ANIMAL FORUM

The Independent
August 29, 2005
THE GREEN GODDESS: A VICTORY FOR GOOD SENSE
AND GUINEA PIGS

JULIA STEPHENSON

I cheered when I heard that Darley Oaks guinea pig farm is to close.
As usual this rare victory for the animal rights lobby caused a storm
of protest and the usual band of scientists and doctors, many financed
by pharmaceutical companies, were wheeled out to give their one-sided
view. Predictably, the focus was on a minority of violent protesters
and avoided the real issue: that animal tests offer misleading results
and cause suffering for both people and animals.

Many doctors and scientists are growing increasingly concerned
about the efficacy of animal experiments. Thousands of them have
joined Europeans for Medical Progress, an independent body who
oppose animal experimentation solely because it harms people.

Its director, Dr Kathy Archibald, admits that those who speak
out risk ostracism from the medical establishment, but they feel
compelled to fight for the truth. Testing on animals slows down
medical progress because it tells us about animals, not people.
Animals are biologically and physiologically different to humans
and react differently to many substances. Its no surprise that
prescription drugs tested on animals are the fourth leading cause
of death in the Western world. The question is, why do animal
experiments continue if they are so inaccurate and given that
there are more efficient alternatives such as human DNA chips,
human tissues, computer programmes that predict human
metabolism, and micro-dose studies that reveal the fate of
drugs in the human body?

The tradition of animal experiments is so deeply ingrained that
the whole medical system is based on it. Researchers attract
grants based on how many papers they publish. Its much easier
to publish papers using animals than by doing human-based
research. Animal breeders, cage and equipment manufacturers
and the pharmaceutical industry are multi-billion pound industries.
Animal tests help them speed new drugs to market and give
them liability protection when their drugs kill or injure.

However, the tide is turning. We recently witnessed the biggest
drug disaster in history when the arthritis drug Vioxx was
withdrawn after causing heart attacks. The Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine, American doctors who campaign
against animal testing, are suing Merck for promoting an unsafe
drug on the strength of test results in monkeys.

This was reported on the same day as the one-sided reports
about Darley Oaks closing. No one made the link between
Vioxx Extensively animal-tested yet lethal to humans and the
guinea pig farm, but if they had they would have cheered.
Guinea pigs are used in medical research for skin irritation testing.
Their fur is shaved and medication applied, without anaesthetic,
causing agony. But due to a difference in the distribution of
blood vessels, their skin reacts differently to ours, rendering
most experiments useless. Yet the media avoid these arguments
and exaggerate the extremist angle.

In reality, most animal rights protesters are law abiding.
However peaceful old ladies dont make waves, and in
frustration a minority of extremists take violent action,
which acts as propaganda to the vivisectionists.

-

pearl cut-and-pasted:

I didnt. Its a set back for medical progress. But then again, when did
ARAs ever care about human welfare, much less human progress? Animal
rights activists are misanthropes.

usual suspect wrote in message
news:UaiRe.214611$gL1.93654@tornado.texas.rr.com...

According to the United States Food and Drug Administration,
1.5 million Americans were hospitalised in 1978 alone, as a
consequence of pharmaceutical drugs administered to cure them.
It was also found that some 30% of all hospitalised people suffered
further damage from the therapy prescribed them. In the 1990s,
studies show that 180,000 medically-induced deaths occur each
year in the USA. These astronomical figures are in spite of the
fact that a large number of drug damages go unreported.
...............
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/06/04/why do pharmaceutical drugs
injure and kill.htm
or http://tinyurl.com/a8m99

A worldwide disinformation campaign undertaken by these
companies is said to have caused the death of millions of people.
Their role in getting both Bush and Blair into power and in
determining the policies of their respective administrations
with respect to the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is cited
as evidence for a case made for violation of Human Rights.
....
The pharmaceutical industry offers health to millions of patients
- but does not deliver the goods. Instead it delivers products that
merely alleviate symptoms while promoting the underlying disease
as a precondition for its future business. To cover the fraud, this
industry spends twice the amount of money in covering it up than
it spends on research on future therapies.

This organized deception is the reason why this investment business
could continue for almost a century behind a strategically designed
smoke screen as benefactors to humanity. The lives of 6 billion
people and the economies of most countries in the world are held
hostage by the criminal practices of this industry.
...............
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/06/23/pharmaceutical corporations
accused of genocide before icc in the hague.htm
or http://tinyurl.com/g574

pearl cut-and-pasted:

You have anything from THIS century, much less this decade, dummy?

usual suspect wrote in message
news:oYmRe.203471$0f.47354@tornado.texas.rr.com...

Even from this millennium, misanthrope.

Painkiller caused 139,000 heart attacks
August 29, 2005

Many policymakers believe an independent drug safety office
should be created to review the safety of medications
By DAGI KIMANI
Special Correspondent

According to the Financial Times, Vioxx has had a troubled
history dating back to September last year, when the manufacturer
announced it had withdrawn the drug after clinical tests linked it with
increased risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems.

The recall, said the papers August 24 issue, came more than
three years after researchers in another study attributed incidents
of heart attacks and strokes to the drug.

But suspicions about the side-effects of the drug first arose in
June 2001, when the Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA) released a report showing that it could cause kidney
problems. A subsequent report in the jounal, said the FT, reported
incidents of serious heart problems in Vioxx users, including heart
attacks.

The day after Merck announced the Vioxx recall, a Federal Drug
Agency official was reported as saying the agency had been aware
of the potential for serious heart problems for years. In fact, said
the FT, in 2000 the agency required Merck to place a warning
label on the drug warning users of the potential for heart problems.

In spite of the strong warnings presented in multiple studies,
Merck is said to have continued marketing the drug. After Merck,
in a shock announcement in November 2004, stated that the drug
should not have been pulled earlier, many people in the medical
community criticised the manufacturer for responding slowly to
evidence of health risks and serious side effects.

FT reported that Merck & Co had conducted a clinical study
involving 2,600 patients to determine whether the drug was
effective in preventing colon cancer. But it halted the study
before its conclusion after it became clear that it increased the
risk of heart attacks and other serious cardiovascular problems.

In August last year, just a month prior to the withdrawal, the firm,
according to the FT report, released a press statement contending
that the drug was safe. The company said it stood behind the
overall safety and cardiovascular safety of Vioxx. It dismissed
studies from other research groups that found a link between the
drug and heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, and other serious
side effects.

It was estimated that more than 84 million people had taken the
drug worldwide and it is believed more than two million were
taking it to cure arthritis at the time of the recall.

It is believed that the widespread use was the result of an
aggressive marketing campaign by the drug company. Merck
reportedly spent about $100 million per year promoting the
drug, with most of it being spent after researchers had already
had reported a link between Vioxx and heart problems.

According to the FT report, the FDA has estimated that
Vioxx may be responsible for as many as 27,000 heart attacks
and cardiac deaths between 1999 and 2003. The Agency is
said to have reached this number by analysing a database of
1.4 million patients in the Kaiser Permanente health care system
in the US. That analysis also led to the finding that Vioxx users
were more likely to suffer a heart attack or sudden cardiac death
than those who took a competing drug, said the newspaper.

Intriguingly, said the FT, the problems with Vioxx began before
the drug was approved for sale in the US.

Pre-approval trials to determine the safety of the drug lasted less
than 12 months, in spite of the fact that many people taking Vioxx
for arthritis would use the drug for a much longer period of time.

Last November, Congress began hearings intended to assess the
Agencys decision not to recall Vioxx years before the drug finally
was pulled from the market. Dr. Graham, the Associate Director
for Science in the Agencys Office of Drug Safety testified that
the agency is incapable of protecting America against another
Vioxx, said the FT.

He estimated that the drug had caused between 88,000 and
139,000 cases of heart attack and stroke. These numbers are
significantly greater than the 27,000 estimate announced by the
Agency a month earlier.

During the hearing, one senator expressed concern that the
FDA was too cozy with drug companies. Many policymakers
believe an independent drug safety office should be created to
review the safety of medications following FDA approval, said
the report.
.
http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/Regional290820052.htm

Source: BioMed Central
Date: 2005-08-22
Antidepressant Paroxetine Linked To Higher Rate Of Suicide
Attempts In Adults

Adult patients taking the antidepressant drug paroxetine are at
higher risk of attempting to commit suicide than those not taking
medication. A new analysis, published in BMC Medicine, of
previous clinical data on paroxetine use adds the antidepressant
to the list of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)
that have been shown to increase suicidal tendencies in adult
patients with depression.
....
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/08/050821225354.htm

Source: Journal Of The American Medical Association
Date: 2004-11-26
Antidepressants May Increase Risk Of Abnormal Bleeding

CHICAGO -- New users of selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors (SSRIs, a type of antidepressant) have an increased
risk of being admitted to the hospital for abnormal bleeding,
according to an article in the November 22 issue of the Archives
of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041123113444.htm

Drugging Kids with Lethal Medications

On June 18, 2003, GlaxoSmithKline issued a warning to
British physicians against the use of Paxil in children, and
acknowledged its failure in clinical trials to demonstrate
efficacy in major depressive disorders and doubling the
rate of reported adverse events-including suicidal
thoughts and suicide attempts-compared to placebo.
.....
http://onlinejournal.com/health/082605Pringle/082605pringle.html

............

pearl cut-and-pasted:

Do you know if Julia Stephenson also cheered when your fellow ARAs stole
Gladys Hammonds corpse or boasted that Gladys remains had been divided
up and scattered about?
http://tinyurl.com/dr8k6


Still waiting. Vioxx was given predominantly to elderly patients.
Elderly patients are a higher risk group for heart attacks and strokes.
So why should anyone be surprised elderly patients had heart attacks and
strokes?


Unproven allegation and at odds with the report:


Your nutty source is off by 112,000. Imagine that.

BTW, have you seen this article?

The giant orb of iron and nickel that anchors Earths center is
spinning faster than the planets surface, according to a new
study that confirms scientists expectations.

The finding is based on analyses of earthquake pairs that occur
at roughly the same spot on Earth but at different times. On
seismic recoding instruments, the earthquake signatures from
waveform doublets, as they are called, look nearly identical.

When earthquakes strike, their seismic waves can travel through
the planet and surface all over the globe.

The researchers analyzed 18 sets of waveform doublets -- some
separated in time by up to 35 years -- from earthquakes
occurring off the coast of South America but which were recorded at
seismic stations near Alaska.

Earths core is made of a solid inner part and a fluid outer
part, all of it mostly iron.

The solid inner core has an uneven consistency, with some parts
denser than others, and this can either speed up or slow down
shock waves from earthquakes as they pass through.
http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050825 earthcore.html

How do you reconcile this with your goofy belief in inner earth beings?
http://tinyurl.com/ax9bm
http://snipurl.com/516b

usual suspect wrote in message
news:BhoRe.214666$gL1.204071@tornado.texas.rr.com...

In reality, most animal rights protesters are law abiding.
However peaceful old ladies dont make waves, and in
frustration a minority of extremists take violent action,
which acts as propaganda to the vivisectionists.


In spite of the strong warnings presented in multiple studies,
Merck is said to have continued marketing the drug. After Merck,
in a shock announcement in November 2004, stated that the drug
should not have been pulled earlier, many people in the medical
community criticised the manufacturer for responding slowly to
evidence of health risks and serious side effects.
http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/Regional290820052.htm


Last November, Congress began hearings intended to assess the
Agencys decision not to recall Vioxx years before the drug finally
was pulled from the market. Dr. Graham, the Associate Director
for Science in the Agencys Office of Drug Safety testified that
the agency is incapable of protecting America against another
Vioxx, said the FT.

He estimated that the drug had caused between 88,000 and
139,000 cases of heart attack and stroke. These numbers are
significantly greater than the 27,000 estimate announced by the
Agency a month earlier.

During the hearing, one senator expressed concern that the
FDA was too cozy with drug companies. Many policymakers
believe an independent drug safety office should be created to
review the safety of medications following FDA approval, said
the report.
.
http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/Regional290820052.htm


Attempted diversion.

pearl cut-and-pasted:

Answer my question. Do you know if Julia Stephenson cheered when your
fellow animal rights activists desecrated Gladys Hammonds grave and
stole her body? Why have there been few, if any, calls for the depraved
graverobbers to return her remains to her family? Why have there not
been condemnations about this incident from animal rights groups? Why
are they so elated that it took something so sick and demented to shut
down the guinea pig operation at Darley Oaks? Do the ends justify the means?


There were no strong warnings in earlier studies. The first
indications came a year and a half into a polyp study utilizing 25 mg
doses -- not the standard 12.5 mg dose most commonly prescribed for
arthritis. Merck immediately withdrew Vioxx from the market.

In this study, there was an increased relative risk for
confirmed cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and
stroke, beginning after 18 months of treatment in the patients
taking VIOXX compared to those taking placebo. The results for
the first 18 months of the APPROVe study did not show any
increased risk of confirmed cardiovascular events on VIOXX, and
in this respect, are similar to the results of two
placebo-controlled studies described in the current U.S.
labeling for VIOXX.
http://www.vioxx.com/rofecoxib/vioxx/consumer/press release 09302004.jsp


Its not a diversion. You believe fairy tales about inner earth beings
and are a charlatan who peddles foot massage. I was pointing to your
lack of credibility.