Why
I quit bench chemistry - The untold FDA story
From the Desk of The
People's Chemist
Don't let this one pass by your friends or
family...Anyone who has ever swallowed a prescription drug needs to understand
what fuels "FDA approval." You won't believe the confessions and the
research I expose here...
One Nation Under Drugs - Why I Abandoned The Pharmaceutical Industry
As a medicinal chemist, I ignored my suspicion that an insidious and deliberate push to get each and every American hooked on drugs, while at the same time bankrupting them, existed between Big Pharma and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I enjoyed my work. Drug design paid well and kept me comfortably isolated in a high-tech lab, fully equipped to help me bend and twist matter at will. The last thing I wanted to think of was a plot designed to sabotage health and wealth--while causing untold ecological damage--using my chemistry skills. But over time, experience confirmed my suspicion as fact and revealed something even scarier.
Deadly Profiteering
My passion for drug design arose from the miracle of emergency medicine, one of humankind's greatest scientific achievements. Sadly though, medicine is no longer exclusive to emergency use. Today, outside of emergency medicine, it's being used in a deadly game of profiteering, as heavily documented in my latest book, Over-The-Counter Natural Cures. Herein lies a story of deceit and a chemist's abandonment of modern medicine.
My doubts about modern medicine began while I was employed by Eli Lilly to design a new generation of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) drugs, a class which includes tamoxifen and raloxifene. Initially, they were thought to block estrogen receptors and thereby halt breast cancer. As time progressed, it was learned that they were also capable of activating estrogen receptors and boosting cancer growth. The Journal of the American Medical Association recognized this trend and published, "Our data add to the growing body of evidence that recent long-term use of HRT is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer and that such use may be related particularly to lobular tumors."
My task was made clear: Design HRT 'knock-offs' that are effective without causing cancer. My attempt to design safer alternatives began with small alterations to the two-dimensional structure of tamoxifen. It was unsuccessful. All chemical cousins acted as cancer fertilizer and after one year, the project was ended. Access to tamoxifen and other HRT meds however, was not. Despite its ability to inflame cancer, tamoxifen continued to be used as the Gold-Standard in breast cancer treatment. As a young naïve chemist, I was determined to learn how such a dangerous drug could get through the prestigious FDA approval process.
Checkbook Science
Tamoxifen was developed by British company Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), whose pharmaceutical division was later spun off as Astra Zeneca. Knowing that "demand drives drug approval," ICI established--in partnership with the American Cancer Society-National Breast Cancer Awareness Month!
Fueled by fear, women worldwide began pushing for more choices in cancer drugs, and in Big Pharma language, that means more drug approvals. Tamoxifen demand was successfully created and expanded every subsequent year thanks to ICI's self-serving pink ribbon campaign. But, how did tamoxifen sail past the protective blood-brain barrier of the FDA? A quick lesson in statistical contortionism shows how.
Just like chemists manipulate the properties of matter, Big Pharma manipulates studies using "checkbook science." This allows them to pay for the design and interpretation of clinical trials. Tamoxifen studies were conveniently stopped at five years, the minimum amount of time required for cancer to develop. This successfully hid its cancer causing problem. But just like their pink campaigns, there's more stink.
In 1992, tamoxifen evangelist Dr. Bernard Fisher, working for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), received $68 million in federal money to assess whether the drug could prevent breast cancer. In an effort to make tamoxifen appear safe and effective, Fisher failed to report falsified data and enrollment fraud to the NCI, casting further stench over the study and resulting in his termination as director. The smoke and mirrors showed that tamoxifen reduced breast cancer by 50%. In reality, it was an insignificant 1.3% absolute difference.
Checkbook science isn't illegal by FDA standards. It's been going on for over 20 years. Known as the Bayh-Dole Act, US law was amended in 1980 to permit flagrant conflicts of interest, ones that allow the industry to design drug trials and hire experts to conjure up favorable results at will.
Once demand was created, and checkbook science in place, the FDA only needed one study to approve tamoxifen in record time-30 days. They did this by hiring advisors with Big Pharma financial ties to sit on its review committee. Failing to do their homework, only ten percent of the case reports from women enrolled in the tamoxifen trials were reviewed by the committee. But, most alarming to me as a chemist, it was still given a green light as a preventive cancer treatment for healthy women!
Aiming for wealth, not health, Big Pharma hit the financial bull's eye. As the Gold-Standard for breast cancer treatment today, generic tamoxifen rakes in billions every year with few noticing its "little cancer problem," as it became known in our lab.
Drug Lobbying - Buying the US Govt.
I thought I was getting paid well as a new drug chemist; I was driving a brand new PT Cruiser (which my wife hated), had $15,000 in stock options and was offered a $10,000 incentive to buy a new house. Heck, if I was really good, I would get a $4,500 dollar raise after a year, which equated to a weekly burrito at Chipotle, with guacamole (which is extra), Mountain Dew included. A closer look at the real drug profits however, revealed I wasn't even making pennies on the pharmaceutical dollar and neither were the biology researchers...
Get the full article and learn how to avoid the sabotage at www.thepeopleschemist.com/blog
About this Newsletter
Natural Cures Watchdog is published by Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison. He is an award-winning chemist with a masters degree in organic chemistry and author of Over-The-Counter Natural Cures, winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award. This is a FREE service so that NOBODY IS LEFT BEHIND. Please join him in his efforts to educate the laymen by FORWARDING this email to your friends and loved ones. You can sign up at http://www.thepeopleschemist.com
One Nation Under Drugs - Why I Abandoned The Pharmaceutical Industry
As a medicinal chemist, I ignored my suspicion that an insidious and deliberate push to get each and every American hooked on drugs, while at the same time bankrupting them, existed between Big Pharma and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I enjoyed my work. Drug design paid well and kept me comfortably isolated in a high-tech lab, fully equipped to help me bend and twist matter at will. The last thing I wanted to think of was a plot designed to sabotage health and wealth--while causing untold ecological damage--using my chemistry skills. But over time, experience confirmed my suspicion as fact and revealed something even scarier.
Deadly Profiteering
My passion for drug design arose from the miracle of emergency medicine, one of humankind's greatest scientific achievements. Sadly though, medicine is no longer exclusive to emergency use. Today, outside of emergency medicine, it's being used in a deadly game of profiteering, as heavily documented in my latest book, Over-The-Counter Natural Cures. Herein lies a story of deceit and a chemist's abandonment of modern medicine.
My doubts about modern medicine began while I was employed by Eli Lilly to design a new generation of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) drugs, a class which includes tamoxifen and raloxifene. Initially, they were thought to block estrogen receptors and thereby halt breast cancer. As time progressed, it was learned that they were also capable of activating estrogen receptors and boosting cancer growth. The Journal of the American Medical Association recognized this trend and published, "Our data add to the growing body of evidence that recent long-term use of HRT is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer and that such use may be related particularly to lobular tumors."
My task was made clear: Design HRT 'knock-offs' that are effective without causing cancer. My attempt to design safer alternatives began with small alterations to the two-dimensional structure of tamoxifen. It was unsuccessful. All chemical cousins acted as cancer fertilizer and after one year, the project was ended. Access to tamoxifen and other HRT meds however, was not. Despite its ability to inflame cancer, tamoxifen continued to be used as the Gold-Standard in breast cancer treatment. As a young naïve chemist, I was determined to learn how such a dangerous drug could get through the prestigious FDA approval process.
Checkbook Science
Tamoxifen was developed by British company Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), whose pharmaceutical division was later spun off as Astra Zeneca. Knowing that "demand drives drug approval," ICI established--in partnership with the American Cancer Society-National Breast Cancer Awareness Month!
Fueled by fear, women worldwide began pushing for more choices in cancer drugs, and in Big Pharma language, that means more drug approvals. Tamoxifen demand was successfully created and expanded every subsequent year thanks to ICI's self-serving pink ribbon campaign. But, how did tamoxifen sail past the protective blood-brain barrier of the FDA? A quick lesson in statistical contortionism shows how.
Just like chemists manipulate the properties of matter, Big Pharma manipulates studies using "checkbook science." This allows them to pay for the design and interpretation of clinical trials. Tamoxifen studies were conveniently stopped at five years, the minimum amount of time required for cancer to develop. This successfully hid its cancer causing problem. But just like their pink campaigns, there's more stink.
In 1992, tamoxifen evangelist Dr. Bernard Fisher, working for the National Cancer Institute (NCI), received $68 million in federal money to assess whether the drug could prevent breast cancer. In an effort to make tamoxifen appear safe and effective, Fisher failed to report falsified data and enrollment fraud to the NCI, casting further stench over the study and resulting in his termination as director. The smoke and mirrors showed that tamoxifen reduced breast cancer by 50%. In reality, it was an insignificant 1.3% absolute difference.
Checkbook science isn't illegal by FDA standards. It's been going on for over 20 years. Known as the Bayh-Dole Act, US law was amended in 1980 to permit flagrant conflicts of interest, ones that allow the industry to design drug trials and hire experts to conjure up favorable results at will.
Once demand was created, and checkbook science in place, the FDA only needed one study to approve tamoxifen in record time-30 days. They did this by hiring advisors with Big Pharma financial ties to sit on its review committee. Failing to do their homework, only ten percent of the case reports from women enrolled in the tamoxifen trials were reviewed by the committee. But, most alarming to me as a chemist, it was still given a green light as a preventive cancer treatment for healthy women!
Aiming for wealth, not health, Big Pharma hit the financial bull's eye. As the Gold-Standard for breast cancer treatment today, generic tamoxifen rakes in billions every year with few noticing its "little cancer problem," as it became known in our lab.
Drug Lobbying - Buying the US Govt.
I thought I was getting paid well as a new drug chemist; I was driving a brand new PT Cruiser (which my wife hated), had $15,000 in stock options and was offered a $10,000 incentive to buy a new house. Heck, if I was really good, I would get a $4,500 dollar raise after a year, which equated to a weekly burrito at Chipotle, with guacamole (which is extra), Mountain Dew included. A closer look at the real drug profits however, revealed I wasn't even making pennies on the pharmaceutical dollar and neither were the biology researchers...
Get the full article and learn how to avoid the sabotage at www.thepeopleschemist.com/blog
About this Newsletter
Natural Cures Watchdog is published by Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison. He is an award-winning chemist with a masters degree in organic chemistry and author of Over-The-Counter Natural Cures, winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award. This is a FREE service so that NOBODY IS LEFT BEHIND. Please join him in his efforts to educate the laymen by FORWARDING this email to your friends and loved ones. You can sign up at http://www.thepeopleschemist.com
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