Free Republic

...FDA oncology drugs chief Richard Pazdur is the most important person in the U.S. government when it comes to cancer drugs, and he has never made a secret that he dislikes the accelerated approval process under which Iressa got the green light. Nor has he been shy about suggesting that the agency was railroaded in this drug's case. The truth is that Iressa-maker AstraZeneca simply refused to play by Dr. Pazdur's rules. In 2002 -- knowing it had plenty of data to qualify for accelerated approval -- the company rebuffed his requests for more trials and appealed directly to something...

FINDINGS Influenza has been added to the recommended schedule of shots for all infants, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend that, beginning in fall 2004, all children age 6 months to 23 months, as well as household and out-of-home caregivers for such children, receive an annual influenza vaccine, the CDC said. The CDC had been moving toward the recommendation even before this past flu season, which began early and featured a nasty strain of virus that killed...

April 30, 2004 Genetic Link Seen in Cancer Drug's Power By ANDREW POLLACK s one treatment after another failed to beat back her lung cancer, Kate Robbins began writing her thoughts and feelings in journals to leave her children "something tangible that they could read and refer back to" after she died. Then Mrs. Robbins, who lives in Concord, Mass., began taking a drug called Iressa. Her tumors began to melt away. Sixteen months later, while it is possible that the tumors will return, there is no sign of them. Stories about such rescues from death's door have given hope...