This is great. So glad the FDA is looking out for us. While the makers of Cheerios are slammed against the wall for daring to suggest their product has health benefits, lethal drugs are left on market, requiring further testing.
The FDA is currently conducting an 8 year study on the safety of Xolair, an asthma drug from the pharma giant Genentech. Apparently this stuff causes heart attacks and strokes. Wow, that sounds bad. Let’s get it off the shelf. Not so fast. The FDA has decided that it will take 8 years to determine if this crap is dangerous. It took 8 minutes to fire off a warning to General Mills. It took no time at all for a panel to recommend that Vicodin be yanked from the shelves, while leaving Darvon and Darvocet, which are practically the same thing, to continue bringing in the green for its makers.
Why would they do this? Why would they leave some things on the shelf, and yank other things with such…regard for your safety? I’ve said it before: follow the money. Try this on for size. The FDA is in the midst of an 8 year study to determine if Xolair is safe. Do you know what the annual cost is before the doctors mark it up? $19,000 per patient. That’s right folks. 19 grand before you even see it. Let’s see, $19 g’s, mark it up X %, 30 to 35,000 patients…well, you do the math. It should take about 8 years to get a number.
I would say Oxycontin is one drug to stay away from unless its a dying need to use it such as for cancer where a person has been given 6 months to live! Why do you suppose that so many drug dealers are selling Oxycontin on the streets. Its all OK because doctor…huh what his name….oh Doctor Barack Hussein Obama will look out for your healthcare.
Oxycontin is an opium derivative like codeine, but it is significantly more powerful. Oxycodone is the active ingredient and it is present in Oxycontin in a very high dosage. When the drug was developed, this was considered to be a significant advantage because, unlike other opium derivatives, it only had to be taken every 12 hours.
Oxycontin was approved for use as a narcotic pain reliever by the FDA in 1995.
one large single dose, can cause respiratory failure leading to death. Furthermore, if withdrawal from Oxycontin is not handled carefully, the effects are much like heroin withdrawal: severe flu-like symptoms, muscle and bone pain, and acute nausea. A continuing danger of taking Oxycontin is the risk of becoming addicted to it. At some point, the chemical changes in the brain urge the patient to continue taking the drug, at whatever cost, to continue the high.
http://injury-law.freeadvice.com/drug-toxic_chemicals/oxycontin_side_effects_uses.htm
A federal advisory panel voted narrowly on Tuesday to recommend a ban on Percocet and Vicodin, two of the most popular prescription painkillers in the world, because of their effects on the liver.
“We have no data to show that people who overdose shop at Costco,” said Dr. Edward Covington, a panel member from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/health/01fda.html