Once an advisory panel voted unanimously to recommend that Tysabri, the controversial MS drug, be allowed back on the market, it was assumed that the FDA would follow that recommendation and approve Biogen’s application immediately. 

Apparently, however, the agency intends to take some additional time before acting on the matter and, as a result, will not be making its decision until the end of June.
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Although the often fatal cancer known as mesothelioma is almost always associated with asbestos, a new study has found that environmental exposure to a (nonasbestos) volcanic mineral, erionite, may be just as dangerous.

The study, published in the March 15 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institutefound a high incidence of mesothelioma among people living in a region of Turkey where erionite is plentiful and commonly used in construction and produce storage rooms.
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By Steven DiJoseph

British Health Officials Reeling from Growing list of Serious Medical Blunders

Four-month-old Thomas Smith never had a chance. He was simply “let down in a number of ways” by the very people who were supposed to be caring for him.

After being born with Down’s syndrome, the child suffered a heart attack when a hospital ventilator failed. He was successfully resuscitated and hooked up to a heart-lung bypass machine in order to give his tiny body a chance to rest and recover.
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On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a proposed final rule to prohibit the “extralabel use in poultry of two classes of approved human antiviral drugs in treating influenza.”

The agency has taken this measure “to help preserve the effectiveness of these drugs for treating or preventing influenza infections in humans.”
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Although the often fatal cancer known as mesothelioma is almost always associated with asbestos, a new study has found that environmental exposure to a (nonasbestos) volcanic mineral, erionite, may be just as dangerous.

The study, published in the March 15 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institutefound a high incidence of mesothelioma among people living in a region of Turkey where erionite is plentiful and commonly used in construction and produce storage rooms.
(more…)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Washington State Attorney General have asked a federal judge to order Debt Solutions Inc. and three other telemarketers in Washington and Florida to stop charging consumers hundreds of dollars for a “debt elimination program” that offers a false promise of substantially reduced interest rates and thousands of dollars in savings.

The state and federal agencies jointly filed the action in U. S. District Court in Seattle, seeking an injunction and refund of monies paid for violations of Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), and Washington’s Consumer Protection Act.
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By Steven DiJoseph

Serious surgical mistakes often begin as simple errors that go undetected. Reading the wrong patient’s hospital chart or test results, failing to look at an X-ray or looking at one backwards, improperly filled out forms, or marking the wrong surgical site have all resulted in catastrophic mistakes in the operating room.

Sometimes the mistake is discovered during surgery; however, in most cases the error is only revealed afterwards. In either case, it is usually too late to undo the damage.
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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that the U.S. Supreme Court has denied the Petition for  a Writ of Certiorari on behalf of tobacco giant Philip Morris USA Inc. from a final disposition of the Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District.

The California case, brought by a man (Richard Boeken) who died of cancer in 2002, had originally resulted in a $3 billion punitive damage award in 2001 that was based on a jury finding that Philip Morris was liable for negligence, misrepresentation, fraud, and the sale of a defective product.
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A study conducted by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and published in the March issue of Archives of Surgery has found that the risk of complications associated with bariatric (obesity) surgery increase with the age of the patient.

The team found that every extra year of age carried an additional 6% increased risk for complications. This included the more serious complication such as leaking, dehiscence, or hemorrhage.
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By Steve DiJoseph

An article in the October, 2005, issue of Worst Pills Best Pills Newsletter from the consumer watchdog group, Public Citizen, reported that three Alzheimer’s drugs had been found to be of “questionable “ value in a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) (August 5, 2005).

Those drugs were donepezil (ARICEPT), rivastigmine (EXELON), and galantamine (REMINYL). The conclusion reached by Public Citizen was that the study “adds additional evidence to support our long-standing listing of these drugs as DO NOT USE because of their questionable effectiveness.”
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