Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!
15 Dangerous Drugs Big Pharma Shoves Down Our Throats November 19, 2010 - AlterNet
In the pharmaceutical industry’s rush to get drugs to market, safety usually comes last. And the public suffers
In the pharmaceutical industry’s rush to get drugs to market, safety usually comes last. Long studies to truly assess a drug's risks just delay profits after all -- and if problems do emerge after medication hits the market, settlements are usually less than profits. Remember, Vioxx still made money.
The following drugs are so plagued with safety problems, it is a wonder they’re on the market at all. It's a testament to Big Pharma's greed and our poor regulatory processes that they are.
-- Lipitor and Crestor
Why is Lipitor the bestselling drug in the world? Because every adult with high LDL or fear of high LDL is on it. (And also 2.8 million children, says Consumer Reports.) No one is going to say statins don't prevent heart attack in high-risk patients (though diet and exercise have worked in high-risk groups too). But doctors will say statins are so over-prescribed that more patients get their side effects -- weakness, dizziness, pain and arthritis -- than heart attack prevention. Worse, they think it's old age!
"My older patients literally do without food so that they can buy these medicines that make them sicker, feel bad, and do nothing to improve life," says an ophthalmologist web poster from Tennessee. "There is no scientific basis for treating older folks with $300+/month meds that have serious side-effects and largely unknown multiple drug interactions." What kinds of side effects? All statins can cause muscle breakdown (called rhabdomyolysis) but combining them with antibiotics, protease inhibitors drugs and anti-fungals increases your risks. In fact, Crestor is so highly linked to rhabdomyolysis it is double dissed: Public Citizen calls it a Do Not Use and the FDA's David Graham named it one of the five most dangerous drugs before Congress.
-- Yaz and Yasmin
It sounded too good to be true and it was. Birth control pills that also cleared up acne, treated severe PMS (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder or PMDD) and avoided the water retention of traditional birth control pills.
But soon after Bayer launched Yaz in 2006 as going "beyond birth control," 18-year-olds were coming down with blood clots, gall bladder disease, heart attacks and even strokes. Fifteen-year-old Katie Ketner had her gallbladder removed. Susan Gallenos had a stroke and part of her skull removed. College student Michelle Pfleger, 18, collapsed and died of a pulmonary thromboemboli from taking Yaz, says her mother Joan Cummins.
While TV ads for Yaz in 2008 were so misleading that FDA ordered Bayer to run correction ads, Yaz sales are still brisk. In fact, financial analysts attribute the third quarter slump in the Yaz "franchise" of 28.1 percent to the appearance of a Yaz generic, not to the thousands of women who have been harmed.
Why is Yaz sometimes deadly? It includes a drug that was never before marketed in the U.S. -- drospirenone -- and apparently causes elevated potassium, heart problems, and a change in acid balance of the blood. Who knew? But not only is Bayer still marketing it, women do not receive "test subject" compensation for using it either.
-- Lyrica, Topomax and Lamictal
Why would Americans take an epilepsy seizure drug for pain? The same reason they'll take an antipsychotic for the blues and an antidepressant for knee pain: good consumer marketing. In August FDA ordered a warning for aseptic meningitis, or brain inflammation, on Lamictal -- but it is still the darling of military and civilian doctors for unapproved pain and migraine. Lamictal also has the distinction of looting $51 million from Medicaid last year despite a generic existing.
All seizure drugs increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors according to their mandated labels. An April article in JAMA found seizure drugs linked to 26 suicides, 801 attempted suicides, and 41 violent deaths in just five years.
All three drugs can make you lose your memory and your hair, say posters on the drug rating site askapatient.com. Topamax is referred to as "Stupamax" in the military -- though evidently not enough to ask, "Why am I taking this drug again?"
-- Humira, Prolia and TNF Blockers
If you think pharma is producing a lot of expensive, dangerous injectables lately, you're right. Yesterday's blockbuster pills have been supplanted with vaccines and biologics that are more lucrative and safer...from generic competition, that is. The problem is, not only are biologics like Humira and Prolia creepy and dangerous -- they're made from genetically engineered hamster cells and suppress the actual immune system -- the diseases they treat are "sold" to healthy people.
Recently, thousands of college students in Chicago found inserts in their campus newspapers hawking Humira for Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis. ("Hate psoriasis? Love clearer skin," says an ad on the Humira Web site featuring a pretty woman.) And earlier this year Prolia was approved by the FDA for postmenopausal osteoporosis with a high risk of fracture. Do healthy people really want to suppress their body's tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and invite tuberculosis, serious, possibly lethal infections, melanoma, lymphoma and "unusual cancers in children and teenagers" as the Humira label warns? Nor is it clear these drugs work. The Humira label warns against developing "new or worsening" psoriasis -- a condition it is supposed to treat.
-- Chantix
How unsafe is the antismoking drug Chantix? After 397 FDA cases of possible psychosis, 227 domestic reports of suicidal acts, thoughts or behaviors and 28 suicides, the government banned pilots and air traffic controllers and interstate truck and bus drivers from taking Chantix in 2008. Four months later, some military pharmacies banned the drug, which reduces both cravings and smoking pleasure. In addition to Chantix' neuropsychiatric effects (immortalized by New Bohemians musician Carter Albrecht, who was shot to death in 2007 in Texas by a neighbor after acting aggressively), Chantix is linked to angioedema, serious skin reactions, visual impairment, accidental injury, dizziness, muscle spasms, seizures and loss of consciousness. In defending an increasingly indefensible drug, Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation said last year, "Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States and we know these products are effective aids in helping people quit." True enough -- but if you smoke cigarettes you can still drive an interstate truck.
-- Ambien
Sleeping pills like Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata and Rozerem only decrease get-to-sleep time by 18 minutes according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
But Ambien has additional cachet compared to its soporific brethren: it is the drug Tiger Woods reportedly used when cavorting with his consorts; and former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy was taking it when he crashed his Ford Mustang while driving to Capitol Hill in the middle of the night to "vote" in 2006.
In fact Ambien's legendary somnambulism side effects -- people walk, drive, make phone calls and even have sex while sleeping -- has increased traffic accidents say law enforcement officials, with some drivers not even recognizing arresting police. Thanks to bad Ambien press, Sanofi-Aventis has had to run ads telling the public to get in bed and stay there if you are going to take Ambien. (Or you'll break out in handcuffs, as the joke goes.) Ambien has also increased the national weight problem as dieters wake up amid mountains of pizza, Krispy Kreme and Häagen-Dazs cartons consumed by their evil twins.
-- Tamoxifen
Is it a coincidence that Tamoxifen maker AstraZenaca founded Breast Cancer Awareness Month and makes carcinogenic agrochemicals that cause breast cancer? Both the original safety studies of Tamoxifen, which causes cancer, birth defects and is a chemical cousin of organochlorine pesticides, and its original marketing were riddled with scientific error. In fact, FDA objected to AstraZeneca's marketing claim of breast cancer prevention and the casting of endometrial cancer as an "uncommon" event 10 years ago.
Yet today pharma-linked doctors still tell women to take Tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer even though an American Journal of Medicine study found the average life expectancy increase is nine days (and Public Citizen says for every case of breast cancer Tamoxifen prevents there is a life-threatening case of blood clots, stroke or endometrial cancer). A Gynecologic and Obstetric Investigation study shows an example of Tamoxifen's downside: 57.2 percent of women on continuous Tamoxifen developed atrophy of the lining of the uterus, 35.7 coexisting hyperphasia and 8.1 percent uterine polyps. We won't even talk about eye and memory problems -- or the Tamoxifen cousin, Evista, that pharma is also pushing which has a "death from stroke" warning on its label.
-- Boniva
Why is the bisphosphonate bone drug Boniva available in a convenient, once-monthly formulation? Could patients balk at the fact that after you take it you have to avoid lying down for at least 60 minutes to "help decrease the risk of problems in the esophagus and stomach," wait at least 60 minutes before eating or drinking anything except water, never take it with mineral water, sparkling water, coffee, tea, milk, juice or other oral medicine, including calcium, antacids, or vitamins, and of course, "do not chew or suck"? Nor should you take Boniva, say the warnings, "if you have difficult or painful swallowing, chest pain or continuing or severe heartburn, have low blood calcium or severe kidney disease or if severe bone, joint and/or muscle pain."
Bone drugs like Boniva, Fosamax and Actonel are a good example of FDA approving once-unapprovable drugs by transferring risk onto the public's shoulders with "we warned you" labels. The warnings are supposed to make people make their own safety decisions. Except that people just think FDA wouldn't have approved it if it weren't safe.
-- Prempro and Premarin
You'd think Pfizer's hormone drugs Prempro and the related Premarin and Provera would be history in light of their perks: 26 percent increase in breast cancer, 41 percent increase in strokes, 29 percent increase in heart attacks, 22 percent increase in cardiovascular disease, double the rates of blood clots and links to deafness, urinary incontinence, cataracts, gout, joint degeneration, asthma, lupus, scleroderma, dementia, Alzheimer's disease and lung, ovarian, breast, endometrial, gall bladder and melanoma cancers -- pant pant. But you'd be wrong. Even as we speak, Pfizer-linked researchers are testing the cognitive and cardiovascular "benefits" of hormone therapy, in some cases with our tax dollars, at major universities. Even though the cancer rate in the U.S. and Canada fell when women quit hormone therapy in 2002 (as did the U.S. heart attack rate in women), pharma is rolling out HT "Light" for women who suffer from the "ism" of incredibly short memory.
and the DEA refuses to test medicinal MJ why????!!!!!! EPIC FAIL
-------------------- We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. - Hunter S. Thompson
- believe what you may but take the internet with a grain of salt
god damnit, good find veggie but jesus christ how the fizzety fuck can the FDA not fucking approve cannabis but can approve of these? like , they give 50 people one of the drugs listed above. 10 see positive results, 30 feel minor side effects and feel something that relates to positive results, the last 10 get thoughts of suicide or cancer.
but if someone smokes weed and says they feel better its all "ThiNkz 0f T3 Ch1LdR3n5!!"."sTo0PiD StonEr5"
wrraarrr, like george carlin said, this country was appraised, bought and fucked long time ago. You cant get a patent on cannabis..
Salvia is like that malicious carnival ride operator, the one that sees you getting sick and not having a good time. But the ride you paid for is 5 minutes long...and you WILL get all 5 minutes.
BUT
Even the bad trips, are positive when taken in the proper perspective.
yeah, why would they give us back the means to handle most of the diseases by ourselves???
I have always wondered why pharmaceutical companies are not non-profit? I mean, what bigger satisfaction could one get then knowing one is helping people getting cured? Now the incentive to do stuff is pure profit, if it turns out people get better from it or not, that's not even important. Profit...
When I was in highschool back in the early 2000s I was prescribed Topamax and Vioxx by a neurologist for migraines(I did not have seizures or an epilepsy disorder). After several months of being like a zombie(Topamax is nicknamed Dopamax by parents who saw that their kids were doped up from it) I stopped taking the pills secretly, I was tired of not feeling like me. I started to get better but still had migraines(they never went away). When I went back to the neurologist, he gave me another script for both pills, I was like 16 at the time, and I told him to fuck off in front of several of his patience and nurses. Not coincidentally I started heavily smoking herb around that time and suprise suprise my migraines went away. Shortly after this the news erupted with Vioxx recalls and lawsuits. I never went back to that doctor. Those pills fucked me up worse than any bud ever did. AND I DON'T MEAN A GOOD FUCKED UP, I MEAN BAD FUCKED UP! When I started college, I found out a friend of mine was going to that doctor for similar reasons and the doctor prescribed her Topamax which caused her many problems. I told her right away to stop and never see him again. I convinced her mom to switch doctors and she found relief through other medications. I figured this doctor was only giving those pills to patience to line his pockets, since there was lots of Topamax and Vioxx shit around his office(pens, clipboards, all kinds of shit with the brand name of pills on it and I know medication companys send out people to take doctors to lunch and sell their brand of pills and give them shit). Anyway, it's not in a doctors best interest to make you well. It's not in a medication manufactuerers best interest to make you well. If you are 100% healthy they can't make money off you. Before you take something your doctor gives you, RESEARCH THE FUCK OUT OF IT! It may save you money and much much more.
Quote: siriusmushroom said: yeah, why would they give us back the means to handle most of the diseases by ourselves???
I have always wondered why pharmaceutical companies are not non-profit? I mean, what bigger satisfaction could one get then knowing one is helping people getting cured? Now the incentive to do stuff is pure profit, if it turns out people get better from it or not, that's not even important. Profit...
Unfortunately, no major drugs have come out of a communist country or from government labs, and it takes a shit-ton of money to develop medicines: the profit is needed to invest back into further research. However, I do think it is obscene how much profit is turned-out: the researchers don't get squat/rewarded and the CEOs are loaded.
I used to work in the pharmaceutical industry doing medical research (not drug research). It seems to me like most of what can be discovered with present technology has been discovered already, and they are grasping at straws. I honestly believe technology will need to have a huge jump in advancement before the next thing can come out. However, every once in a while a good drug like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maraviroc is discovered.
Since the number of "blockbusters" is dropping, I expect some of the major pharma companies to go bust within a decade. Since the patent life of a drug is only 12 years, many blockbusters will go off profit soon.
Even Pfizer was considering closing down pharmaceutical operations and spend it's cash as an investment bank.
--------------------
"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson
And they say the FDA is there to protect consumers... Yeah right.... It's turned into the pill popping era. Its the era where it seems sicknesses and sufferers are made up in order to sell more pills. It seems like everyone has at least one prescribed drug in their medicine cabinet. People who may just have a bad headache are diagnosed with migrane headaches, people with a sore leg are prescribed a powerful pain reliever, people with mild insomnia are prescribed pills that make them sleep like their in a coma.
where is Oxycontin, and all the other dangerous drugs I really think Oxy should be on here.
-------------------- You, me, this point in existence is undeniably so unique, we take everything for granite ,life , comprehension, feelings, thought, so accustomed to understanding that we've lost the meaning of fully understanding who we are..... we are the extra terrestrial, we are the unknown, we are the mystical...
Quote: Run said: where is Oxycontin, and all the other dangerous drugs I really think Oxy should be on here.
what? realllly? Physiologically opiates are one of the safest drugs known to man, toxicity is nill. The greatest risk is becoming addicted which IMO isn't that difficult to avoid. People get addicted because they'll use days in a row which I never understood, that's just fucking stupid. I just dont see the point of doing that, for me the high drops off dramatically even if you use for only 2-3 days in a row
The only other risk which is very minor is depressing the respiratory system which is very easy to avoid when purity levels are consistent and common sense is taken into account.
Opiates are probably THE safest drugs on pharmaceutical market, more so than even aspirin and acetaminophen since opiates dont cause liver damage. Anti-psychotics, anti-depressants and the other garbage mentioned in this article is the stuff you really want to avoid. Opiates are time-tested, they've been in use for thousands of years and are safe as long as you have a modicum of common sense and willpower
The hypocrisy surrounding opiates on this messageboard is astounding. I'm guessing it mostly stems from heroin and how it's portrayed in the media. People forget, or choose to forget, or are ignorant of the fact that heroin is converted into morphine when it enters the body. Now what is the main alkaloid in pods? Morphine. Nobody here really looks down on pods, though. What's more, the consensus here, from exploring the ODD section and other anecdotal evidence ive come across on the internet, is that pods have the worst, and most drawn out withdrawal symptoms, even worse than the dreaded heroin!
just shows how much of the world is run to the tune of the tinyest fiddle.. *pinches fingers together* epic fail....
-------------------- We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. - Hunter S. Thompson
- believe what you may but take the internet with a grain of salt
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Alan Rockefeller 1,887 topic views. 4 members, 19 guests and 0 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Toggle Favorite | Print Topic ]
Images only 
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Edit 
Reply 
In the pharmaceutical industry’s rush to get drugs to market, safety usually comes last. Long studies to truly assess a drug's risks just delay profits after all -- and if problems do emerge after medication hits the market, settlements are usually less than profits. Remember, Vioxx still made money.
You would think controlled substances would be among the most dangerous wouldn't you... but they're not!
