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http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/772321?src=nldne&uac=41475AT
From Medscape Medical News

Safety Issues Found in 24% of Newly Approved Drugs

Lara C. Pullen, PhD

Authors and Disclosures

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October 9, 2012 — Serious safety issues were found after regulatory approval in approximately one quarter of new active substances (NASs) introduced in Canada between 1995 and 2010, and priority-review drugs were more likely than standard-review drugs to acquire serious safety warnings.

Joel Lexchin, MD, from the School of Health Policy and Management, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, published the results in a research letter online October 8 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/772329?src=nldne&uac=41475AT

From Medscape Medical News
Nonprescription and Prescription Drugs Cause Poisonings

Jennifer Garcia

Authors and Disclosures

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October 9, 2012 — A new study has found that nonprescription and prescription drugs are equally responsible for drug poisonings in the United States and has identified new trends in prescription drug abuse. The study, which analyzed data from the second annual report of the Toxicology Investigators Consortium (ToxIC), was published online October 2 in the Journal of Medical Toxicology.

Researchers led by Timothy Wiegand, MD, from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, evaluated cumulative data on 10,392 toxicology cases collected during 2011 and compared the entries with data from 2010.

The authors found that over half (53%) of toxicology consultations in 2011 occurred in emergency departments and were primarily for cases of pharmaceutical overdose (48%), which included both intentional (37%) and unintentional (11%) exposures. Consultation rates for prescription vs nonprescription drug abuse cases were similar in 2010; however, there was an increase in the number of prescription drug abuse consultations in 2011 compared with the number of nonprescription drug consults.

Fracture Risk Increases After Antihypertensive Initiation

Nancy A. Melville, Oct 17, 2012

Authors & Disclosures
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/772773?src=mpnews

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — Antihypertensive drugs, particularly angiotensin II–converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and beta-adrenergic blockers, are associated with an increased risk for falls and hip fracture among the elderly during the initiation of drug therapy, researchers reported here at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) 2012 Annual Meeting.

Op-Ed: Canada & Europe ban Novartis flu vaccines

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335645#ixzz2BYCpj5Zr
(Snipits)
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Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland are joined by Canada in temporary ban. The pharmaceutical giant Novartis has repeatedly stated that flu vaccines are allegedly “safe.” It appears there are some countries who aren’t convinced.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335645#ixzz2BYDGa8Ni”

“Novartis isn’t alone in trying to pass off something that is supposed to be safe that isn’t.
Whistleblowers Merck virologists Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski claimed in their unsealed 2010 complaint that they “witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate the vaccine’s efficacy findings.” After a two year investigation the Justice Department has refused to rule on the case. Merck continues to deny the allegations.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335645#ixzz2BYDRVrew”

That is Holder’s DOJ, BTW.

“Merck is the sole provider of the MMR, 4 million doses of which are bought by the U.S. government and doctors. Pending lawsuits may show that MMR tests were falsified since two Merck whistleblowers have come forward to tell the truth.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335645#ixzz2BYDs1IGa“

8 quotes from a cancer surgeon that will set your hair on fire

Friday, December 07, 2012 by: Jon Rappoport

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/038249_cancer_surgeon_John_Hopkins.html#ixzz2EOMmMjPd

Lethal Virus Sample Vanishes From U.S. Biodefense Lab

March 26, 2013

By Diane Barnes

Global Security Newswire
A scientist works in a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Md. Inspectors last week found a sample of a lethal virus had gone missing from a maximum-security area of the Galveston National Laboratory in Texas (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky). A scientist works in a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Md. Inspectors last week found a sample of a lethal virus had gone missing from a maximum-security area of the Galveston National Laboratory in Texas (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky).

WASHINGTON — A high-security biodefense laboratory in Texas has lost track of a lethal hemorrhagic fever virus sample in an incident said to underscore recent government warnings about how the United States oversees the deadly disease agents it holds for study.

Experts and researchers at other institutions have generally chalked up the Guanarito virus sample’s disappearance to an clerical slipup at the Galveston National Laboratory. Auditors last week failed to locate the material inside a freezer in the facility’s Biosafety Level 4 section, which is designated for handling potentially fatal, aerially transmissible pathogens that have no known cure.

The head of the University of Texas Medical Branch, which oversees the laboratory, on Saturday said the virus had probably been destroyed but authorities were still pushing to identify the cause of the misplacement.

Guanarito and related viruses typically spread to humans through contact with infected rodents or their excretions, but “infection can also occur by inhalation of tiny particles soiled with rodent urine or saliva,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Venezuelan-origin virus “is not believed to be capable of surviving naturally in rodents in the United States” or between people, UTMB President David Callender noted in released remarks.

Laboratory representatives could not be reached by press time to offer comment, but the site’s scientific director told USA Today the sample — one of five held in the same freezer — might have caught on a piece of protective clothing and then fallen to the ground, where it would have been removed with other materials for destruction. All five samples were in place when inspectors last checked for their presence in November, he said.

“There’s really no possibility of anything leaving the lab in a viable form unless it is taken out intentionally,” science chief Scott Weaver added in comments to the newspaper. Decontamination showers required before leaving would complicate any effort to secrete a virus sample from the secured facility, he said.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has begun to scrutinize possible security threats at the nation’s biodefense laboratories. The Agriculture Department last year noted failures by its inspectors to identify unauthorized transfers of anthrax and plague samples, and congressional investigators this week released findings that the Obama administration had yet to follow through on their 2009 recommendation to establish a uniform code for planning, constructing and overseeing sensitive biological defense facilities.

Even though the Galveston laboratory incident has generally been attributed to a benign cause, microbiologist John Palisano warned there is “no reason to be cavalier and say we don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Sometime, someone’s going to see a lapse in security and then take advantage of it,” Palisano, an infectious disease specialist at the University of the South, said in a telephone interview. He called for more frequent federal inspections aimed at ensuring compliance with existing rules.