Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) has introduced the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act, S.525, and twenty-four other senators have already become co-signers. A similar House bill has also been introduced. Both bills allow for the re-importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and other countries. American drug manufacturers sell medicines to foreign countries for […]
We reported last month that the FDA has banned a natural form of the B6 vitamin called pyradoxamine (pyridoxamine dihydrochloride)—even though fish and chicken contain pyridoxamine, as does brewer’s yeast. No one can argue that pyradoxamine isn’t a natural food substance. It’s a very useful one too, with many health benefits, which is why drug […]
Other B vitamins have generated some legislation in the North Carolina General Assembly. They began considering a bill last week that would create a statewide vitamin distribution program in an effort to prevent or reduce birth defects. The bill would appropriate $480,000 for each of the next two years to purchase multivitamins with folic acid, […]
In other vitamin news, British researchers have found that vitamin D may help slow aging—in the study, women with higher vitamin D levels showed fewer aging-related changes in their DNA. Professor Brent Richards, who led the study, said, “This could help to explain how vitamin D has a protective effect on many aging-related diseases, such […]
On March 2, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on dietary supplements, calling for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to monitor supplements more closely and require increased adverse event reporting.
Last week, the US Supreme Court struck a blow to the pharmaceutical industry when they ruled that litigants may sue for damages if they are harmed by unsafe drugs—even if the drug manufacturers have satisfied federal regulators.
A fascinating article in the New York Times last week told the story of Matt Zerden, a student at Harvard Medical School who was troubled when he heard his pharmacology professor repeatedly promote the benefits of cholesterol drugs and seemed to belittle a student who asked about side effects.
A study published in the journal Cancer Research concluded that vitamin C given to mice or cultured cells treated with common anti-cancer drugs reduces the benefits of the chemotherapy.
The Project on Government Oversight, an independent watchdog group that exposes problems in government, has learned that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has quietly reduced their enforcement of federal quality regulations at laboratories that develop medical devices. The FDA’s inspections of “good laboratory practices” dropped dramatically in the past few years: from 33 in […]
The next time you have a case of diarrhea that lasts a day or more, chances are very good that you have food poisoning. Nearly 25% of Americans suffer a foodborne illness each year. Scientists have counted more than 250 food-related types of illness, which can range from viruses to bacteria to parasites.