Drug firms hiding negative research are unfit to experiment on people
“This week the drug company AstraZeneca paid out £125m to settle a class action. More than 17,500 patients claim the company withheld information showing that schizophrenia drug quetiapine (tradename Seroquel) can cause diabetes. So why do companies pay out money before cases get to court?
An interesting feature of litigation is that various documents enter the public domain. This is how we know about the tobacco industry’s evil plans to target children, the fake academic journal that Elsevier created for Merck’s marketing department, and so on.
One of the most revealing documents ever to come out of a drug company emerged from an earlier quetiapine case: an email from John Tumas, publications manager at AstraZeneca. In it, he helpfully admits that they do everything I say drug companies do.
“Please allow me to join the fray,” Tumas begins, in response to a colleague. “There has been a precedent set regarding ‘cherry picking’ of data.” Cherry picking is where you report only flattering data, and ignore or bury data you don’t like. The ears of lawyers prick up at any use of the word “bury” in relation to drug company data, as it implies something deliberate, and luckily John uses this word himself. The precedent, he explains, is “the recent … presentations of cognitive function data from trial 15 (one of the buried trials)”.
In trial 15, commissioned by AstraZeneca, patients with schizophrenia who were in remission were randomly assigned to receive either AstraZeneca’s quetiapine, or a cheap, old-fashioned drug called haloperidol. After a year, the patients on Seroquel were doing worse: they had more relapses and worse ratings on various symptom scales. These negative findings were left unpublished: to use Tumas’s word, they were “buried”.
But in among all these important negative findings, on a few measures of “cognitive functioning” – an attention task, a verbal memory test – Seroquel did better. This finding alone was published in a research paper in 2002. AstraZeneca kept quiet about the fact that patients on Seroquel had worse outcomes for schizophrenia. The research paper went on to become a highly influential piece of work, cited by more than 100 academic research papers. Many researchers can only dream of publishing such a well cited piece of work.
Trial 15 also found that patients on Seroquel gained, on average, 5kg in weight over a year. This put them at increased risk of diabetes, which is what AstraZeneca is now paying to settle on (and in any case, a 5kg weight gain is a serious side-effect in itself).”
Read more at The Guardian (Thanks @nettmac)
Poachers kill last female rhino in South African park for prized horn
“South African wildlife experts are calling for urgent action against poachers after the last female rhinoceros in a popular game reserve near Johannesburg bled to death after having its horn hacked off.
Wildlife officials say poaching for the prized horns has now reached an all-time high. “Last year, 129 rhinos were killed for their horns in South Africa. This year, we have already had 136 deaths,” said Japie Mostert, chief game ranger at the 1,500-hectare Krugersdorp game reserve.
The gang used tranquilliser guns and a helicopter to bring down the nine-year-old rhino cow. Her distraught calf was moved to a nearby estate where it was introduced to two other orphaned white rhinos.
Wanda Mkutshulwa, a spokeswoman for South African National Parks, said investigations into the growing number of incidents had been shifted to the country’s organised crime unit. “We are dealing with very focused criminals. Police need to help game reserves because they are not at all equipped to handle crime on such an organised level,” she said.
Rhino horn consists of compressed keratin fibre – similar to hair – and in many Asian cultures it is a fundamental ingredient in traditional medicines.”
Read more at The Guardian (Thanks Tracey)
‘UFOs’ spotted in Reading
“Mobile phone footage has captured the moment that several UFO’s were spotted flying above Reading, Berkshire. The video was captured by Lizzie Zuowen Tang and Jo Mingjiao Xue who claim to have seen 21 flying objects between 4.45 and 5.53 in the morning.
Ms Tang said: “Their shapes were like rods which pointed in the direction they were flying, but they were rotating at the same time when flying forward. “They flew very slowly without the noise which planes generate when flying, so at first we thought they were meteors, but then we immediately realised that they were definitely not meteors because their speed was much slower. “We think that they were flying at a very high altitude and we saw two of them generate a very strong light flash for a few seconds when they were flying.”"
Being a skeptical lot we don’t beleive in UFO’s but are open to convincing evidence. This hardly counts as some as it’s so poor but it’s hard to make out what they actually are. Certainly not conventional aircraft of any sort – but maybe our readers have an idea?
Head over the The Telegraph to watch the video
How Scientology Avoids Paying Tax in the United Kingdom
It’s alleged Scientology has avoided paying tax in the United Kingdom by claiming it is run out of South Australia. In Britain, the Church of Scientology is supposed to pay tax on the millions of pounds it brings in each year. Now, the organisation has been accused of claiming its entire UK operation is part of its Australian outfit.
The Independent Senator Nick Xenophon is one of South Australia’s favourite sons. He championed the former members of Scientology who spoke out about the abuse inflicted on them. This latest intrigue surprised even him.
“When you look at the fact that the three directors are based in the UK, that returns haven’t been filed for the South Australian entity in over 30 years you’ve got to ask what on earth is going on,” Xenophon said.
Full article at TodayTonight
Classic scams to avoid
“Playwright Alan Bennett had his wallet, with £1,500, stolen by pickpockets pretending to clean ice-cream from his coat. It’s a classic scam, so what others should you look out for?
He’s not the first person to fall for such a scam. The back of Alan Bennett’s raincoat was splattered with ice-cream by two women and a man, who then pretended to clean it off, while they pinched the writer’s wallet from a pocket.
Bennett, whose works include his Talking Heads monologues, The Madness Of George III and The History Boys, said the incident was “most upsetting”. The fact he had been carrying £1,500 in cash couldn’t have made it any easier.
The “distraction” scam is a favourite with thieves in London and police have repeatedly warned tourists and shoppers to be on their guard. But what other ploys should people watch out for?”
To read up on 5 classic scams visit BBC News
Homeopathy Awareness Week: Is this the homeopaths’ last stand?
“British homeopaths are celebrating Homeopathy Awareness Week, yet it seems to me there is very little for them to celebrate.
Earlier this year, a report from the Commons Science and Technology Committee concluded that the principles of homeopathy are implausible and that the evidence fails to show that it works better than placebo. The MPs also criticised homeopaths for trying to mislead the public by providing inaccurate information. Their recommendation to government was to stop funding homeopathy on the NHS.
Then the Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Integrated Health, a staunch supporter of homeopathy in the NHS, folded in the midst of a police investigation for fraud and money laundering.
Last month, the British Medical Association described homeopathy as “witchcraft” and called for an end to all funding on the NHS.
A streak of bad luck? Not really. Homeopathy’s fortunes have been crumbling for quite some time. The evidence to suggest that it has effects beyond those of a placebo has become less and less convincing. In 2005, The Lancet even pronounced “the end of homeopathy”.
As a result, one of the five NHS-funded homeopathic hospitals had to close. After assessing the science, its NHS trust found that the evidence did not justify any further funding.
Faced with increasing criticism, UK homeopaths become more and more desperate. My team has found that the Society of Homeopaths even appears to have been in breach of its own code of ethics in attempting to promote homeopathy. On the society’s website, numerous statements about efficacy were made that were not backed by science and so were not allowed under its own regulations.”
Read more at The Guardian
Child abuse inside the Church of Scientology
The daughter of the president of the Church of Scientology speaks about the horrific conditions that children are raised under. The claims have been denied by the CoS.
Psychic ‘cheats hundreds of thousands of dollars out of customers by telling them money is evil’
Nancy Marks also persuaded gullible clients to hand over their credit card numbers because she wanted to check there were not too many sixes on them. The 54-year-old used the information to go on wild spending sprees at top fashion stores.
Police in Colorado believe she has able to get more than £250,000 out of people who came to use her psychic services. One woman handed over more than £180,000 after being told money was evil and that it contained bad energy.
Full article at Mail Online
Derren Brown Investigates – Tonight 10pm Ch4!
Firstly welcome back to the blog!
Apologies for the down time on the site over the weekend. Seems as though a large number of sites all got hit (including a few government ones). Should all be fine now, we are just waiting for google to take the remaining malware messages off (they say it can take a day or so).
In case you haven’t heard, Derren’s new series starts Tonight 10pm.
We’ve created a new section on the blog especially for the series so you have a place to discuss it during and after each show.
Click here to head over to the Derren Brown Investigates page. (Or find it in the menus at the top under “TV Shows”)
Enjoy!
Liverpool and Blackpool
Two big one-nighters: the Liverpool Empire and the Blackpool Opera House. Phwor. Both were lovely gigs, with great, great audiences. Thank you if you came along. I managed to break my mic in the second half in Liverpool, and had to call to the in-house crew at Blackpool to keep the conversation level down backstage, but despite these minor mishaps they were both good shows.
One fun aspect of chatting to the in-house crews is hearing the tales of ‘stars’ who have appeared there. Crews have a huge amount of power, and if they take exception to an arrogant star they can amuse themselves at the performers’ expense. I have heard tales of crew urinating in the rain machine for a production of Singing In The Rain. Of a spotlight operator purposefully missing a famous comedian with the light for the whole show because of a racist comment that was flung in his direction. Of a very well-known comedian defecating into the puppet of his warm-up ventriloquist, whom he loathed, who then had to do the whole act with excrement dripping down his arm. Of course I love asking about the big-name ‘psychics’ who tour, to see if there’s any gossip. In Liverpool, one very famous medium appeared and was spotted by a crew member sneaking in three old ladies through a side entrance (one seemed to be his mum)… old ladies who then played along during the show. Another, watched every night by the same crew, was seen to use the same ‘stock readings’ in every show… precisely the same stories, the same names, the same ‘details’ lazily thrown out to an audience who would make it fit their own situations every time. Doris Stokes would apparently have people come to her hotel for private readings during the day, and then invite them along to the show in the evening, where she would come out with the same information she had garnered from them during the afternoon. I thought that was particularly inspired.
Yesterday in busy, bank-holiday Blackpool I visited Carnesky’s Ghost Train, just next to the Pleasure Beach. Ooh, it’s rather good. I had been to her earlier version in London and been a little disappointed, but this is definitely worth a visit. It’s a scary, intelligent, layered, disconcerting experience. The girl in front of me was proper freaking. Everyone involved does a great job – thank you all those who were tweeting afterwards following my visit. Took me ages to find a working cash-machine, but it was well worth it.
Now some time off. Hope to start a new portrait of Rufus Wainwright. Searching for decent hi-res source material. Ta-ta.
