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They've provided indisputable evidence that they look out for the drug industry, and they really don't give a hoot what happens to medical patients who are prescribed those drugs.
Nov 14 (Reuters) - Members of an experimental class of cholesterol-lowering drugs could get U.S. regulatory approval based on their ability to lower "bad" cholesterol, and may not need to show that they reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, the Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday.
The statement eased industry concerns that the agency would require more onerous "outcome" studies before approving the drugs, known as PCSK9 inhibitors.
Is that ridiculous, or what? Here's part of what Dr. Briffa had to say about this pathetic turn of events:
The very next day, Reuters carried this story. Here, we are informed that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US has issued a statement informing us it may grant licences to drugs without them having been proved beneficial to health. Yes, in other words, the FDA continues to be happy to let drugs onto the market with no proven benefits whatsoever.
The timing of this statement is extraordinary, and it seems to me to have been released to sooth the nerves of pharmaceutical company executives who are perhaps worried they are not going to be able to peddle unproven medicines in the future. Makes me wonder who the FDA exists to protect.
The red emphasis is mine, of course. Medical care in this country is headed down a dark and treacherous road, IMO.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
tex wrote: Medical care in this country is headed down a dark and treacherous road, IMO.
Tex
You are not just kidding!! Insurance companies won't cover a search for the root cause of a patient's presenting symptoms but will pay for ongoing, wildly expensive, harmful medications that mask symptoms
But only now do I truly understand how dismally, unthinkably, reflexively stupid some doctors can be.
Doctors are no longer required to think (the insurance companies, the AMA, hospital administrators, legal staff, computers that analyze test results, etc., do all the thinking for them these days), so most of them have forgotten how to think. It they're not careful, someday the hospital administrators will realize that they could save a ton of money by replacing all the doctors with trained monkeys (who would be willing to work for peanuts).
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
I haven't read his ACA post. I tend to find that topic so distressing that I avoid it. It's a head in the sand approach but it helps keep me sane, at least for the moment.
Jean.... There is wisdom in knowing our limits and steps to keeping sane! Perhaps you are wiser than me!.. I might take a page out of your book.... *grin*
Sunny
"It is very difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. "
Upton Sinclair
This stuff makes me crazy. It's bad enough I have inlaws who take stupid statins, and one suffers with peripheral neropathy and memory loss, the other with muscle pain. Their symptoms promptly improve when they stop the statins, but they won't stop...doctors orders. But at least their cholesterol is below 200!
I'm beginning to worry that my rheumatologist may try to somehow legally force me to take methotrexate against my will. That can't happen to sane adults, right? The most he can do is fire me as his patient for refusing to follow his orders, right?
Zizzle wrote:The most he can do is fire me as his patient for refusing to follow his orders, right?
I think that's correct. The way this insanity is continuing to gain momentum though, it wouldn't surprise me to see some medical organizations successfully petition the government to persuade the legislature to make the taking of statins mandatory, on the grounds that it's necessary in order to reduce the long-term cost of health care, doncha know. I believe that's actually possible in the Orwellian world we live in today, especially in view of the fact that most voters in the general population seem to be naive enough to back that ridiculous concept (for the good of the nation).
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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