Fake Drugs – All At a Pharmacy Near You!

February 16, 2012

Forbes

By Henry I. Miller

A counterfeit version of Avastin, a widely used and expensive intravenous cancer drug. has according to the FDA been found in the U.S. It is unclear whether any of the bogus drug, which lacks any of the active ingredient, has been administered to patients.

It’s about time that drug counterfeiting received attention from the media; it is a significant public health menace. In 2010 during the H1N1 flu epidemic, the FDA warned consumers about a potentially harmful counterfeit anti-flu drug that could be a killer in two respects: It lacked any of the flu-preventing medicine it purported to be while it did contain an antibiotic similar to penicillin that can be lethal to certain people.

In that same year, counterfeits of the weight-loss drug Alli sold over the Internet contained none of the active ingredient in the real drug but did contain sibutramine, the prescription-strength weight-loss drug Meridia, which has since been removed from the U.S. market because of concerns about cardiac side effects.

These are not isolated incidents. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but you can no longer be sure what will actually be in your next medicine vial. According to the World Health Organization’s estimates, it is thought that 10-15 percent of the world’s drug supply (and approximately half that much in the United States) is counterfeit.

Some products, such as the fake “generic Tamiflu,” are completely bogus. In dozens of drugs in the United States — including anti-HIV medicines, cholesterol-lowering agents, and anti-arthritis medications — dangerous substances have been substituted for the active ingredient.

Click here for the full report from Forbes

The Kevin Trudeau Show: 7-13-10

Today, Kevin gives you the news you won’t hear from the mainstream media and the Editor-In-Chief of Big Government, Mike Flynn, stops by to blow the whistle on government corruption.

Self Help:
Healing Power of Apple Cider Vinegar
Kombucha Tea
Filter Out The Toxins
Flatten Your Stomach

Health:
Junk Food Controls Your Brain
9 Unexpected Things in Drinking Water
Pfizer Alters Study for Epilepsy Drug
Cancer In The Kitchen
Tamiflu Not Proven to Cut Flu Complications
Medically Caused Death in America
Diabetes Drug Increases Cancer Risk

NWO:
Al Gore Knowingly Deceived the Public

Everything Kevin:
Become An Insider!
Support Kevin!
Kevin is on YouTube!
Sign Up For Kevin’s FREE Podcast
Follow Kevin on Twitter
Become Kevin’s Friend on Facebook
Kevin’s Film Club
Kevin’s Book Club

Take Trudeau on the Go! Click here to download this show to your iPod, mp3 player, or PC through iTunes!

Click BELOW to watch the Kevin Trudeau Show LIVE!

Resistance May Develop Fast with Swine Flu

March 30, 2010

Reuters

The H1N1 swine flu virus can develop resistance quickly to antivirals used to treat it, U.S. doctors reported on Friday.

Government researchers reported on the cases of two people with compromised immune systems who developed drug-resistant strains of virus after less than two weeks on therapy.

Bacteria quickly develop resistance to antibiotics, which must be used carefully. Viruses can do the same and doctors worried about resistance had recommended against using antivirals for flu except in patients who really needed them.

“While the emergence of drug-resistant influenza virus is not in itself surprising, these cases demonstrate that resistant strains can emerge after only a brief period of drug therapy,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“We have a limited number of drugs available for treating influenza and these findings provide additional urgency to efforts to develop antivirals that attack influenza virus in novel ways,” he said in a statement.

Swine flu emerged a year ago in the United States and Mexico and spread around the world in just six weeks, killing thousands of people. It hit children and young adults especially hard.

Older antiviral drugs did not work against it — they do not work against seasonal flu, either — but Roche AG’s Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, did. It was not widely used, however.

Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger and colleagues studied two flu patients who had immune limitations due to past blood stem cell transplants. They were treated with Tamiflu.

Writing in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Taubenberger and colleague Dr. Matthew Memoli said the virus infecting one patient developed a drug-resistant mutation after nine days and the other after 14 days of treatment.

And one of the patients also developed resistance against a second antiviral, Biocryst’s peramivir, which is an experimental drug approved for emergency intravenous use in patients who cannot take Tamiflu.

This patient continued getting worse despite 24 days on Tamiflu and was given peramivir for 10 days.

Finally, GlaxoSmithkline’s flu drug Relenza, known generically as zanamivir, did work and the patient recovered, the researchers said.

“These cases of rapid appearance of drug-resistant 2009 H1N1 influenza in immune-compromised patients are worrisome and should prompt clinicians to reconsider how they use available flu drugs,” Memoli said.

Click here for the full report.

Girl Becomes Blind After Taking TamiFlu

January 22, 2010

Mail Online

By Cher Thornhill

A teenage girl left disabled by the swine flu treatment Tamiflu did not even have the virus, it was revealed today.
Samantha Millard, 19, became critically ill after suffering a severe allergic reaction to the tablets, which she took on the advice of the controversial NHS helpline.
Within 72 hours of taking three pills, doctors put her on life support.
Samantha spent a month in hospital after developing the life-threatening Stevens Johnson syndrome, which causes the skin to peel off, and later developed toxic epidermal necrolysis syndrome, which has damaged her sight.
But tests at the hospital have since revealed that she never even contracted the swine flu virus.

Her devastated mother Debbie Van Horenbeeck is now seeking legal advice about the information given out by the NHS swine flu helpline. She believes that Tamiflu has not been tested thoroughly enough.
‘They have disabled my daughter from that helpline,’ said the 42-year-old, who is now her daughter’s full-time carer.
‘When they told her she had swine flu, they did not inform her of anything that could go wrong. The Government told us we should take this if we got swine flu.’ 
Doctors believe it will take up to two years for Samantha – who has lost a stone in weight – to recover and do not know if her eyesight will ever be restored.
She said: ‘It’s hard. I can’t bathe myself, I can’t dress myself, I can’t watch films and I can’t read books.
‘I sit in my bedroom with my sunglasses on, curtains closed and the TV on so I can hear it. I don’t know how long it will take for my eyes to heal.
‘I know I’m improving but some days it’s really hard to cope with it. I can’t cry – I have no tears.’

Click here for the full report

The Kevin Trudeau Show: 12-15-09

Today, Kevin explains why the government is taking away the spirit of Christmas and how your freedoms are taken away. Also, find out why our standard of living is declining at rapid speeds and the top 3 things you can do to survive it.

Get the headlines you aren’t hearing from the mainstream media:
The Lazy Man’s Way to A Fortune
Text Messaging Causing Blindness
BPA Linked To Serious Health Problems
Big Brother Isn’t a Protect Our Borders
D.C. Hands Out $15M in Bonuses
Fructose Fueling Childhood Obesity
Tamiflu Proven Useless
Swine Flu Less Lethal Than Feared
CT Scans Leads To Cancer in Thousands
Antidepressants Raise Stroke Risk
Herb To Treat Chemotherapy Liver Damage

Plus, the Administrative Director of HempUSA.org, Thomas James, gives you the REAL story behind the power of hemp and why the government wants to keep it from you!

Take Trudeau on the Go! Click here to download this show to your iPod, mp3 player, or PC through iTunes!

Click below to hear The Kevin Trudeau Show RIGHT NOW!!!

UK Study Confirms H1N1 Far Less Lethal Than Feared

December 14, 2009

Google News

By Maria Cheng

Swine flu is far less dangerous than originally feared, British officials said Thursday — about 100 times less lethal than the 1918 Spanish flu.

To determine how deadly the virus is, the British health department tracked all reported swine flu patients hospitalized between July and November. In a paper published online in the British journal, BMJ, experts estimated that out of every 100,000 infected people in Britain, about 26 died.

That is about 100 times less deadly than the devastating 1918 Spanish flu, which killed at least 50 million people worldwide. And swine flu appears to be nearly 10 times less fatal than the flu pandemics in 1957 and 1968, the British numbers showed.

Earlier this week, American researchers released a similar analysis of the virus and said swine flu, or H1N1, may turn out to be the mildest pandemic on record. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated swine flu has a lower death rate than seasonal flu.

British officials also said swine flu cases fell by about half last week, with an estimated 11,000 new cases.

When the World Health Organization declared swine flu to be a pandemic in June, it described it as “moderate.” Most people who catch swine flu have mild symptoms like a fever or cough, and recover without needing medical treatment.

A pandemic is a measure of how widely a virus spreads, not its severity. Because flu viruses evolve constantly, swine flu could mutate into a more dangerous form.

While cases appear to have peaked in several countries, including the U.S. and Britain, experts fear there could be another surge in the winter.

In the BMJ analysis, British experts said about two thirds of patients who died in the U.K. had medical conditions that would have qualified them to get the swine flu vaccine when it was first available. The experts also said most people who died got Tamiflu too late, a finding they said justifies Britain’s policy of giving Tamiflu to everyone, including previously healthy people, who report swine flu symptoms.

That contradicts WHO advice, which recommends countries save Tamiflu for at-risk patients — such as pregnant women, the elderly, children and people with underlying medical problems. Other scientists have raised concerns about widespread Tamiflu use, since the drug comes with side effects like nausea, insomnia, and nightmares.

Using Tamiflu liberally — as Britain does — may also encourage drug resistance. Despite having a fraction of the swine flu cases logged in the U.S., the number of viruses that appear to be resistant to Tamiflu found in both countries is nearly identical: 25 in Britain and 26 in the U.S.

In Britain, Tamiflu is largely dispensed by call center workers at a national swine flu hotline who have no medical training. WHO advises people to only take the drug on a doctor’s recommendation.

Click here for the full report

Tamiflu Studies Revealed to be a Hoax – Antiviral Does Not Work

December 14, 2009

Natural News

By Mike Adams

When it comes to selling chemicals that claim to treat H1N1 swine flu, the pharmaceutical industry’s options are limited to two: Vaccines and anti-virals. The most popular anti-viral, by far, is Tamiflu, a drug that’s actually derived from a Traditional Chinese Medicine herb called star anise.

But Tamiflu is no herb. It’s a potentially fatal concentration of isolated chemical components that have essentially been bio-pirated from Chinese medicine. And when you isolate and concentrate specific chemicals in these herbs, you lose the value (and safety) of full-spectrum herbal medicine.

That didn’t stop Tamiflu’s maker, Roche, from trying to find a multi-billion-dollar market for its drug. In order to tap into that market, however, Roche needed to drum up some evidence that Tamiflu was both safe and effective.

Roche engages in science fraud
Roche claims there are ten studies providing Tamiflu is both safe and effective. According to the company, Tamiflu has all sorts of benefits, including a 61% reduction in hospital admissions by people who catch the flu and then get put on Tamiflu.

The problem with these claims is that they aren’t true. They were simply invented by Roche.

A groundbreaking article recently published in the British Medical Journal accuses Roche of misleading governments and physicians over the benefits of Tamiflu. Out of the ten studies cited by Roche, it turns out, only two were ever published in science journals. And where is the original data from those two studies? Lost.

The data has disappeared. Files were discarded. The researcher of one study says he never even saw the data. Roche took care of all that, he explains.

So the Cochrane Collaboration, tasked with reviewing the data behind Tamiflu, decided to investigate. After repeated requests to Roche for the original study data, they remained stonewalled. The only complete data set they received was from an unpublished study of 1,447 adults which showed that Tamiflu was no better than placebo. Data from the studies that claimed Tamiflu was effective was apparently lost forever.

As The Atlantic reports, that’s when former employees of Adis International (essentially a Big Pharma P.R. company) shocked the medical world by announcing they had been hired to ghost-write the studies for Roche.

It gets even better: These researchers were told what to write by Roche!

As one of these ghostwriters told the British Medical Journal:

“The Tamiflu accounts had a list of key messages that you had to get in. It was run by the [Roche] marketing department and you were answerable to them. In the introduction …I had to say what a big problem influenza is. I’d also have to come to the conclusion that Tamiflu was the answer.”

In other words, the Roche marketing department ran the science and told researchers what conclusions to draw from the clinical trials. Researchers hired to conduct the science were controlled by the marketing puppeteers. No matter what they found in the science, they had already been directed to reach to conclusion that “Tamiflu was the answer.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but where I come from, we call this “science fraud.” And as numerous NaturalNews investigations have revealed, this appears to be the status quo in the pharmaceutical industry.

Virtually none of the “science” conducted by drug companies can be trusted at all because it really isn’t science in the first place. It’s just propaganda being dressed up to look like science.

Sadly, even the CDC has been fooled by this clinical trial con. As stated by author Shannon Brownlee in The Atlantic:

“…the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appears to be operating in some alternative universe, where valid science no longer matters to public policy. The agency’s flu recommendations are in lockstep with Roche’s claims that the drug can be life-saving — despite the FDA’s findings and despite the lack of studies to prove such a claim. What’s more, neither the CDC nor the FDA has demanded the types of scientific studies that could definitively determine whether or not the company’s claims are true: that Tamiflu reduces the risk of serious complications and saves lives. Nancy Cox, who heads the CDC’s flu program, told us earlier this year she opposes a placebo-controlled study (in which one half of patients would be given Tamiflu and the other half would be given placebo), because the drug’s benefits are already proven.”

Did you catch that last line? The CDC isn’t interested in testing Tamiflu because “the drug’s benefits are already proven.” Except they aren’t. But this is how the pharmaceutical industry operates:

Step 1) Fabricate evidence that your drug works.
Step 2) Use that fraudulent evidence to get your drug approved.
Step 3) Use fear to create consumer demand for your drug (and encourage governments to stockpile it).
Step 4) Avoid any actual scientific testing by claiming the drug has already been proven to work (and cite your original fraudulent studies to back you up).

This is the recipe the CDC is following right now with Tamiflu. It’s a recipe of scientific stupidity and circular logic, of course, but that seems to be strangely common in the medical community these days.

Even the FDA says Tamiflu doesn’t work
The FDA, remarkably, hasn’t entirely given in to the Tamiflu hoax. They required Roche to print the following disclaimer on Tamiflu lables — a disclaimer that openly admits the drug has never been proven to work:

“Tamiflu has not been proven to have a positive impact on the potential consequences (such as hospitalizations, mortality, or economic impact) of seasonal, avian, or pandemic influenza.”

Even further, an FDA spokesperson told the British Medical Journal, “The clinical trials… failed to demonstrate any significant difference in rates of hospitalization, complications, or mortality in patients receiving either Tamiflu or placebo.”

It’s the same message over and over again, like a broken record: Tamiflu doesn’t work. And the “science” that says Tamiflu does work was all apparently fabricated from the start.

To continue reading this report, click here.

TamiFlu Not Proven to Cut Flu Complications

December 10, 2009

Bloomberg

by Michelle Fay Cortez

The effectiveness of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu in treating flu complications in healthy adults can’t be determined because the Swiss drugmaker wouldn’t supply data from eight studies, an independent research group said.

The exclusion led the Cochrane Collaboration to reverse its previous finding that the pill warded off pneumonia and other deadly conditions linked to influenza. Tamiflu has been the mainstay of treatment for swine flu, which has killed almost 9,000 people since April, according to the World Health Organization. Roche said the drug is effective.

An analysis of 20 studies showed that Tamiflu, which is expected to generate 2.7 billion francs ($2.64 billion) in sales this year, eased and shortened symptoms if taken quickly. It found no clear evidence that the drug prevented lower respiratory tract infections or complications of influenza, according to the nonprofit research group in a review published in the British Medical Journal.

“We have multibillion-dollar public health policies in place that rely on evidence not available for independent analysis,” Tom Jefferson, the lead researcher from the Cochrane Collaboration in Rome, said in a telephone interview.

The report, an update of a 2005 analysis by Cochrane, excluded eight studies funded by Roche that haven’t been published and whose full data wasn’t given to the researchers. The exclusion reversed the group’s earlier finding that Tamiflu protects against complications.

Insufficient Evidence

“We now conclude there is insufficient evidence to describe the effects of Tamiflu on complications of influenza or the drug’s toxicity,” Jefferson said.

The group, which reviews medical evidence, excluded the eight studies, involving 2,500 patients, because it couldn’t get satisfactory access to the data involving the healthy adults in the study, he said.

Roche, based in Basel, Switzerland, defended the drug’s benefits and its research, saying confidentiality agreements with patients enrolled in the trials kept the company from giving the investigators unreserved access to the findings.

“We fully stand behind the robustness of the data and the integrity of that data, particularly the efficacy and safety of Tamiflu, the conduct of our studies and publication policies,” David Reddy, head of the company’s global pandemic task force, said on a conference call with reporters. “We believe this drug is playing a pivotal role in the management of the current pandemic.”

Roche Offer

Roche offered to give the full findings to the researchers if they signed a confidentially agreement, Reddy said. The researchers declined the offer, he said.

Two published trials show Tamiflu reduces complications in patients with seasonal influenza, while an observational study suggests it may lower death rates, Reddy said. Data emerging from the swine flu pandemic shows giving the drug within two days of symptoms appearing is the only effective way to help patients, he said.

The Cochrane report raises questions about how drugs are reviewed, approved and distributed, Fiona Godlee, the British journal’s editor in chief, wrote in an editorial. The studies originally used to establish the benefits of Tamiflu were written by Roche employees and paid consultants, under-reported serious side effects and failed to clearly identify all the authors, she wrote. In at least one case, a study was attributed to a researcher who disavowed any involvement to the journal, Godlee wrote.

‘Taken on Trust’

Governments relied on the studies to justify the widespread use of Tamiflu, known chemically as oseltamivir, she said. The reviewers were unable to find any independent studies of the drug in healthy adults, she said.

“This case exposes how much of the evidence on drug safety and effectiveness is taken on trust,” Godlee wrote. “Governments around the world have spent billions of pounds on a drug that the scientific community has found itself unable to judge.” She called for more independent research, greater access to raw data used to license and sell drugs and stricter regulations on the conduct, review and publication of medical research.

More than 8,768 people worldwide have died from swine flu since it was first identified in Mexico and the U.S. in April, according to the Geneva-based WHO. More than 68 million people have taken Tamiflu since it was approved a decade ago. Influenza kills as many as 500,000 people worldwide each year.

WHO Recommends

The WHO recommends giving Tamiflu to infected people with a high risk of developing complications, including pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions. The researchers said there is little evidence now available to show that otherwise healthy people should be routinely given Tamiflu.

In the U.K., patients can get a Tamiflu prescription by calling a national hotline or filling out an online questionnaire about their symptoms.

Click here for full report

The Kevin Trudeau Show: 12-9-09

Today, Kevin gives you the news you won’t hear from the mainstream media and the Editor-In-Chief of Big Government, Mike Flynn, stops by to blow the whistle on government corruption.

Junk Food Controls Your Brain
9 Unexpected Things in Drinking Water
Pfizer Alters Study for Epilepsy Drug
Cancer In The Kitchen
Healing Power of Apple Cider Vinegar
Tamiflu Not Proven to Cut Flu Complications
Medically Caused Death in America
Diabetes Drug Increases Cancer Risk
Al Gore Knowingly Deceived the Public

Take Trudeau on the Go! Click here to download this show to your iPod, mp3 player, or PC through iTunes!

Click below to hear The Kevin Trudeau Show RIGHT NOW!!!

Tamiflu Has Little Use

December 9, 2009

Rueters

By Ben Hirschler

Governments around the world have mobilized Tamiflu stockpiles to fight swine flu but an updated review of past clinical trial results found there was insufficient data to know if the medicine cut complications in otherwise healthy people.

Roche contested the finding and said it stood behind the robustness and integrity of previous data showing a benefit.

Sales of the antiviral drug, also known by the generic name oseltamivir, have soared since the start of the current H1N1 flu pandemic in April due to massive government orders.

That has provided a windfall for the Swiss drugmaker, which said in October it expected Tamiflu revenue to reach 2.7 billion Swiss francs ($2.65 billion) this year.

The latest analysis, which updates an earlier 2006 review, was published online by the British Medical Journal, whose editor-in-chief, Fiona Godlee, said it left important questions about Tamiflu’s effectiveness unresolved.

“Governments around the world have spent billions of pounds on a drug that the scientific community now finds itself unable to judge,” she said.

The BMJ report was also the subject of a Channel 4 News story on British television.

At issue is whether or not certain previously published trials on Tamiflu should be included or excluded when analyzing the drug’s effectiveness.

For the latest review, a team led by Chris Del Mar from Bond University in Australia looked at 20 trials — but they decided to drop eight that were included in the earlier review because they were unable to independently verify the results.

As a result they concluded that while Tamiflu reduced flu symptoms by about a day they had no confidence in previous claims that it cut the risk of flu complications.

David Reddy, Roche’s pandemic taskforce leader, said the expert group was wrong to exclude the data from the eight studies.

He told reporters that Roche would have supplied full data on the contested studies if the investigators had signed confidentiality agreements, which were drawn up to protect patients.

Click here for full report

Next Page »