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Yet another panel of scientists has found no evidence that a popular vaccine causes autism. But despite the scientists’ best efforts, their report is unlikely to have any impact on the frustrating debate about the safety of these crucial medicines. “The M.M.R. vaccine doesn’t cause autism, and the evidence is overwhelming that it doesn’t,” Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, the chairwoman ... --snip-- The panel did conclude, however, that there are risks to getting the chickenpox vaccine that can arise years after vaccination. People who have had the vaccine can develop pneumonia, meningitis or hepatitis years later if the virus used...

FORT WORTH, Texas - If your dog has heartworms it will be harder to get a cure. The only company producing the parasite-killing drug has run out and veterinarians don’t know when they’ll get more. Veterinarians across the country are in a quandary because Immiticide is the only FDA-approved drug available to treat dogs with heartworms. Drug company Merial said its supply is gone and it can’t produce any more because it can’t get the drug’s active ingredient in the United States. The FDA has been hesitant to allow overseas suppliers to fill American orders. Vets are working with what...

WASHINGTON (AP) — International business can be an ethical jungle, but it's rare to get details of bare-knuckle tactics on tape. According to a recording and sworn testimony provided to The Associated Press, a lawyer in Mexico for a leading U.S. drug manufacturer offered to pay an opposing expert in a lawsuit if he would leave the country on a key court date to undermine the case. *** Baxter said the lawyer was not authorized to make any offers, and it has severed all ties with him. The recording and its disclosure offer an unusual glimpse of fishy maneuvers in...

WASHINGTON, August 12, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The California legislature is now pushing through a bill to remove parental notification for children as young as 12 to receive the dangerous STD vaccine Gardasil. The American Life League reports that each treatment of the HPV vaccine Gardasil, has an average cost of over $360, a sum that would be footed by taxpayers. Gardasil, the most popular HPV vaccine, has been found to cause dangerous side effects and as many as twelve deaths in the United States alone. The state had attempted but failed in 2007 to mandate HPV vaccinations for all girls...

Bear with me, this isn’t a “sound bite” subject. The Human Papilloma Virus is an infection, and should not be a moral issue. In contrast, the vaccine against four strains of the virus, Gardasil, has become a political issue, even though the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now recommends it for all boys and girls. Governor Rick Perry has been criticized for his February, 2007 Executive Order that made the vaccine mandatory for girls before entering the 6th grade. Very little is said about the part of the EO that affirmed the right of and facilitated parents who wish...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Michael O'Neal is a pharmacist. He purchases drugs for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He often deals with drug shortages, but this one is bad. O'Neal is concerned about the availability of electrolytes. They are critical to a babies in neonatal intensive care and seriously ill adults. Electrolytes are administered to a critically ill patient for nutritional support intravenously. They are given to patients who cannot get their nutrition any other way. O'Neal said he's concerned that as supplies shrink, measures will have to be taken. "We are dangerously close, we believe, when we will have to ration...

Vid at source.

The court split along conservative-liberal lines. "It is beyond dispute that the federal statutes and regulations that apply to brand-name drug manufacturers are meaningfully different than those that apply to generic drug manufacturers," said Justice Clarence Thomas. "Indeed it is the special, and different, regulation of generic drugs that allowed the generic drug market to expand, bringing drugs more quickly and cheaply to the public." In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor countered, "These divergent liability rules threaten to reduce consumer demand for generics... ... Thomas acknowledged that from the plaintiffs' perspective in the latest cases, "finding pre-emption here but not in...

Lipitor. Actos. Plavix. These are some of the most-prescribed medicines in the U.S., drugs that are so commonplace they are responsible for a huge chunk of the $300 billion spent on brand-name pharmaceuticals each year. That is about to change as patents on these pricey pills begin to expire, opening the door for generic competition. And that can translate to savings of up to 90 percent, analysts say, making these drugs affordable to more consumers. Americans will see cheaper copies of some of the biggest drug names starting this fall. Out-of-pocket costs of the generic form of Lipitor, a widely...

Even short-term use of some painkillers could be dangerous for people who've had a heart attack, according to research published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers analyzed the duration of prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) treatment and cardiovascular risk in a nationwide Danish cohort of patients with prior heart attack. They found the use of NSAIDs was associated with a 45 percent increased risk of death or recurrent heart attack within as little as one week of treatment, and a 55 percent increased risk if treatment extended to three months. The study was limited by its observational...

WASHINGTON -- The number of prescription drugs in short supply has more than tripled since 2005 and shortages are now more frequent than ever, [] Premier Healthcare Alliance -- a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals -- surveyed 311 pharmacy experts at hospitals and other facilities, such as surgery centers and long-term care facilities, about shortages during a six month period in 2010. The survey found that 89% had experienced shortages that may have caused a medication safety issue or error in patient care. Eight out of 10 times a shortage occurred, the patient's care was delayed...

An anonymous email making the cyberspace rounds is so upsetting that its author was correct to hide his name. The “Changes Are Coming” email details the demise of our post office, our newspapers, check writing systems, books and music as we know them along with the end of Cable TV and network systems as now constituted. But the harshest caveat bearing down on America is our demise due to deindustrialization. The email reports that “Tens of thousands of factories have left the U.S. in the past decade alone. Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost. . .the U.S....

Dr. Theresa Deisher speaks at the HLI conference last weekend. WASHINGTON, D.C., December 8, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Every day in America, countless packages are carefully transferred for use by government, university, pharmaceutical and other biotechnology laboratories. Some of these end up advancing development of products such as cosmetics and food additives; others are used directly as a form of therapy. The material in those packages are human body parts - eyes, ears, limbs, brain, skin - now an indispensable commodity for many U.S. researchers and scientists, and a lucrative export of America’s abortion clinics. To see an example of an...

Publisher Peter Osnos, who admits to personally working with former Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellan on his new book, What Happened, began his career as an assistant to I.F. Stone, the pro-communist "journalist" named as a Soviet agent of influence who was the uncle of Weather Underground communist terrorist Kathy Boudin. But the connections don't end there. Boudin's son Chesa was raised by Barack Obama associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who were Boudin's comrades in the communist terrorist group, after Kathy Boudin went to prison for her involvement in an armed robbery and assault that took the...

This release is available in French.Quebec City, October 27, 2010—High doses or prolonged use of glucosamine causes the death of pancreatic cells and could increase the risk of developing diabetes, according to a team of researchers at Université Laval's Faculty of Pharmacy. Details of this discovery were recently published on the website of the Journal of Endocrinology. In vitro tests conducted by Professor Frédéric Picard and his team revealed that glucosamine exposure causes a significant increase in mortality in insulin-producing pancreatic cells, a phenomenon tied to the development of diabetes. Cell death rate increases with glucosamine dose and exposure time....

Merck (MRK), the world's second largest drugmaker, said Thursday it plans to close eight manufacturing plants and eight research facilities around the world in its bid to save $3.5 billion a year. The Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company is also reducing its workforce by 15%, or some 16,000 jobs, it said. The actions are part of a restructuring the company has undertaken following its $41 billion acquisition of rival Schering-Plough in November. In addition to the plant closings, Merck said it will consolidate some offices worldwide, as part of the restructuring begun last December. "Today's announcement is another important step as...

A gene silencing approach can save monkeys from high doses of the most lethal strain of Ebola virus in what researchers call the most viable route yet to treating the deadly and frightening infection. They used small interfering RNAs or siRNAs, a new technology being developed by a number of companies, to hold the virus at bay for a week until the immune system could take over. Tests in four rhesus monkeys showed that seven daily injections cured 100 per cent of them. U.S. government researchers and a small Canadian biotech company, Tekmira Pharmaceuticals, worked together to develop the new...

Pfizer, the largest drug maker in the world, disclosed 35 million in payments during the second half of 2009 to doctors who consulted or spoke on behalf of drugs and to the medical centers that tested them, The New York Times reports. This is Pfizer's first disclosure of this nature. "While other pharmaceutical companies have disclosed payments to doctors, Pfizer is the first to disclose payments for the clinical trials. The disclosure does not include payments outside the United States" (Wilson, 3/31). "The drugmaker made the disclosure as part of a government settlement after it pleaded guilty last year to...

Dr. Arthur Laffer, one of the great economic minds of our generation recently published a piece whose title he adapted from a quote by Steven Landsburg: "Economics Can Be Summarized In Four Words: People Respond to Incentives." Companies are just like people. In the early 1990's when BillaryCare was on the table, the Clinton Administration decided they needed a villain (sound familiar?) so they began a vicious attack on the pharmaceutical industry. The only problem was, the pharmaceutical companies were busy developing drugs like Lipitor that prevent costly and serious health problems such as strokes and heart disease. BillaryCare failed...

Enfield, Conn. (WTNH) - Thieves broke into an Enfield warehouse filled with prescription drugs over the weekend, getting away with up to $75 million worth of narcotics. The large, non-descript brown building back in the woods in Enfield is a transportation hub of sorts for prescription drug company Eli Lilly . Over the weekend someone cut a hole in the roof and rappelled inside, stealing between $50-$75 million worth of drugs. It's the largest theft in town history. "The hole was very high up and there was no way they you would be able to leap to the floor," Enfield...