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FDA 2010 Budget Hiked To $3.2 Billion

June 7, 2009 – 7:19 am

the Obama administration wants to hike the FDA’s budget by 19 percent to $3.2 billion for fiscal 2010. That’s a whopping increase: In dollar terms, it amounts to about half a billion, Reuters reports. A good billion or so of the total comes from industry via user fees.

By H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik | Posted in FDA | Comments (0)

Gardasil Economics

April 22, 2009 – 11:43 pm

Part of public health policy is determining the best use of funds – to save or protect the most lives with the fewest resources. With all the demands on health care from heart disease, diabetes, AIDS, and other types of cancer, the economics for Gardasil don’t add up.

By H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik | Posted in Gardasil | Comments (0)

Cervical Cancer — It Is Time To Think Differently

April 20, 2009 – 9:10 am

Garasil Is NOT The Answer
Merck’s continued looting of state and federal public health budgets for a dangerous and unnecessary vaccine is unsustainable and has to stop.
There are better, safer, more sustainable ways to prevent and treat cervical cancer both at home and in developing countries.  Safety, and ethical issues aside, as a country, we simply [...]

By H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik | Posted in Gardasil | Comments (0)

Pfizer’s Reorg Focuses on Biotech

April 16, 2009 – 9:36 am

Pfizer has announced its reorganization strategy with Wyeth. The research operations will be broken into two units: a biotechnology unit led by a Wyeth senior executive, and a pharmaceutical group led by a Pfizer scientist. The plan hopes to smoothly integrate Pfizer and Wyeth after the acquisition closes later this year. The Wyeth acquisition [...]

By H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik | Posted in Big Pharma Watch | Comments (0)

Garasil Contains “Sodium Borate” AKA Rat Poison

April 14, 2009 – 11:22 am

Rat Poison Chemical Found In Ingredient List
For HPV Vaccine, Garasil
Regular readers of the Inconvenient Woman Blog already know that I think the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, is a dangerous and unnecessary drug. I believe that Merck has perpetrated a clever, profitable, but deadly hoax on the public. Merck’s proven ability to buy political cover, their award [...]

By H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik | Posted in Gardasil | Comments (0)

Big Pharma, Seriously in Touch With the Feminine Side

April 6, 2009 – 1:52 pm

Although women are certainly not the only targets of Big Pharma drug ads, winning the female audience is critical to the success of any given drug. Women are more proactive about their health, more likely to “talk to their doctor”, more likely to encourage their husbands to seek medical treatment, and more likely to manage the healthcare for the entire family.

By H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik | Posted in Big Pharma Watch | Comments (0)

Gardasil, Future Generations Put At Risk

March 30, 2009 – 11:48 am

In Pursuit of Profit
Gardasil is the first virus-like particle (VLP) based vaccine ever approved
Researching Merck’s Gardasil HPV vaccine since 2005, I have read through mountains of data, reviewed medical trial results, FDA and CDC press releases, Adverse Reaction Reports, Merck’s Annual Stockholder’s report, and thousands of articles by both Big Phama’s Evangelists and Critics. In [...]

By H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik | Posted in Gardasil | Comments (0)

Merck Puts Some of Their Gardasil Cash To Work

March 18, 2009 – 1:44 pm

Merck to buy Schering-Plough in $41 billion deal
Reported by David Jolly
Publ
With the purchase, Merck is expanding its franchise in cardiovascular, respiratory and oncology drugs and shoring up its research pipeline, in particular with a Schering-Plough product called TRA, a promising drug designed to prevent blood  clotting.
In addition, Merck will benefit from the worldwide reach of Schering- [...]

By H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik | Posted in MERCK Watch | Comments (0)

Merck Execs See ‘Sage’ as Key Ingredient for Disease Biology

March 12, 2009 – 1:00 pm

Will Open Source “SAGE” platform lead to more transperency to MERCK’s research and clinical trials process?
Consumers can only  hope. Of course if  MERCK corporate lawyers figure out that such an open source platform may lead to a clear chain of custody of the type of information they would rather not have readily available during a [...]

By H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik | Posted in Big Pharma Watch | Comments (0)

Safety For Sale…It Is Time To Demand Accountability From the FDA, and BIG PHARMA

March 5, 2009 – 11:09 pm

Its time to look at the faces of lives lost…
In the early 1990s, faced with protests by AIDS activists about the glacier-like approval of potential life saving drugs, the Clinton administration changed the FDA drug approval process. They allowed pharmaceutical companies to “fast track life-saving” drugs by absorbing the extra costs involved. The unintended consequence [...]

By H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik | Posted in Gardasil® | Comments (0)