The halt follows Pfizer's sudden withdrawal of a related drug last year after several patients died taking it (the subject of a separate soon-to-be published Unreported Truths investigation)
When you have (seemingly, IMO) unethical people in charge, poor practiced, and partisan “scientists” it is unsurprising that this kind of thing happens and makes investigations like Alex does all the more important. Regulatory capture is real and one can’t trust them to acknowledge issues.
This is very rare at big pharma. As much as you hate pharma does not mean the hundreds of thousands of people who work on a trial are all evil or unethical. The hatred is not warranted although I will say I think Pfizer crosses the line sometimes. Like with Covid but then thr FDA and EMA supported them in that crime.
A great book on the pharmaceutical industry as a whole is “Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime” by Peter Gotzsche. It is the entire industry, even if there are regular people caught in it, that is profit-seeking first, last and only. Pfizer is one of the lead dogs in that race, but hardly the only one.
As an nurse, whenever I hear of a new drug on the market the first thought that comes to mind is: "Oh God, I wonder what horrible side effects this one has."
A good rule of thumb is: the stronger the med, the more numerous & dangerous the side effects.
This is particularly true when the med is a variation on an older drug (known as the predicate product), so testing rules & regulations are more lax.
Right now I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop on the weight-loss injections. My guess is that it won't be pretty (an increase in the incidence of pancreatic cancer wouldn't surprise me).
Perhaps hiring more MDs and less DVMs at the FDA would help.
more and more, MDs seem to be puppets of Big Pharma~ look at how few challenged the "orthodoxy" over Covid. med schools need to change, physicians need to be able to think critically.
I wholeheartedly agree that med schools need to change. However, I fear that the kind of person who goes to med school these days is quite different from those in the past.
They used to be not only very bright, but also highly intellectually curious and more willing to treat a patient as an individual who is part of a family.
Nowadays, they tend to treat by algorithm or protocol & spend more time looking at computer screens than at patients. Their blind conformity (& cowardice?) was on full display during the covid debacle.
I used to look forward to working with exceptional doctors when they completed their residency programs. My head nurse (this was in the late 1990s) warned me by saying, "Don't. Once they become attendings they all become assholes." Unfortunately, he was right.
Much of that came from Obamacare and the hoops physicians are now required to jump through in documentation. There are so many requirements that must be documented, it has led to an increase in need for administrators to oversee and make sure healthcare systems are staying compliant. Physicians in many ways are now enslaved and not free to just treat their patient, partly because they now all work for systems, and could lose their livelihood if they don’t comply. It’s the death of the physician/Patient relationship. And part of why many older physicians are leaving.
And now we will be stuck with "the new breed" of physicians & their "hamburger helpers" (PAs & NPs - & BTW, I am an NP). The final nail in the coffin of the MD/Pt. relationship was the electronic health record. Supposedly, it was to lead to a decrease in medical errors and improve communication between in the healthcare system. Ha! All it did was increase ease of billing.
According to one nurse administrator I spoke with the EHR increased billing in his NY hospital system by 40%.
Thank you for this link. Several years ago my son was prescribed a medication for nerve pain. By sheer luck I was the one to pick up the prescription. I noticed immediately that it was the wrong med - it was a medication for high blood pressure (I am a nurse practitioner). Given the names of the two meds one was almost surely listed under the other (alphabetically) in a drop-&-click
EHR system. I handed the med back to the pharmacist & called the MD's office. No apology for this potentially fatal medical error. No surprise there.
My son never went back there & the pain eventually resolved by itself. Lesson learned.
It also made it easier to track whether physicians or providers were meeting metrics required by Obamacare. I work with some great MPs and PAs, but a physician is always present for a shift for consultation on patients. Which is how it should be.
Fewer and fewer physicians are independent of HMOs, corporations, and insurance companies who call the shots. Then there are the state medical boards enforcing orthodoxy.
The FDA needs DVMs and MDs and Ph.Ds because they regulate animal drugs as well as human drugs. Please don’t blame the DVMs for the institutional failures of the FDA. Animal drugs are used for pets, horses and livestock.
Totally agree the weight loss drugs are going to be horrible in long term affects. I’d bet on it. I actually read somebody saying they were good for preventing alz. Bullish!te!!!
It is actually more difficult to get into veterinary school than medical school . Chances are DVMs are brighter and less woke; however we know primary selective factors for political positions are not intelligence/achievement and ethics. Being a political appointment, it is more based on a willingness to conform and bow to powers that be.
I agree with your points. However, there are way fewer veterinary schools than medical schools. Same with pharmacist programs, so that is partially why it is harder to get into DVM & Pharm.D schools.
PFIZER it seems looking for more profits, no matter if few more people have to die. What happened to doctors who want helped people because it the right thing to do. Seems the moral compass has been reversed for profit over people lives. We live in a greedy sinful world.
Big Pharma has done more to poison all of us. Creating a “pill for that” society. They are the largest spenders for television ads. The situation right now is there’s real Drs. who have been harmed and censored by them in charge now. The revolving door at the FDA and NIH is over. RFK jr. is also the guy who has sued them plenty. I’d hedge a guess they pulled these drugs and will shelve them until there’s an administration change which is why it was done so quietly. Beware of these sneaky bastards. They always have a plan.
Happens all the time but deaths in phase 3 are not usual. Basically if in preclinical a dog dies the drug is in trouble. I wonder why there were no deaths in phase 2 it may be the longer you take it the more toxic it becomes.
Their written guidelines for C (and I suspect all studies) states that if a subject seeks medical attention outside their protocol, they are eliminated from the trial. Deaths and severe injuries could easily be hidden.
i am not familiar with sickle cell anemia, so i looked up the symptoms to see if they were worse than death:
"Symptoms of sickle cell anemia typically include fatigue due to anemia, episodes of severe pain known as pain crises, swelling of the hands and feet, and a higher risk of infections. These symptoms can vary in intensity and frequency among individuals."
doesn't sound fun, but i'd probably still opt to skip the meds and live, thanks.
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disease that affects hemoglobin (the iron-containing part of red blood cells) synthesis. Under certain conditions the RBCs become sickle (crescent)- shaped. They become rigid & sticky, die off more quickly, clump together & impede circulation. The resulting chronic anemia can lead to what is known as a "crisis" (can be triggered by exposure to cold, dehydration, infection, etc.) which is excruciatingly painful.
When I worked in a hospital-based pediatric walk-in clinic those patients would come in screaming. The treatment was IV fluids, oxygen & demerol or morphine. Once stabilized & admitted they would wear fentanyl (yes, fentanyl) patches until they could be safely discharged.
Fifty years ago they barely made it to age 21. Now they can live into their 50s & some beyond. Treatment with hydroxyurea & prophylactic penicillin are important advances & a bone marrow transplant can be curative (I think) if a good matched donor can be found.
@Dark- it's a genetic disorder involving those with African genes. The sickle shaped cells actually help in fighting malaria but it can go awry, especially in those not living in malaria prone areas. It's an awful disease.
that was probably the extent that i did know of it. I remember ryan clark from the steelers was cautioned not to play again in denver after i guess the altitude exacerbated his condition one time and he almost died.
Ryan Clark has sickle cell trait, meaning he has one copy of the normal gene and one copy of the gene for sickle cell. He's one of my all-time favorite Steelers, cause he seemed like a really good guy, and he figured out how to complement Troy Polamalu's brilliant play at safety.
I am guessing these FDA examiners are not the same people that work with COVID "vaccines", otherwise no need for any phase trial, just approve it and wait for my cushy seat on their BODs.
I wonder if Pfizer received a sweetheart deal, like they did with the mRNA shot, making it impossible to sue them if something happened. I wonder how long they ran trials before human use? I wonder if [Rooster] was behind pushing this drug, as he was with the mRNA shot and face masks, prioritizing profit over people's lives.
They will be very, very careful with this one. The halt was the right call. Clinical trial protocols need to be specific, with red line safety signals. Perhaps that is now occurring?
I own a small amount of shares of Pfizer in an IRA. I voted against Bourla and the rest of the board. I did not mention it here before because I was afraid it might somehow be attributed to Alex as some kind of effort driven by him (in the idiotic way the legacy media looks at things, some kind of half-assed guilt by association). I should have sold the shares but by the time I thought to do so, it was already down. The worst part is that all my life I had been hearing about sickle cell and I had heard about the new drug on the financial channels (I actually didn't know it was a Pfizer drug until today, figures!) and was fooled into thinking it was going to help people. I wish that it did actually help people.
I also indirectly own Pfizer stock via my IRA mutual fund. Would have to dispose of the mutual fund entirely. My guess is most medical/pharmaceutical mutual fund contain Pfizer, so it's hard to avoid if one does segment investing.
When you have (seemingly, IMO) unethical people in charge, poor practiced, and partisan “scientists” it is unsurprising that this kind of thing happens and makes investigations like Alex does all the more important. Regulatory capture is real and one can’t trust them to acknowledge issues.
"Poor practices ". Autocorrect
This is very rare at big pharma. As much as you hate pharma does not mean the hundreds of thousands of people who work on a trial are all evil or unethical. The hatred is not warranted although I will say I think Pfizer crosses the line sometimes. Like with Covid but then thr FDA and EMA supported them in that crime.
Yes but we will never forget the COVID Jab and the fact those criminals are still walking free and just maybe involved in more criminality.
Me thinks the problem is Pfizer, not all of Big Pharma. Look at the company's history.
A great book on the pharmaceutical industry as a whole is “Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime” by Peter Gotzsche. It is the entire industry, even if there are regular people caught in it, that is profit-seeking first, last and only. Pfizer is one of the lead dogs in that race, but hardly the only one.
Thanks for the book suggestion.
As an nurse, whenever I hear of a new drug on the market the first thought that comes to mind is: "Oh God, I wonder what horrible side effects this one has."
A good rule of thumb is: the stronger the med, the more numerous & dangerous the side effects.
This is particularly true when the med is a variation on an older drug (known as the predicate product), so testing rules & regulations are more lax.
Right now I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop on the weight-loss injections. My guess is that it won't be pretty (an increase in the incidence of pancreatic cancer wouldn't surprise me).
Perhaps hiring more MDs and less DVMs at the FDA would help.
more and more, MDs seem to be puppets of Big Pharma~ look at how few challenged the "orthodoxy" over Covid. med schools need to change, physicians need to be able to think critically.
but, MDs vs DVMs a good point~ thank you!
I wholeheartedly agree that med schools need to change. However, I fear that the kind of person who goes to med school these days is quite different from those in the past.
They used to be not only very bright, but also highly intellectually curious and more willing to treat a patient as an individual who is part of a family.
Nowadays, they tend to treat by algorithm or protocol & spend more time looking at computer screens than at patients. Their blind conformity (& cowardice?) was on full display during the covid debacle.
I used to look forward to working with exceptional doctors when they completed their residency programs. My head nurse (this was in the late 1990s) warned me by saying, "Don't. Once they become attendings they all become assholes." Unfortunately, he was right.
Much of that came from Obamacare and the hoops physicians are now required to jump through in documentation. There are so many requirements that must be documented, it has led to an increase in need for administrators to oversee and make sure healthcare systems are staying compliant. Physicians in many ways are now enslaved and not free to just treat their patient, partly because they now all work for systems, and could lose their livelihood if they don’t comply. It’s the death of the physician/Patient relationship. And part of why many older physicians are leaving.
And now we will be stuck with "the new breed" of physicians & their "hamburger helpers" (PAs & NPs - & BTW, I am an NP). The final nail in the coffin of the MD/Pt. relationship was the electronic health record. Supposedly, it was to lead to a decrease in medical errors and improve communication between in the healthcare system. Ha! All it did was increase ease of billing.
According to one nurse administrator I spoke with the EHR increased billing in his NY hospital system by 40%.
*between patients & providers
eventually the pendulum should swing the other way~ hopefully it's sooner rather than later 🙏🏻
There was a great article a few years back that goes in-depth on this topic: “Death By A Thousand Clicks”
https://fortune.com/longform/medical-records/
Thank you for this link. Several years ago my son was prescribed a medication for nerve pain. By sheer luck I was the one to pick up the prescription. I noticed immediately that it was the wrong med - it was a medication for high blood pressure (I am a nurse practitioner). Given the names of the two meds one was almost surely listed under the other (alphabetically) in a drop-&-click
EHR system. I handed the med back to the pharmacist & called the MD's office. No apology for this potentially fatal medical error. No surprise there.
My son never went back there & the pain eventually resolved by itself. Lesson learned.
It also made it easier to track whether physicians or providers were meeting metrics required by Obamacare. I work with some great MPs and PAs, but a physician is always present for a shift for consultation on patients. Which is how it should be.
Fewer and fewer physicians are independent of HMOs, corporations, and insurance companies who call the shots. Then there are the state medical boards enforcing orthodoxy.
so true 😒
The FDA needs DVMs and MDs and Ph.Ds because they regulate animal drugs as well as human drugs. Please don’t blame the DVMs for the institutional failures of the FDA. Animal drugs are used for pets, horses and livestock.
certainly no intention to demean veterinary medicine~ sorry if it came across that way.
Totally agree the weight loss drugs are going to be horrible in long term affects. I’d bet on it. I actually read somebody saying they were good for preventing alz. Bullish!te!!!
It is actually more difficult to get into veterinary school than medical school . Chances are DVMs are brighter and less woke; however we know primary selective factors for political positions are not intelligence/achievement and ethics. Being a political appointment, it is more based on a willingness to conform and bow to powers that be.
Let’s hope conforming is out the window with a Trump presidency though!
I agree with your points. However, there are way fewer veterinary schools than medical schools. Same with pharmacist programs, so that is partially why it is harder to get into DVM & Pharm.D schools.
Did you expect anything else from this morally bankrupt, corrupt company!
PFIZER it seems looking for more profits, no matter if few more people have to die. What happened to doctors who want helped people because it the right thing to do. Seems the moral compass has been reversed for profit over people lives. We live in a greedy sinful world.
Big Pharma has done more to poison all of us. Creating a “pill for that” society. They are the largest spenders for television ads. The situation right now is there’s real Drs. who have been harmed and censored by them in charge now. The revolving door at the FDA and NIH is over. RFK jr. is also the guy who has sued them plenty. I’d hedge a guess they pulled these drugs and will shelve them until there’s an administration change which is why it was done so quietly. Beware of these sneaky bastards. They always have a plan.
Gordon Gecko’s comment “greed is good” comes to mind when reading about Pfizer.
Happens all the time but deaths in phase 3 are not usual. Basically if in preclinical a dog dies the drug is in trouble. I wonder why there were no deaths in phase 2 it may be the longer you take it the more toxic it becomes.
Their written guidelines for C (and I suspect all studies) states that if a subject seeks medical attention outside their protocol, they are eliminated from the trial. Deaths and severe injuries could easily be hidden.
I can't.....My daughter just started a trial drug today for obesity and I'm kinda terrified.
😢
I feel this. Have a good friend who just started a drug trial. I’m praying he got the placebo.
@Other- same
Looking away doesn’t make it go away, this isn’t peek-a-boo.
i am not familiar with sickle cell anemia, so i looked up the symptoms to see if they were worse than death:
"Symptoms of sickle cell anemia typically include fatigue due to anemia, episodes of severe pain known as pain crises, swelling of the hands and feet, and a higher risk of infections. These symptoms can vary in intensity and frequency among individuals."
doesn't sound fun, but i'd probably still opt to skip the meds and live, thanks.
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disease that affects hemoglobin (the iron-containing part of red blood cells) synthesis. Under certain conditions the RBCs become sickle (crescent)- shaped. They become rigid & sticky, die off more quickly, clump together & impede circulation. The resulting chronic anemia can lead to what is known as a "crisis" (can be triggered by exposure to cold, dehydration, infection, etc.) which is excruciatingly painful.
When I worked in a hospital-based pediatric walk-in clinic those patients would come in screaming. The treatment was IV fluids, oxygen & demerol or morphine. Once stabilized & admitted they would wear fentanyl (yes, fentanyl) patches until they could be safely discharged.
Fifty years ago they barely made it to age 21. Now they can live into their 50s & some beyond. Treatment with hydroxyurea & prophylactic penicillin are important advances & a bone marrow transplant can be curative (I think) if a good matched donor can be found.
@Ilene- good explanation
Thank you - tried to keep it concise.
Thank you for sharing this.
You're welcome.
@Dark- it's a genetic disorder involving those with African genes. The sickle shaped cells actually help in fighting malaria but it can go awry, especially in those not living in malaria prone areas. It's an awful disease.
that was probably the extent that i did know of it. I remember ryan clark from the steelers was cautioned not to play again in denver after i guess the altitude exacerbated his condition one time and he almost died.
Ryan Clark has sickle cell trait, meaning he has one copy of the normal gene and one copy of the gene for sickle cell. He's one of my all-time favorite Steelers, cause he seemed like a really good guy, and he figured out how to complement Troy Polamalu's brilliant play at safety.
And unlike SC disease, trait can live fairly normal lives, although with awareness and caution.
@Dark- yes, The sickle shape doesn't carry as much oxygen as a round red blood cell.
Some people have very severe crises, but I still have to agree.
I am guessing these FDA examiners are not the same people that work with COVID "vaccines", otherwise no need for any phase trial, just approve it and wait for my cushy seat on their BODs.
I wonder if Pfizer received a sweetheart deal, like they did with the mRNA shot, making it impossible to sue them if something happened. I wonder how long they ran trials before human use? I wonder if [Rooster] was behind pushing this drug, as he was with the mRNA shot and face masks, prioritizing profit over people's lives.
They will be very, very careful with this one. The halt was the right call. Clinical trial protocols need to be specific, with red line safety signals. Perhaps that is now occurring?
Pfizer has also just stopped clinical trials on a glp1 due to liver toxicity.
I think its because people are paying closer attention.
Thanks for keeping us informed. You are the best and definitely the most timely watchdog. Keep up the pressure. The world needs you.
I own a small amount of shares of Pfizer in an IRA. I voted against Bourla and the rest of the board. I did not mention it here before because I was afraid it might somehow be attributed to Alex as some kind of effort driven by him (in the idiotic way the legacy media looks at things, some kind of half-assed guilt by association). I should have sold the shares but by the time I thought to do so, it was already down. The worst part is that all my life I had been hearing about sickle cell and I had heard about the new drug on the financial channels (I actually didn't know it was a Pfizer drug until today, figures!) and was fooled into thinking it was going to help people. I wish that it did actually help people.
I also indirectly own Pfizer stock via my IRA mutual fund. Would have to dispose of the mutual fund entirely. My guess is most medical/pharmaceutical mutual fund contain Pfizer, so it's hard to avoid if one does segment investing.
Eyes were on Osivelotor, ($), not patient's well being.