Frankly, that money-grubbing technocrats and financiers promote their commerce anyway possible isn't enormously surprising... but that for some magical reason the public tolerates the disingenuity of non-disclosure is.
A new report by the Cochrane Collaboration says Roche's refusal to provide full access to all its data leaves critical questions about how well the drug works unresolved.
And why, pray-tell, would a company NOT wish to demonstrate through it's trial data 'how well the drug works?'
...Tamiflu has become the mainstay of influenza treatment in the UK. It has also made it onto the World Health Organisation's list of Essential Medicines and Roche's claims continue to be supported by influential health agencies.
The Cochrane researchers set out to test Roche's claim that Tamiflu prevented complications and reduced the number of people needing hospital treatment. But their investigation was hampered by Roche's refusal to provide all of its trial data for analysis. The team obtained some clinical study reports from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), but found inconsistencies with published reports and possible under-reporting of side effects.
When previously questioned by the BMJ, Roche also admitted that some of the published papers had been ghost written.
Let's see.... Super-popularity among prescribing medical professionals in the UK, the UN basically calls it "essential"... but the submitted reports were inconsistent, and admittedly ghost-written.....
Ummm.... are we learning yet?
...Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has reviewed the Tamiflu trial programme in perhaps more detail than anyone outside of Roche, chose not to review the largest ever trial of Tamiflu when considering the drug for approval. It states that "Tamiflu has not been shown to prevent such complications [serious bacterial infections]."
However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continue to cite key published trials of Tamiflu, claiming a reduced risk of influenza complications, even after Roche admitted that some of these trials have been ghost written....
Is it me? Is this not a clear enough indication of a separate set of rules for mega-transnational corporations than for humans? Why would the industry insiders working at the FDA and CDC foist this upon us?
People wonder why there is so much hatred of the corporate machinery now occupying the halls of government power.... yet these stories seem 'overlooked.'
Roche maintain they provided the Cochrane team with enough information to conduct their evaluation, but the Cochrane team say this is not the case. Dr Peter Doshi from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine says: "In the BMJ in December 2009, Roche promised full study reports to any legitimate investigators. They have not provided a single full study report to Cochrane, despite our repeated requests."
Enjoy the read....
www.sciencedaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)
I was just on it like 20 min ago . Mind you this is much better laid out. I saw this story on the
news last night saying that it wasn't as effective as promised . Not really a big suprise with how little it was actually tested.
