Pfizer ‘Cherry-Picked’ Celebrex Data, Memos Say

via: Mercola
by: Dr. Mercola
July 9, 2012

Celebrex is a type of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) known as a COX-2 inhibitor.

Basically, it works by blocking COX-2 enzymes, which become overly active in your body when it becomes inflamed, and is widely used as a form of pain relief; in 2011, 2.4 million Americans received prescriptions for this drug.ⁱ

They may have thought twice, however, if they knew the truth behind how this drug came to be … a story that involves cherry-picking of data in attempts to make the drug seem superior to others on the market, when in fact it was not.

Also concerning: Celebrex is the only selective COX-2 inhibitor left on the market, as its close “cousins” were all pulled due to either their killing tens of thousands of people or to their unacceptably high heart risks …

Internal Memos Reveal Deception Surrounding Celebrex Data

New evidence in a lawsuit against Pfizer alleges that the drug company cherry-picked data on its drug Celebrex. Its claim to fame when it came on the market in 1998 was that it relieved pain without causing the gastrointestinal side effects common to other pain-relief drugs like ibuprofen.

Studies showed it didn’t necessarily relieve pain any better than the other drugs on the market, so Pfizer was counting on the gastrointestinal “ticket” to propel the drug into blockbuster status, and, in fact, used its easiness on your stomach as its primary selling point.

The problem was, Celebrex only appeared to be easier on the stomach because Pfizer, and its partner Pharmacia, only released the first six months of data from a year-long study. When the entire data set was looked at, the stomach “benefit” disappeared.

Folks this is what is called a blatant lie of omission and these companies do it on a regular basis. The system even encourages it. Contrary to what many people believe the FDA does no testing of drugs that are to be approved. Nor is there an objective third party that does tests. Rather the system the FDA employs has the drug company pay for and do the studies, and they only submit the studies that support the release of their drug. They are not required to submit failed ones.

That Pfizer withheld the critical data has been known for years, but newly unsealed documents showed this was all part of a carefully calculated plan by Pfizer and Pharmacia execs. While medical directors and scientists at the company expressed feeling uncomfortable with the “data massaging” and “cherry picking” of data, the powers that be moved full steam ahead with their deceptive marketing blitz.

Another reason that you might not be surprised about this report is that Pfizer purchased Monsanto and spun it off as subsidiary called Pharmacia in 1997.ⁱⁱ Most readers of this newsletter will instantly recognize that the bastion of evil, Monsanto, would not be out of place with this type of behavior.

The New York Times reported:ⁱⁱⁱ

“The documents suggest that officials made a strategic decision during the early trial to be less than forthcoming about the drug’s safety. They show that executives considered attacking the trial’s design before they even knew the results and disregarded the advice of an employee and an outside consultant who had argued the companies should disclose the fact that they were using incomplete data.

… The documents show that in February 2000, Pharmacia employees came up with a game plan on how they might present the findings once they were available … Another document, a slide, proposed explaining poor results through “statistical glitches.”"

Do You Still Trust Celebrex?

Celebrex is still being widely used, often by arthritis patients who are desperate for pain relief. But even if you overlook the fact that it’s made by a company that clearly puts profits ahead of patients, it’s much harder to shrug off the very real risks it poses to your heart.

Remember, Celebrex is in the same class of drugs as Vioxx and Vioxx, both of which were pulled from the market because of serious heart risks or killing tens of thousands of people. Celebrex may still be on the market, but it is not immune to these risks!

In 2006, the New England Journal of Medicine released a study that discussed “a significant increase in adjudicated serious cardiovascular events with the use of celecoxib [Celebrex] … an increase in risk by a factor of two or three for … myocardial infarction, stroke, congestive heart failure, or cardiovascular-related death.” The risk was so severe that it “prompted suspension of the administration of celecoxib …”^iv

Pfizer actually has a trial that’s ongoing right now that’s supposed to compare the heart risks of Celebrex to those of ibuprofen (Advil/Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve). But though it was started in 2005, it’s not slated to be completed until 2014 … the same year the Celebrex patent expires (at which point the company’s profits for the drug will dwindle … making negative study results far less impacting).

It’s widely known, however, that this painkiller has been linked to increased risks of stomach bleeding, kidney trouble, and liver damage – along with other adverse reactions that can range from mild to deadly. And it’s not at all unusual for a drug company to play up the “fabulous benefits” of their products while conveniently glossing over the fatalities they’ve caused … what would be unusual is if theydidn’t.

Common Diabetes Drugs Associated with Increased Risk of Death

New studies regularly reveal the true risks of many medications, including popular varieties that are used by millions of people. For example, an analysis of nearly 24,000 patients with type 2 diabetes found that three diabetes drugs – glipizide, glyburide, and glimepiride – caused a more than 50 percent greater risk of death compared to another diabetes drug, Metformin.^v The three drugs are known as sulfonylureas, which work by spurring your body to produce more insulin.

The drugs not only increased the risk of death among all patients, but among those with heart disease (which is common among those with diabetes), glipizide increased the risk of death by 41 percent, and glyburide by 38 percent compared to Metformin.

Continue Reading At: Mercola.com

History of Med Fact #4: Pearl Harbor was a planned catapult for Big Pharma, suspiciously similar to the 9/11 tragedy

via: NaturalNews
Friday, June 29, 2012
By: S. D. Wells

[NaturalNews] On June 24, 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, allowing the FDA authority over all drugs by mandating pre-market review and banning “unchecked” therapeutic claims on labels. This meant complete control of the expensive approval process of medicine, boosting the pharmaceutical industry’s power to an unprecedented level.

Three years later, on December 7, 1941, twenty one American ships auspiciously exploded in the port of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 2,388 Americans and the U.S. immediately entered World War II. Conveniently, the three most important aircraft carriers where not in the port, but had been moved to another location, and the infamous “radio silence” of the Japanese fighter pilots that went down in the history books turned out to be a massive lie.

On January 20, 2000, the 43rd President of the U.S., George W. Bush, was inaugurated and immediately appointed his “right hand man” Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. Rumsfeld, the former CEO of Searle Pharmaceutical, was one of the most powerful and manipulative players in the world of the “Big Pharma” racket.

On September 11, 2001, just 20 months later, three of the most popular buildings in the world crumbled to the ground demolition style (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv7BImVvEyk) in New York City, killing over 3,000 Americans. Rumsfeld was crucial in planning the United States’ response to the “attacks,” and shortly thereafter the U.S. conveniently waged “pre-emptive” wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Invoking War for Money

The “Industrial War Complex” is nothing new. You may have heard before that war is “good” for the economy, but the truth is, war is good for the politicians who have financial interests in the companies that profit from it directly. Following both World War II and the latest wars in the Middle East, the statistics can’t lie about the dramatic increase in demand for treating mental and emotional problems, usually referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which led to a massive windfall of profits for leading pharmaceutical companies. Is it just a massive coincidence?

Hauntingly familiar situations and U.S. Government reactions in both scenarios alert intelligent, rational citizens that American politics is not about writing legislation and fulfilling the democratic dream. It is rather deeply entrenched in profiting from a “guaranteed” scheme of starting wars and then treating the masses with expensive drugs that rack up a fortune in profits for the elite few who are “wielding the sickle” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amC4l_gCI10).

Fact and Figures

• Over 70% of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks and history proves now that he was not, and furthermore, Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction.

• FDR’s General Marshall and the Secretary of State named the day of Pearl Harbor one week before the attack.

• George W. Bush was caught on film with a very nonchalant, indifferent reaction when the secret service whispered in his ear in a school classroom that we had been attacked by terrorists (http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/fahrenheit-911/).

• Pre-WWII pharmaceutical giants Merck, Squibb, Lilly and Pfizer propelled penicillin production and gained support from the federal government, holding the CMR penicillin conference in New York just ten days after Pearl Harbor.

• Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld made personal fortunes in the tens of millions from monopolizing contract work in Iraq and from the sale of drugs used to treat military personnel and hired civilians who suffered injuries and traumatic stress from the Wars in the Middle East.

• Quarterly earnings of the biggest oil and gas corporations surged after the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, exceeding the largest gains in 30 years, with Exxon ranking #1 in total profits. Under Bush, the passage of an oil law to split revenues with the Kurds was a crucial benchmark to the U.S. profiting from the War in Iraq
(http://www.nytimes.com).

• Robert Stinnett, decorated WWII veteran, published his 1999 book Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor, revealing that FDR not only knew about the attack in advance, but that his administration put Japan in an economic chokehold before the war, inciting the “open back door” attack.

• Before 9/11, in 1999, Monsanto merged with the Big Pharma giant Pharmacia, which conveniently absorbed the enormous drug division R.D. Searle, creating a new Monsanto agrochemical (GMO) and biotech subsidiary.

• On October 7, 1940, Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum recommended in a memorandum (the McCollum Memo) that the U.S. provoke the Japanese into attacking America, so the American people would change their stance on the war and support the forthcoming “retaliation.”

• In the wake of the 9/11 “terrorist attacks,” Bush actively pursued the addition of a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients.

• The cleanup of all debris from Pearl Harbor and from the 9/11 destruction in New York were suspiciously cleaned up in a huge rush and no debris was ever analyzed by the U.S. Government (http://911review.com/motive/profits.html).

• The actual jumpstart of Big Pharma was marred by the “elixir sulfanilamide disaster of 1937,” leading to the involvement of the FDA in the pharmaceutical regime and FDR’s Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act just one year later.

• Rumsfeld was the Chair of the Board of Directors at Gilead Sciences before being named to the Bush cabinet. Gilead Sciences patented and pushed the drug Tamiflu, the “wonderously popular” flu drug that swept across America, generating billions in profit. Of course, “Rummy” Rumsfeld still holds major shares of Gilead stock.

What is pharmaceutical terrorism?

The backbone of Western Medicine is primarily supported by prescription medication, chemotherapy and radiation treatments. These forms of “medicine” are very expensive, patentable, and manipulated by the Government, the FDA, the media, and Big Pharma. For seventy years, the American public has been coerced into making choices between different toxins which are propped up and highly recommended as mainstream medicine, and all forms of natural healing have either been labeled as alternative (risky) or as a form of “quackery.”

There is a reason why school curriculums and history books focus on rote memory skills and close-ended, multiple choice test questions – the Government does not want a lot of deep thinking, critical researchers looking into the facts of history, which, thanks to Google and the Freedom of Information Act, are now readily available.

Source: NaturalNews.com