Diabetes is deadly enough on its own… but some patients are getting extra help finding their way to that early grave.
And as usual, you can thank Big Pharma for lighting the way.
A new report pegs tens of thousands of deaths on the diabetes drug Avandia. No real surprises there — anyone paying attention knows this med is bad news, even if the FDA still refuses to pull the plug on it.
No, the real shocker here isn’t the report itself… but the fact that it came from the Senate Finance Committee.
Now I’ve seen everything!
If we have to rely on grandstanding D.C. politicians to save us from Big Pharma’s riskiest meds, then we’re in it even deeper than I thought.
The bipartisan report says the FDA’s own numbers show 83,000 heart attacks caused by this drug between 1999 and 2007. Government numbers obtained by the New York Times find that simply switching diabetics to a rival med would prevent 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure every month.
And two of the FDA’s own epidemiologists — including Dr. David Graham, the hero who blew the whistle on Vioxx — are calling for this drug to be pulled from pharmacies.
So where’s the FDA on all this? They’re urging patients… to keep taking the drug! They say they’re still reviewing "new" numbers that were delivered to them last summer… and hope to hold a meeting on this in July.
Going by the conservative numbers in the Times, that means at least 2,500 unnecessary heart attacks and 1,500 preventable cases of heart failure will have happened between now and then.
Nice work, guys. America’s safe in your hands.
Of course, they’re just doing what they do best: Buying time for Big Pharma to sell more meds before the party comes crashing to a halt.
After all, there will probably be some legal bills to pay when all’s said and done.
William Campbell Douglass I.I., M.D. has been called "the conscience of modern medicine."
You can sign up for his "Daily Dose" at DouglassReport.com.
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