Studies on the effectiveness of the drug industry’s biggest sellers are frankly shocking, according to researchers. We—as individual consumers and as taxpayers—are apparently wasting money on expensive drugs that don’t work. And the side effects are often disastrous. “Every day, millions of people are taking medications that will not help them,” says Nicholas J. Schork, […]
Not only do they make your acid reflux problems worse, they actually sicken your unborn child. Action Alert! An analysis of eight different studies, including data from over 1.6 million patients, found that taking heartburn medication during pregnancy significantly increases the risk for asthma for the baby. The researchers found that proton pump inhibitors (such […]
Another key natural medicine to bite the dust? Action Alert! The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is moving against cannabidiol (CBD), a supplement used to control pain and inflammation. The circumstances are extremely suspicious. Late last year, the DEA published a final rule that classifies marijuana and hemp extracts, including CBD, as Schedule 1 controlled substances—a […]
Governments and much of the press seem to be covering up that Flint is just the tip of the iceberg. State-based Action Alert! We reported last month that in Flint, Michigan, tap water in residents’ homes contained astonishing levels of lead, as high as 104 parts per billion (ppb), when the Environmental Protection Agency’s limit […]
And hobbles your doctor. Action Alert! In the waning days of 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ignored the expressed will of Congress. The agency completed a “guidance” document that prohibits traditional compounding pharmacies from stocking doctors’ offices with custom drugs. In December 2015, Congress included a provision in an end-of-the-year spending bill […]
Keeping Francis Collins as director of the National Institutes for Health (NIH) would send exactly the wrong message. Action Alert! Right now, the federal government subsidizes the pharmaceutical industry, then grants it legally enforced monopolies which allow it to charge insane prices on those subsidized drugs, then buys the drugs in huge quantities at those […]
If you forgot the pharmaceutical industry, don’t worry. The federal government will take care of it for you. The refrain we hear from representatives of the pharmaceutical industry is that drug costs are high because the research, development, and shepherding of drugs through the FDA’s approval process is astronomically costly. What they fail to mention […]
Last week, Bloomberg News reported that President-elect Trump is considering Jim O’Neill as the new FDA commissioner. O’Neill is a Silicon Valley investor, libertarian, and associate of Peter Thiel, a billionaire who supported Donald Trump. O’Neill previously worked for the Department of Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush administration. News reports say […]
The FDA’s attack on independent lab testing appears to have been beaten back. Action Alert (Thank you to Congress) In a recent announcement, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that it will back off of its plans to put new rules in place for laboratory-developed tests (LDTs), rules that represented an attempted regulatory […]
The FDA is no doubt pulling the strings on this. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued a policy statement explaining that the agency will hold efficacy and safety claims for over-the-counter (OTC) homeopathic drugs to the same standard as claims for other OTC drugs. This means homeopathic OTC products will need to back up […]