Welcome to Reality- The Plain Unvarnished Truth About The Codex Vitamin Issue

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Welcome to Reality- The Plain Unvarnished Truth About The

Codex Vitamin Issue

 

 

 

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 19:51:20 -0000

I know many people will find some of this unpleasant but John Hammell

really knows what he is talking about first hand, as he has been

fighting for this cause for many years. As the title says - 'the

plain unvarnished truth'..

 

 

 

IAHF.COM

Tuesday, March 01, 2005 2:41 AM

 

IAHF Webmaster: Breaking News, All Countries, Codex

 

IAHF List:

 

Below you will find IAHF's responses to Jack Konrath's reply to my

last message. Through it you will all gain a healthy perspective on

the reality of where we all stand. My purpose in making this response

to Jack Konrath is not to put him down, it is to provide my

perspective on this complex issue we're all attempting to address.

 

One thing I will never do with you guys is to sugar coat this

situation. To do so would deprive you of the awareness necessary to

grasp where we ACTUALLY stand, and we can't possibly fight back and

win if a huge number of people on this list remain in la la land.

 

Its very easy to be an armchair quarterback the way Jack is, but the

reality of being on the front lines in this battle in this office with

a phone ringing off the hook and no one to help answer it is another

story entirely.

 

If you read my responses to Jack below, it will help you to put

yourself in my shoes, and you just might come away with a more in

depth perspective that could help us all in some way to fight back

successfully.

 

I've had an interesting mix of emails today from a wide variety of

people on the IAHF list.

Some of you are very angry at me right now, while others feel more in

alignment with my views.

 

If you'd like to see my perspective on this battle we're all in

together, please take the time to read my response to Jack's response.

I can't be all things to all people, its pointless to even try.

Everyone on this list has a common bond of wanting very much to

successfully stop the pharma juggernaut.

 

JACK KONRATH

 

John,

 

My criticism of your letter was meant to be constructive. I'm sorry

you missed the point. " Mindless critic " ? I'm deeply disappointed that

you would personalize such an important issue.

 

IAHF- Its a very personal issue. My LIFE is at stake. I have a genetic

need for the supplements I use. They saved my life after mainstream

medicine almost killed me http://www.iahf.com/on_the_back_wards.html

This article has been translated into several foreign languages and

has been widely downloaded by people around the world. I get far more

calls and emails regarding it than I can handle from people who are

desperately seeking help for themselves or loved ones. I don't have a

staff here, and at times my phone rings off the hook. I get over a

thousand emails a day sometimes, and work over a hundred hours a week.

I am responding to your email at 12:23 am after getting a couple hours

sleep.

Neither the President or VP are running this country. They were both

inserted by the CIA http://www.blackboxvoting.com and are merely

figureheads, pawns of the Bilderbergers, Trilateral Commission, and

Council on Foreign Relations. They have no power to do anything about

what is going on with dietary supplements. If either of them were to

block US ratification of the Codex vitamin standard, they'd be killed

just as surely as Kennedy was.

 

I had death threats for pushing for congressional oversight on this

issue. Milt Copulous was trying to help me get oversight till he was

fired from Congressman Dan Burton's staff. He was not fired by Burton.

He was fired by someone with power over him on the Committee staff

whose palm was being greased by the Cartel, and he was replaced by a

pharma plant who was a woman with 5 kids with on child support from

her ex which made her easy pickin's for the cartel to grease her palm.

 

I knew she was a plant the moment I got wind that she'd been tapped to

replace Milt, but not just because of the circumstances, because she

had previously worked for the Office of Alternative Medicine at NIH,

(before it became NCCAM) She was a snitch for Varmus, the head guy at

NIH, who HATED OAM and was filling the place up with plants. She

ratted out my friend Dr.Jackie Wooten and got her fired. All Jackie

had done was to give out the names of alternative practitioners to

members of the public who called in desperately seeking help.

 

I was on the ad hoc Advisory Board that created OAM at NIH, and am one

of the authors of Alternative Medicine- Expanding Medical Horizons- a

Report to NIH on Alternative Medical Practices in the United States.

This book is still being sold by the government printing office, but

NCCAM has been totally hijacked by the Cartel which is why former

Congressman Berkley Bedell formed his own private Foundation- NFAM-

National Foundation for Alternative Medicine http://www.nfam.org

 

 

JACK KONRATH- By your response to my letter, it seems you think we

differ on what is wrong. We do not. However, your letter whines about

what is wrong and demands change. There is no consequence for

inaction. For there to be a major consequence for inaction requires

the strength of numbers, both dollars and votes. If you have the

strength of numbers, there is no need to even articulate what is

wrong. It doesn't matter. No whining necessary. Simply demand the

change you seek and it will be done. Do you think that Congress will

be moved by whining about what is right and what is wrong? They'll be

moved by only two things: Votes & money. To win this battle through

the political process requires the power of votes and money. That

needs to be the focus.

 

IAHF- You are BADLY out of touch with REALITY and you're also in

deepest denial about what is going on in the world, especially with

regards to this issue. Apparently, you are failing to connect the dots

on what is going on. This article will help, but only if you also read

the links attached to it

http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/emergency_update_020705.htm

 

 

JACK KONRATH- Let me try an analogy. Think for a moment about the

Palestinians. For decades they've tried to further their cause using

(not so figuratively) slingshots and sticks against an enemy driving

M-1 tanks and flying F-16s. Meanwhile, we watch the news every night

and think what a bunch of stupid inhuman barbarians the Palestinians

are. Hence, no American support... and apparently no support from any

other country. They'll never win that way. The only way they will ever

win is with the weight of major political powers behind them in their

cause.

 

To influence those powers, they need to control money and votes. You

and I both know it. In my opinion, your suggested letter makes you...

and more importantly, the IAHF... look like the Palestinians. In your

proposed letter, you threaten the existing political power with

slingshots. But, to win, you need to be able to disrupt the flow of

money and influence the popular vote. Yes. It is a big fight. That's

why you must be big. You need 80 million supplement using voters on

your side.

 

IAHF-

 

Nice joke. You have no clue about what we are up against. Even if the

US Codex Delegate were to back off completely, we're still roped in to

the outcome by membership in the WTO, and it wouldn't matter if I had

petitions signed by every voter in America, our Congress is not ABOUT

to remove us from the WTO or from the UN. I have been to Codex

meetings in Germany.

 

It was quite an eye opening experience. Unelected bureaucrats from the

world's FDAs all know each other on a first name basis like one huge

happy family. That's from attending numerous international meetings

and from being networked heavily by phone, fax, email and even video

conferencing.

 

Every single one of them has the same Dieticians mindset as Christine

Lewis Taylor who FDA sent over to WHO to fill in the blanks on

allowable potency levels at CODEX. We are witnessing a monolithic

level of corruption, but you have not experienced what I have. I was

driven from my house in Florida and had to run for my LIFE for pushing

for congressional oversight on this issue, and the hearing that I

pushed for 5 very long years with every fiber of my being was

WHITEWASHED on March 20, 2001.

 

The fix is in. We have been set up like bowling pins. The situation

we're facing in America is no different than that occuring in England

where the ruling Labour Party totally ignored over a million

signatures on petitions against harmonizing to the EU Food Supplement

Directive that were gathered in English health food stores.

 

If I had not experienced the stuff I have, I would not believe this

about America, but I have no illusions about how deep the CESSPOOL is.

 

You are living in La La land.

 

 

JACK KONRATH-

 

We know that over half of the population of the U.S. uses alternative

medicine to maintain their health. That's a lot of votes to a

politician and a lot of money being spent on products threatened by

Codex. The problem is that the Codex issue is invisible to 99% of the

users. The issue NEEDS VISIBILITY.

 

I applaud your efforts, but, to win on Codex, every single vitamin

user needs to know that their rights are being threatened... and needs

to know what action to take to protect their rights... and then needs

to TAKE THAT ACTION. The challenge is to gain that visibility so the

message can be communicated to the entire population of vitamin users.

 

National visibility implies a spokesperson... one who has or can get

visibility... perhaps a popular actor or actress who has the money and

the inclination to represent the cause and make the appeal to the

millions of people who will be affected but... most of all... CAN GET

ON TV. I think you can agree that the visibility, news coverage and

response to such an approach would have an enormous impact by virtue

of strength of numbers. Money and votes will win the day. 80 million

voters need to stand up and say " enough is enough " .

 

IAHF

 

Our President and VP were inserted by the CIA. They were not voted

into office. http://www.blackboxvoting.com Many Senators and

Congressmen were also inserted, and all of them are figureheads in any

case. They're not running this country, its being run by a shadow

government which is running governments world wide. They're pulling

out all the stops right now to force us into a carbon copy of the EU

Dictatorship in our hemisphere, the FTAA- see

http://www.stoptheftaa.org FTAA will harmonize all the laws between

the Arctic Circle and Tierra del Fuego, yet if you take a poll of the

next 100 people you bump into, I bet not even 3 have even HEARD of it.

 

During David Kessler's reign of terror in the early 90s the FDA was

actively raiding health food stores, alternative practitioners and

vitamin companies. There was a huge public backlash and we DID get

media coverage then, as well as support from such celebrities as Mel

Gibson. It was obvious that we were under attack.

 

Today's situation is far more complex and not nearly as easy to

understand. Every vitamin trade association in the world today is

controlled from the top down by pharma interests. The spin against my

message has been never ending and incessant for the past 9 years. You

have no idea what its like to be up against this level of spin. The

supplement industry is being spun literally into the ground.

 

The Emergency program we had at ACAM was too little, too late. I just

about KILLED myself to make that program happen. If this were a

football game, we'd be in the 4th quarter, behind by 8 touchdowns, but

you don't realize this because you aren't in my shoes, seeing this

situation from my perspective.

 

 

JACK KONRATH

 

Do you really think that Dick Cheney worries that he will lose access

to chelation or supplements as a result of Codex? Of course not. In

fact, Codex tacticians make every attempt to obfuscate the real issue

by arguing that NO ONE will lose access to supplements as a result of

Codex. Only the supply channel will change.

 

Codex is an issue of control. A doctor will still be able to issue a

prescription for anything up to and including mega-doses of any

supplement now available at our corner health food store or drug

store... but the vitamins will only be available in those doses by

prescription and come from Big-Pharma-owned or -controlled manufacturers.

 

It is this control that we're fighting... which means that we're

fighting the billions of advertising dollars and billions in tax

revenues Big Pharma represents. Any strategy that fails to confront

these dollars with an equal or greater opposing force will fail. 80

million voters/supplement users are big enough to win.

 

IAHF

 

This is such an ignorant statement that I almost don't know where to

even begin to address what you are saying. It is not true that we will

be able to get the most innovative supplements currently available by

Rx, for the simple reason that they won't even be manufactured any

more unless we find some way to stop what is unfolding.

 

They're banning the raw materials that go into them, you haven't read

the fine print for the EU FSD. see

http://www.alliance-natural-health.org Sorry, but 80 million voters

are NOT enough to win, because we did not vote our President into

power, he was installed on us by the CIA along with many members of

congress.

 

 

JACK KONRATH

 

Now to that which so offended you. I don't really care what your

actions were that got you kicked off the US Codex Delegation to the

CCNFSDU prior to the 2000 meeting in Berlin. The fact that you DID get

kicked off rendered you less effective in the fight. Were you still

there, you would know their strategy, tactics and direction, thus

giving you important insights in real time. Now you no longer have

these advantages. Again, I applaud your motivation to add transparency

to the process, but reject any tactic that lessens your effectiveness.

 

You WERE the only transparency. Now you're in hiding. That you were

threatened and felt the need to move to a remote location... and still

feel that need... reduces your ability to fight, thus lessening your

effectiveness. Do you see no value to a stealth mode that would allow

you to know, on an ongoing basis, exactly what the enemy is doing? Web

published camcorder proceedings and threats of gun ownership lobbies

and any other confrontational tactic not based on overwhelming force

reduces your credibility and effectiveness. Think bigger. No battle

was ever won without overwhelming force. 80 million voters/supplement

users are indeed an overwhelming force. We need a strategy that

enlists and makes visible to the government their full support.

 

IAHF

I got footage from inside a Codex meeting showing them FORCE ME to

turn my camcorder off, and by putting it on the web I woke up huge

numbers of people on this issue, at great risk to my life. We have had

lots of people inside Codex meetings after I was thrown off the US

Delegation. Scott Tips, JD, Legal Director of the National Health

Federation is one of many examples I can cite. He has attended

numerous Codex meetings. Having people inside codex doesn't do any

good whatsoever because its a TOTALLY RIGGED game, but I guess the

awful truth of that has eluded you. See this article " A Meeting of

Two " by Scott Tips http://ahha.org/codextips2004.htm and pull your

head out of your ass.

 

 

JACK KONRATH

 

You wrote: " " The spirit is evil " ? It is " evil " to attempt to stop a

global eugenics program? "

 

Did I state that it's evil to attempt to stop a global eugenics

program? Of course not. Do you think you can win the support of the

office of the president through mean spirited threats? He is your

would-be proponent. You need to give him both a will and a way that he

can help you, not threaten him with your slingshot to further alienate

him to your cause.

 

IAHF

Read this psychological profile of GW Bush

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1033771,00.html

 

 

JACK KONRATH

 

 

What is that all about? Did I tell you what to send to your list? Did

I opt off your list? Of course not. I sent you a private communication

meant to get you to consider how really stupid your proposed letter to

the president comes across.

 

The letter will fail to influence because it flexes muscles not yet

built. It will precipitate no action because there is no dire

consequence for inaction. It makes our would-be proponent defensive

and adversarial rather than offensive and cooperative. Your proposed

letter to the president makes any would be adopter look like a

slingshot-wielding radical, with no power or credibility, digging his

toe through the dirt and begging the president for a fight.

 

The president shouts over his shoulder, " Hey, Dick... Do we have any

more of those M-1 tanks and F-16s to quell this little band of

dissidents? " Sunday stroll in the park? The best strategy would make

the enemy think that this battle is a stroll in the park... just

before you unleash the power of 80 million voters/supplement users on

the Congress and office of the president. Actually, I think you know

that. I just don't think your letter does the trick. In this case,

yes, I'll write my own letter.

 

IAHF

 

You are so far out of touch with reality that its mind boggling. The

vast American public has no idea that this battle is even going on. We

aren't living in the early 90s during David Kessler's reign of terror.

The whole nature of the attack today is vastly different and vastly

more difficult to expose.

 

 

JACK KONRATH

 

With regard to IAHF and the mailing list, I remain a supporter of both

you and the cause... no matter what name calling you choose to

employ... because I believe that winning is what's important here...

and to win we all need to be together. At least 80 million of us.

 

Thanks for listening.

 

IAHF

 

Its so easy to be an armchair quarterback. You don't even have the

REMOTEST awareness of how deep the CESSPOOL in DC actually is. I have

no illusions. I've been going toe to toe with the Cartel on this issue

since 1996 when I was the first to call it to public attention, and

I'm lucky I'm still alive.

 

Even if every voter in America were to awaken to the truth of what

I'm trying to say, and they made their feelings known, we'd all be

ignored just as the more than one million vitamin consumers in the UK

were when they signed petitions against harmonizing England's vitamin

law to the EU Food Supplement Directive.

 

Thats the part you don't understand, and clearly, you never will. You

still believe in this fetid cesspool known as America. I stopped

believing in it a long time ago. Open your eyes to reality. Read this

article by Stephan Ames http://www.apfn.org/apfn/halluc.htm

 

 

 

At 12:30 AM 2/27/05, you wrote:

IAHF List: See my response to Jack Konrath below. Through my response

you will see exactly where I am coming from. Also realize that this is

not going to be a sunday stroll in the park- this Codex vitamin issue

is just the TIP of a MUCH larger iceberg....

 

Konrath said:

 

I've been following this Codex debacle for the last six months and

find it totally unacceptable. Why not just stick to the facts and

forget about the hyperbole? Don't you think the facts speak loudly

enough? Of course they do. Don't waste the time and money of the

people who believe in your cause by coming on disgruntled. You are on

the side of right. You don't need to stoop to foul play to win this

fight. You DO need to keep everyone on your side and the way to do

that is to be big. Do you really think that your suggested letter is

the best way to do that? If I were Bush, I'd crumble your letter up

into a little ball and toss it in the circular file. If that's the

outcome you seek, you're on the right track.

 

Jack Konrath

 

IAHF RESPONSE:

 

" The spirit is evil " ? It is " evil " to attempt to stop a global

eugenics program?

 

Explain yourself.

 

I was kicked off the US Codex Delegation to the CCNFSDU prior to the

2000 meeting in Berlin because at the '98 meeting in Berlin I

videotaped the first half hour of the meeting (til Grossklaus, the

German chair of the meeting stopped the meeting to force me to shut my

camcorder off), and for pushing very hard for congressional oversight

having witnessed illegal acts by Dr.Yetley of the FDA.

 

The German government banned my future participation at Codex meetings

because I not only attempted to make these non transparent meetings

more transparent by filming the meeting, but because I digitized the

film I shot which showed them forcing me to shut my camera off, and I

put it on the web in order to show the total non transparency of these

rigged proceedings.

 

I had serious death threats for attempting to get congressional

oversight on this issue, and was forced to move from South Florida to

a very remote location in the mountains of Virginia (where I have

since moved from again) due to my efforts.

 

What I said about Cheney in my letter is true: his life WAS saved just

before the election by chelation therapy administered at Bethesda

Naval Hospital and by consuming dietary supplements.

 

If he cares about defending his own life, he and Bush will pay heed to

what I am saying.

 

It is true that the FDA is part of the Executive Branch.

 

Everything in my letter was protected first amendment speech. You are

free to use it, to not use it or to edit it and send your own version,

but I do not appreciate your highly offensive comments especially

given that I have been risking my LIFE to address this issue since

being the first to call it to global attention in 1996 via my article

in Life Extension Magazine.

 

This sad fact remains: Even if we could get a legal injunction against

the FDA over ratification of the standard, and we BLOCKED the FDA from

ratifying it, we're STILL roped in to harmonizing to it due to our

membership in the WTO.

 

Last time a member of Congress attempted to get us OUT of the WTO was

in 2000 when Congressman Ron Paul tried via HJ Res 90. He got body

slammed for his efforts which went NOWHERE.

 

Face it, we're up against a Congress which has a eugenics agenda.

 

John Hammell, President

International Advocates for Health Freedom

 

 

 

At 11:02 PM 2/26/05, you wrote:

IAHF Webmaster: Codex Emergency, All Countries, Breaking News, What to Do

 

IAHF List: No matter what country you live in, please join IAHF in

sending email to President Bush and to the US Congress demanding that

Bush rein in Christine Lewis-Taylor of the FDA who is " on loan " to the

(so called) World Health Organization, where she is in charge of the

(so called) " Nutrient Risk Assessment " workshop which in May will

proceed to " fill in the blanks " on allowable potency levels at CODEX.

(If you live outside the USA, please copy your letter to Bush to your

elected officials).

 

There has been zero transparency in how Taylor (a Dietician and former

assistant US Delegate to the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods

for Special Dietary Uses) has gone about selecting the 18 people who

will be making these determinations as to what the allowable potency

levels for vitamins and minerals will be. (All applicants on our side

have been rejected by Taylor including Robert Verkerk, PhD, Exec Dir

of the UK based Alliance for Natural Health despite his having made

just one of 16 submissions to WHO on this issue.)

 

See the NY Times article below (at end) about the rampant corruption

at FDA wherein Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra were fraudulently approved

despite serious safety concerns by a panel of people which included

scientists who had worked in the past for Merck, and Pfizer, makers of

these dangerous drugs.

 

Christine Lewis-Taylor of FDA is threatening to murder people all over

the world via her actions. Your own life could well hinge on her

actions. The FDA is answerable only to the Executive Branch of the US

Government.

 

Taylor was on the US Codex Delegation in 2000 when I was kicked off as

a whistle blower attempting to put her and Yetley under a

congressional microscope. I had death threats for my trouble, and the

oversight hearing I pushed for for 5 years was whitewashed on March

20, 2001. Pharma elements which have penetrated the vitamin trade

associations figured prominently in the whitewashing of the hearing as

did pharma plants on congressman Dan Burton's staff.

 

Please copy and past the message below into an email and sent it to

President Bush (no matter what country you are in) and to members of

Congress (if you are an American). If you live outside the USA, please

ask your own government to put pressure on Bush over this as Taylor's

actions at WHO are threatening people's lives world wide.

 

IAHF is taking actions behind the scenes to try to turn this horrible

situation around. We're not fully at liberty to discuss all that we're

doing, but donations are urgently needed for travel expenses related

to ongoing public speaking in an effort to sound an urgent alarm.

Please forward my article at

http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/emergency_update_020705.htm

widely along with this alert:

 

President

 

The Honorable George W. Bush

 

Re: Need to Fire Christine Lewis-Taylor from FDA and to Stop US

Participation in the 28th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission

in Rome (July 4-9, 2005) vis a finalization of a Global Trade Standard

for Vitamins and Minerals.

 

Dear President Bush:

 

With great alarm I have read the New York Times article below about

the gross conflicts of interest inherent in the FDA Advisory Panels

which fraudulently approved Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra for human use.

I demand that you institute immediate reforms, because this is murder,

plain and simple. Thousands of people have been murdered by these

dangerous drugs.

 

Under the circumstances, I am OUTRAGED that you have allowed the FDA

to commission the National Academy of Sciences to generate a totally

unecessary 505 page book titled " Dietary Supplements: A Framework for

Evaluating Safety " .

 

This outrage is coupled with the FDA's sending Dietician Christine

Lewis-Taylor to the World Health Organization where she is chairing

their (so called) " Nutrient Risk Assessment " program which in May will

be " filling in the blanks " on allowable potencies of vitamins and

minerals at CODEX, with CODEX meeting in July to ratify a global trade

standard which FDA has obviously set us up for harmonization to.

http://www.who.int/ipcs/highlights/nutrientraproject/en/

 

Just as there is zero integrity and total conflicts of interest in the

FDA Advisory Panels that fraudulently approved Vioxx, et al, for human

use, there is ZERO TRANSPARENCY in how Taylor selected the 18

participants in WHO's " Nutrient Risk Assessment " workshop and we

demand that you fire Taylor. Ditto for Dr.Barbara Schneeman, author of

the aforementioned book, and current US Delegate to the Codex

Committee on Nutrition and Food for Special Dietary Use.

 

We understand that the only reason Dick Cheney is alive today is that

he had numerous chelation treatments at Bethesda Naval Hospital and

that he has been put on a vigorous program of vitamin supplementation.

 

Unless you don't mind being labelled Eugenicists, we demand that you

and Cheney defend consumer access to dietary supplements world wide by

reining in Taylor, Schneeman, and the REST of the FDA.

 

To not rein Taylor in, and stop the FDA's genocidal actions in our

view, would constitute not only HIGH TREASON, but also CRIMES AGAINST

HUMANITY.

 

With Serious Concern,

 

(Name, Address, and Date) and cc it to your senators, congressmen, or

if outside the USA to your elected officials demanding that they block

your countries Codex delegate from ratifying the Codex vitamin and

minerals standard in Rome at the 28th General Session in Rome from

July 4-9th, 2005. ----See NY Times article below and include it in

what you send to Bush.

 

 

The New York Times (February 25, 2005)

 

10 Voters on Panel Backing Pain Pills Had Industry Ties

By GARDINER HARRIS and ALEX BERENSON

 

Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed

continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra

and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers,

according to disclosures in medical journals and other public records.

 

If the 10 advisers had not cast their votes, the committee would have

voted 12 to 8 that Bextra should be withdrawn and 14 to 8 that Vioxx

should not return to the market. The 10 advisers with company ties

voted 9 to 1 to keep Bextra on the market and 9 to 1 for Vioxx's return.

 

The votes of the 10 did not substantially influence the committee's

decision on Celebrex because only one committee member voted that

Celebrex should be withdrawn.

 

Eight of the 10 members said in interviews that their past

relationships with the drug companies had not influenced their votes.

The two others did not respond to phone or e-mail messages.

 

Researchers with ties to industry commonly serve on Food and Drug

Administration advisory panels, but their presence has long been a

contentious issue.

 

The agency has said it tries to balance expertise - often found among

those who have conducted clinical trials of the drugs in question or

otherwise studied them - with potential conflicts of interest.

 

Several of the panel members flagged with conflicts said most or all

of the money went not to themselves but to their universities or

institutions.

 

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group in

Washington that maintains a large database of scientists' industry

ties culled from disclosures in medical journals and other public

documents, analyzed the panel members' affiliations at the request of

The New York Times.

 

The center has been a frequent critic of the F.D.A. and of the

pharmaceutical industry. The center's analysis may understate the

industry ties of the panel participants because some ties may not have

been previously disclosed publicly.

 

 

 

Dr. Sheldon Krimsky, a science policy expert at Tufts University, said

such conflicts were common on F.D.A. advisory panels. The agency often

conceals these conflicts, and studies have shown that, taken as a

whole, money does influence scientific judgments, Dr. Krimsky said.

 

He added, " F.D.A. has to work harder to fill panels with people

without conflicts, and if they feel they have the best committee, they

at least ought to make it transparent. "

 

But Dan Troy, a Washington lawyer who was until last year the agency's

general counsel, said that finding knowledgeable experts without

financial conflicts was difficult. Suggesting that such conflicts skew

a panel's decisions " buys into an overly conspiratorial view of the

world, " Mr. Troy said.

 

A spokeswoman for the F.D.A. said no one at the agency would comment

on specific panel members' industry ties.

 

Before each of three meetings of the advisory board last week, an

agency secretary read a statement absolving panel members of conflicts

of interest because the committee's agenda involved " issues of broad

applicability and there are no products being approved. "

 

The secretary also said, " The Food and Drug Administration

acknowledges that there may be potential conflicts of interest, but

because of the general nature of the discussions before the committee,

these potential conflicts are mitigated. "

 

But the committee took nine votes, three for each drug, on whether

Celebrex, Bextra or Vioxx hurt the heart, should continue to be

marketed and, if so, under what restrictions. These votes were deeply

important to the three companies - Merck, Pfizer and Novartis - that

came before the committee.

 

Indeed, shares of Merck and Pfizer soared last Friday after the

panel's votes.

 

Ten members of the panel have worked in some capacity in recent years

for Merck, the maker of Vioxx; Pfizer, the maker of Celebrex and

Bextra; or Novartis, which is applying to sell Prexige, a very similar

pill discussed by the panel, according to the public disclosures.

 

An 11th panel member, Dr. Jack Cush, a rheumatologist at Presbyterian

Hospital in Dallas, said a disclosure that he once consulted for

Pfizer was incorrect, so he was excluded from the analysis.

 

Of the 30 votes cast by the 10 panel members on whether Celebrex,

Bextra and Vioxx should continue to be marketed, 28 favored the drugs.

Among the 66 votes cast by the remaining 22 members of the panel, just

37 favored the drugs.

 

Dr. Steven Abramson, a rheumatologist at New York University School of

Medicine who was on the panel, has consulted for Pfizer and Novartis.

" The F.D.A. is looking for people who understand the science behind

these medicines, " and such an understanding often results from working

with drug makers, he said.

 

Dr. John Farrar, a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania who

has received research support from Pfizer and is a panel member,

agreed. " I think F.D.A. would have a hard time finding people who are

good at what they do who never spoke to a pharmaceutical company, " he

said.

 

But Dr. Curt Furberg, a panel member and an epidemiologist at Wake

Forest University who had no ties to any of the drug companies, said

he was " uncomfortable with the Pfizer-friendly undertone " at the

meeting. And he worried that Pfizer's financial relationships with

some panel members might have played a role in setting that tone.

 

Joan Wainwright, a spokeswoman for Merck, said the company had had no

role in choosing any of the scientists on the panel.

 

Merck has made no decision on whether it will reintroduce Vioxx, Ms.

 

Wainwright

 

said. " We look forward to discussing the outcomes of the meeting with

the F.D.A. and other regulatory authorities, " she said.

 

Andy McCormick, a spokesman for Pfizer, said the company had no plans

to withdraw Bextra from the market. He also said that Pfizer had

played no role in helping to choose the panel.

 

Critics of the drug industry said they were not surprised that the

panel's decisions would have been different if scientists with

financial ties to the companies had recused themselves from the votes.

 

" My employees usually vote for me as well, " said W. Mark Lanier, a

lawyer in Houston who represents people who have sued Merck after

taking Vioxx and suffering heart attacks or strokes.

 

Some lawyers and Wall Street analysts said last week that the panel's

decision would help to protect Merck and Pfizer from lawsuits. But

juries will be more skeptical of the decision after they learn about

the composition of the panel, Mr. Lanier said.

 

Christopher A. Seeger, a lawyer in New York with many Vioxx clients,

said the fact that scientists had not recused themselves simply

highlighted the close ties between the drug industry and academic

researchers. He said researchers were afraid to say anything negative

about new drugs because doing so might jeopardize their chances of

participating in clinical trials and publishing papers.

 

Several panel members said the important split on the committee was

not so much between those with industry ties and those who did not

have those ties but between experts who treat arthritis patients and

those who do not.

 

Dr. Cush was angry that the voices of the panel's rheumatologists were

nearly drowned out by statisticians and others who do not have to cope

with anguished patients every day.

 

Dr. Furberg said clinicians often wanted access to therapies without

understanding the devastating public health consequences of their

prescribing decisions. Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have never been

proved in clinical trials to cure pain any better than ibuprofen or

more than a dozen other, older pain pills.

 

" Fifty patients a day probably die from those drugs, and who is

speaking for them? " Dr. Furberg said.

 

Dr. Alastair Wood, an associate dean at Vanderbilt University and the

panel's chairman, said he was disappointed that the F.D.A. failed to

disclose the financial conflicts of the panel's participants before

each day's meeting.

 

" I'm a great believer in letting it all hang out, " he said.

 

Still, Dr. Wood said that even with its conflicts the panel was a

tough critic of the drugs. Many of the panel members who were among

the narrow majorities approving continued marketing of Bextra and

Vioxx did so only with the stipulation that severe restrictions be

imposed on their uses, he noted.

 

He said he expected that the uses of the drugs would be confined to

very limited patient populations.

For Health Freedom,

John C. Hammell, President

International Advocates for Health Freedom

556 Boundary Bay Road

Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702 USA

http://www.iahf.com

jham

800-333-2553 N.America

360-945-0352 World

 

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