Comments on: FDA To Fund Study On Meds Used In Pregnancy

By: Amy Philo

Amy Philo — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:56:00 +0000

I can’t wait to see if this turns out as a big joke of a study. Will they be looking for long term effects like SIDS and learning problems and the effects of birth defects? Or will they simply pick a few select defects and sugarcoat the results?

By: Lisa Van Syckel

Lisa Van Syckel — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:36:38 +0000

Dr. H… Thanks for your input

By: M Helm, MD

M Helm, MD — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:52:27 +0000

I think we could quibble over whether or not the addition of the CERT center at Harvard may or may not be a good choice, and whether or not including so many HMO organizations who already have fairly tight control over prescribing behaviors and medication selections are really the best places for this research to occur.

Or we could shout “Hurrah” to Commisioner Hamburg for moving this much needed, long overdue and very important research forward. We know babies have been harmed by medications - sometimes their mothers too. We don’t reliably know which medicattions should be avoided, and which are relatively less risky. I doubt that any are “safe” in the classic sense, but perhaps time will tell.

I would like to see the same research replicated in a ‘non-HMO’ population. In my experience, things can be wild and wooly in a private plan or a Medicaid program without specific prescribing limits relating to pregnancy. These misadventures seem to me to usually happen early in pregnancy and appear often the result of multiple MDs involved in a single patient’s care. These may also result from patient’s continuinng medications previously prescribed by others without consideration of possible pregnancy - a system failure, not an information/research deficit.

By: Lisa Van Syckel

Lisa Van Syckel — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:40:20 +0000

I couldnt agree more with Evelyn!!!

By: Justice in MI

Justice in MI — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 07:21:33 +0000

Since we’ll probably go a few more days before our Pharmalot fix, I will take the liberty of (mostly) changing the subject.

The NYT reports that James Goddard has died. Goddard was FDA Commish from 66-68, and he did not hesitate to call things as he saw them, which made him a lot of enemies. Phil Hilts has described him as one of the 3 or 4 best Commssioners the FDA has ever had. Johnson/Humphrey dumped him after receiving a large campaign donation (not from PhRMA).

Read all about it, and about what FDA can sound like when it has this kind of leadership:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/health/02goddard.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

By: Evelyn Pringle

Evelyn Pringle — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:27:36 +0000

It’s not just Biederman. Right off the top of my head, the names Timothy Wilens, Thomas Spencer, Jeff Bostic, Lee Cohen, Robert Fogel, and Jack Gorman come to mind, for starters.

Biederman always seems to gets all the attention but he is not the only academic on the take at Harvard, that’s for darn sure.

The people you name are indeed good guys but they haven’t been able to do anything about Pharma’s corruption of the Harvard research mill.

I don’t want my tax dollars going to Harvard for anything.

By: Justice in MI

Justice in MI — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:25:18 +0000

Evelyn–I’m no “champion” of Harvard Med School, but it’s a big place–includes Jerry Kassirer (_On the Take_), Arnold Relman, Marcia Angell, John Abramson (_Overdosed America_), Arnold Relman, et. al..

Biederman may be God, but he doesn’t run the whole place (especially not at the moment).

Happy new year!

By: Evelyn Pringle

Evelyn Pringle — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:32:11 +0000

The study was sounding all good and well until I saw “Harvard Medical School.”

I wouldn’t trust anything from anybody at Harvard Medical School and I resent that my tax dollars are going used to give these people the opportunity to pump out more fraudulent research.

Absolutely disgusting!