medication world-wide. After several years it was revealed that the makers shamelessly falsified their testing results. Vioxx is another drug in this
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