MHRA gets it wrong again. In 2004 they told me there were 47 deaths in one year from paracetamol. The coroners courts proved they were between 500 and 600. They now woefully under-estimated the damage caused by leaking breast implants. Who are they serving-the public or the medical devices industry?
Our UK regulatory body on drugs and medical devices is not a Government organisation. The MHRA is funded entirely by the Pharmaceutical industry and a recent chairman had worked for years for Glaxo Smith Kline.
Breast implants are regulated as medical devices. The MHRA is responsible for ensuring that breast implants meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and performance, and that they comply with the Medical Devices Directive. They did not but UK users were not protected.
Confidence is collapsing in trials of medicinal drugs by pharmaceutical companies. There is mounting evidence that companies' trials are overwhelmingly biased in their conclusions compared with independent trials. They have concealed adverse effects that have killed tens of thousands of patients.
Sir Iain Chalmers' in evidence to the Health Select Committee said that one anti-arrhythmic drug in the 1980s killed more U.S. people than all the Americans killed in the Vietnam war. That was in spite of evidence of its fatal consequences that had been suppressed for 13 years.
The painkiller Vioxx was blamed for 144,000 heart attacks and strokes in the USA alone.
There are claims that Merck suppressed information on Vioxx's dangers in the same way that GlaxoSmithKline denied access to evidence of adverse reactions to Seroxat. When our MHRA set up a committee to examine the dangers of Seroxat, it was disbanded after 6 months. The majority of its members had interests in the Pharma that makes it.
The Italians no longer allow the Pharmas to be prosecutor, judge and jury on drug safety. They have established an independent drugs testing agency funded by a levy on pharmaceutical companies. It's called the Italian Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco.
Time for us to go Italian.
5th December 2011
Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab): As the policy rests on the trust in the regulatory body that was tardy in protecting patients against the adverse side effects of Vioxx and Seroxat, is it not time that we had a fully independent MHRA and not one that is funded entirely by the pharmaceutical industry? As big pharma pays the piper, is it not possible that it will call the tune for its own commercial interests?
Mr Lansley: I think that the hon. Gentleman is wrong about that. The MHRA operates, in scientific and expert terms, in an independent fashion. In so far as it is accountable, it is accountable to me as Secretary of State and to this House. It is not accountable to the pharmaceutical industry. If he is proposing a major transfer of costs from the pharmaceutical industry to the taxpayer, I am afraid that I do not agree with him.
Agree. Who is scrutinising the work of the MHRA? Most people dont know who they are or how to report to them and those that do find that when they do make a report, nothing appears to happen.
We trust Doctors to work in our interests.
But Doctors arent trained in Clinical Pharmacology and only have information from drug manufacturers who overestimate benefits and minimise side effects/harm.
When serious ADR's occur - Doctors have no opinion on the matter. My Dr told me to seek advice from the MHRA, a non-advisory body!
There is a growing international movement of people who have been given Fluroquinolone medications for minor infections or no infection at all, many of these are disabled, many are in constant pain and nothing is being done to investigate.
I'm told that MHRA experts are fence sitters who dont want to upset the pharmaceutical industry.
Doctors are poorly informed of drug side effects. The public arent aware of the reporting system. And it looks as if little or nothing is done when side effects are reported. When they ask what the prescribing Doctor thinks of the matter, the reply is that the GP considers the matter too complex and therefore cannot comment - Case closed.
Useful FQ's links - The Quinolone Vigilance Foundation: http://www.saferpills.org
PBS news piece: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june11/antibiotics_06-16.html
http://www.amazon.com/Bitter-Pills-Inside-Hazardous-World/dp/055337852X/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326064534&sr=1-6
There are thousands of clinical papers demonstrating the dangers of FQ drugs and tens of thousands of people who can vouch for this - some of them describe their pain as 'torture'. A last resort drug, described by GP's as 'domestos' is now used as a first line of treatment and destroying lives as a result.
Posted by: Accountability | January 08, 2012 at 11:18 PM