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Rita Marjorie and Sid, Rita sorry I mis-attributed Marjorie's comments to you., Marjorie the FDA does not do its drug trials in house. They and/or the drug companys"outsourse" them to universities and private researchers now. And this at times runs into problems with the outright greed of a few researchers and the more subtle skewing results to remain on the "correct list " of the manufacturer when contract time comes around for the next drug test. The internal part of the drug approval process is the scientific committees which review the data prior to any drug's release. While, like any bureaucratic process it is often cumbersome and slow I still support the overall process that puts drugs on the market. They (The FDA) are in a tough spot under pressure from some consumer groups like Nader's which will crucify them if a drug gets out to the market which has any bad reactions and other patient advocacy groups and certainly drug companies which want to speed up the process. ( But we want our cake and eat it too because we will criticize them if they release a drug "prematurely" and it has an adverse reaction nobody bargained for) I think Sid that we need to work with Perry and I did talk with him around the time of the approval hearing for bilateral STN. Some questions did come up as to methodology to prove whether it works as well as some people would have us believe. I am a success story with the procedure while I have met people who are not. Imagine the political pressure if they approved a procedure that involved putting indwelling wires in peoples brains and running an electric current through it and it proved not safe or not effective. I think the data is likely good but anecdotal reports should not be enough for approval. I wish they would streamline the process a little but would rather we be safe today than sorry tomorrow. Remember only hindsight is 20/20 Marjorie- You are an example of the lack of assurance that we have of the safety of our drugs even with the FDA 's involvement. Even with years of experience with both drugs -each caused adverse reactions hopefully which were acted on by your physicians because of the FDA's procedure for approval. No system is perfect and no drug or devise is without adverse reaction and the FDA with all its imperfections is the best way of striking a balance. Charlie Marjorie At 05:04 PM 11/2/00 -0500, you wrote: >I'm sorry Charlie, but I still think privatizing or at least >outsourcing a part of the FDA is a good idea, they need >help to be re-organized for sure. > >I will NEVER in this world volunteer for drug testing. >I feel I have tempted the fates enough. I have >one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel >as it is. >I almost died after taking Tegretol for 2.5 weeks, >spent 3 days in the hospital after one tablet of 50 mg. >Mysoline, and taking 14.5 months to heal after a ruptured >colon, my Doctors are tired of seeing Zebra's everytime >they hear hoofbeats around me. They however, are not >nearly as tired of it as I am. >They can do what they wish with my brain after I'm thorough >with it, but not one minute before! > >just me, >Marjorie Charles T. Meyer, M.D. Middleton, WI PD DX 12 years (at age 44) Age 56