The way things are
angrytoxicologist | June 27, 2008So, I haven't posted in a while. I could explain to you why, but that's just boring. I'll be posting more starting next week.
And you'll like it!
The FDA gave out bigger bonuses this year than last reports the WP, largely to the upper level management, despite criticism over a lot of public problems over imports and food (sometimes together). There are a couple of aspects to this that I'd like to point out:
1) the public looks at public servants as stuck in their jobs not as part of a larger national workforce that has options. Orgs and the media are always harping on the revolving door with…
angrytoxicologist | February 6, 2008Is this about a better environment, animal welfare or about better drug development? Take a guess.
Yesterday NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) had a little symposium on animal testing to celebrate the 10th year of ICCVAM (Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods) - gotta love the gov't and their acronyms. They unveiled (although I don't believe there was a veil or curtain used) their 5-year plan. Like the NAS report that has previously come out, it's full of a lot of hope and hooey. Please read my previous post as a primer where I…
angrytoxicologist | January 29, 2008Two things got me thinking about the upcoming topic.
1) I saw "Into the Woods" recently and there's a part where the old hermit asks the baker how much $ a son would be worth (he's trying to have a kid). The baker first thinks this is a insane question, but you can see a small bit of wheel turning going on in his head.
2) These posts on drug development and cost.
The huge profits that drug companies make mostly get plowed back into R&D to develop the new drugs. When profits start drying up, as they are doing now, less $ goes into R&D and therefore, new drugs are less likely to come by…
angrytoxicologist | January 8, 2008A reader sent an article from The Pink Sheet (an industry rag focused on Pharma). If you've never read industry-specific news publications, you're really missing out. They're really facinating and instructive. Sometimes you get early knowledge about industry trends and others, if you're lucky, that are not so subtle messages to other readers. This is one of the latter($ required, sorry).
The article is entitled "FDA Staffing Problems Extend Beyond Funding Shortfalls; Culture Shift Sought." I was expecting an article about what changes employees saw as need to change the culture. I was wrong.…
angrytoxicologist | November 5, 2007After the dust up last week about violent anti-animal testing groups (coast down through the comments on the linked Denialism post to get the short version of my take), two things stuck in my head. One, the Dalai Lama says my karma's okay as long as I'm following what looks like a version of the Society of Toxicology's Principles of Animal Use. Two, what would be of practical use to researchers who deal with this problem? Here's my advice:
1) Have compassion for animals in research.
2) Strive to make your research a benefit for humanity.
3) Get this free karmic pass and put it on your lab…
angrytoxicologist | September 11, 2007I couldn't have said it better myself so I won't try. I stumbled accross this yesterday (it's about a month old). Via Slate.
This week, some big thinkers about biotechnology came to Washington for a "progressive bioethics summit." They invited me to go and talk to them. I like these people, but I'm not a progressive. I don't even think the word makes sense. And that made me ask something else: After two and a half years of covering moral debates about stem cells and other technologies, what do I think of this stuff? What the hell am I?
I have problems with liberals. A lot of them talk about…
angrytoxicologist | August 30, 2007That's the hed for the Washington Post story on the study that found that doctors ignored or dismissed patients concerns about side effects and didn't report them to MedWatch (the FDA system for collecting side effects). The Post goes through some reasons for this but I think the end conclusion is that this is a very bad way of going about post-market safety. The data is extremely nosy, mainly due to the fact that not a lot of doctors use it (time, lazyness, or complexity of the forms?). Whatever the reason, events are under reported but I don't think it's the doctors' fault; and while punchy…
angrytoxicologist | August 9, 2007What do the Abigail Alliance and steroid use have to do with each other? Read on.
The US DC Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned the finding for the Abigail Alliance and ruled for the FDA (supported by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)). The finding was basically that there is no Constitutional Right (big 'R') for access to experimental drugs. The court was divided (8-2, not following conservative/liberal lines) but even I and see through the minority opinion that you have the right to save your life by any means and…