Cheerio!

Your physician knows quite well, I am sure, that Topamax can cause cognitive impairment at higher doses. He should have warned you about that. Additionally, you should have gotten a patient information sheet from the pharmacy which described the common side effects, including cognitive dysfunction.

J&J is not responsible for warning individual patients about their products’ side effects. That would be your physician’s job–and as I noted above, every single physician who uses Topamax regularly knows dopiness is a problem.

I don’t work for J&J and never have. I don’t take Topamax. But it is a great drug when used correctly. You make the usual error here on this site of science-by-anecdote.

And if you think pharma is the only industry that profits from the laws for which they lobby, you must have just fallen off the turnip truck. K Street is full of lobbyists for all sorts of special interests–including groups like the Sierra Club, the ACLU, the Trial Lawyers Association and Greenpeace–who push for laws that will benefit them (read increase their power and profit). Where is your indignation with all these other groups and industries?

Does THIS seem like a drug company from whom YOU’D want a precription?

And I WAS on one of their drugs, TOPOMAX for pain management. Worst trip of my life. I could not remember, while driving to work, what I had seen when I looked to the right at a stop sign nor what I’d seen to the left when I looked right again. The only warning on the drug bottle? Use care when operating machinery. I repeated myself constantly. My personality became so altered that my 2 best friends approached me about stopping taking the drug which was an easy decision since, after taking my 200 mg. once a day dosage I would become doubled over in pain.

Johnson & Johnson uses their “non profit” foundation to funnel money (they call it “grants”) to pay for laws, such as smoking bans, so they profit and their stockholders profit from artificially inflated stocks because guess who sells Nicoderm, Nicoderm CQ, Nicorette? And guess who owned, as of December, over 40 MILLION SHARES of JnJ stock? Of course, their “non profit” foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Does no one see anything wrong with the fact they profit from the laws they pay for? They’re dumping major money into obesity. Gee…wonder who owns Splenda?

In 1998, when I first started my research into smoking and second hand smoke, I found that all of the largest most comprehensive studies by the ACS,WHO and all the rest, came to the exact same conclusion. They found no connection of Cancer to SHS/ETS and the same for Heart Disease. The WHO even found that children raised in smoking families were 22% less likely to contract cancer.
After the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was formed by the Johnson & Johnson drug company, science took a nosedive into biased science to promote their smoking cessation products. Looked at closely, it is nothing but a marketing program for the sales of Smoking Cessation Products.
It started full force when Mr. Bill and Hillary got the EPA into the act with their non-study of the supposed 3,000 deaths caused by SHS/ETS.
If a study funded by the ACS,WHO,J&J was not found to be heading for the preconceived conclusion, the funding was dropped and the study had to find other funding or it was stopped.
Without fail all studies funded by the above will be found to be totally biased and even pure fraud done by those with no or very little scientific background.
A Federal Judge, Judge Osteen, found against the EPS Report as being a complete fraud in that they reported the findings before the report was started. They used only the studies that would conform to their agenda and had to adjust those figures upward to make their findings fit the risk factors needed. Judge Osteen worked for four years with, independent scientist, before his decision.
To date, not one death has been proven to be caused by SHS/ETS.
The RWJF has funded smoking bans with grants in the millions and contributions to Political parties. They fund so called grass roots groups in every State and County that have passed a Smoking ban.
Since they started their funding of Smoking Bans, their profits have increased 40%+.
They have caused small businesses to close Nation and World wide. Job losses unequalled in every instance. Tax losses to government. Smuggling and even deaths caused by the products they sell. Their products have caused more health problems than SHS/ETS will ever cause.
This is not a condemnation of real science. It is a condemnation of fraudulent Smoke studies.

I have information on over 150 studies in which only three found a risk factor of 3 to 4 was found. All the est found little risk, if any and some found a benefit.

It is all about Profit in the Billions and has never been about Health.

I have over 260 attachments indexed and ready to send to anyone who needs help fighting this fraud. All you have to do is ask. I am totally self funded and depend on my retirement income. I charge nothing for my services.

I can be reached at 502-727-4747 I will also send a CD with the indexed information. I ask only for postage and that can be sent after you receive the CD if you feel it is worth the cost.

All I want to see is disclosure of that funding source to be laid out and easily accessible to those reading those studies. Not three “organizations” removed from the company that is actually funding the specific study.

Oh, and accurate data collection and interpretation.

I take it this means that on ethical grounds, should either one of you acquire a disease that can be treated with pharmaceuticals, you will eschew the use of any drugs? After all, they are a “cancer” and virtually all of the drugs we currently have have been largely researched and developed by Pharma. Let’s see you put your money–and your health and lives–where your big fat mouths are.

I suppose even that safe-harbor has been destroyed by the storm of public opinion. (Pretty good, gotta try and remember that one).

Remember folks, a lot (if not the lion’s-share, if I remember my stats correctly) of NIH money is targeted to basic research. Those who have tried to change that culture (such as the esteemed Dr. Bernadine Healy) have been raked over the coals. So, to get government labs to do this sort of important ongoing work (I presume that most here would agree that studying these products is important work) PhARMA has to pony up the money.

If NO study that receives PhARMA funding (in full or in part) regardless of WHO or WHAT LAB does it is allowed to proceed or given appropriate scientific credibility then how will research continue? Do folks here feel that the Federal Government will fund this? Do they think it will be through non-profits?

This is a pretty savvy and engaged group of folks so I am just curious – A Question for you all: IF PhARMA WERE BARED FROM FUNDING COMMERCIAL RESEARCH, WHO SHOULD FUND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT WORK ON PHARMACEUTICAL AND BIOTECH PRODUCTS? SHOULD ALL PhARMAs BECOME GOVERNMENT RUN, LIKE THE MILITARY? (Sorry, Ed, I know you usually ask the questions on your site, but this intrigues me a lot.)