20 June 2009

Marisa de Andrade reports on tactics aimed at financing and implementing drug research. 

A meeting at Gleneagles to recruit doctors to sign up patients for a drug trial – a necessary sweetener in the interest of public health or an unethical practice?

Thirty five doctors from 25 practices across Scotland travelled to Perthshire earlier this year to hear why they should sign up for a study involving Celecoxib - the ‘super-aspirin’ used mainly by arthritis patients for pain relief, which has been found in some studies to increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, particularly if used for a long time.

Approximately 600,000 patients are prescribed the painkiller in the UK, but it has been closely monitored by the health regulator since 2004 when refecoxib (Vioxx), a drug in the same class, was pulled for causing serious heart problems. Both drugs are cox-2 inhibitors – drugs to reduce pain while minimising gastrointestinal problems.

The Standard Care versus Celecoxib Outcome Trial (Scot) is now underway in Scotland to evaluate the safety of the drug in comparison to similar painkillers like ibuprofen. Doctors aren’t paid if they recruit patients for the trial, but their practice gets £1000 if they join - and a further £5 every two months per patient for reporting progress.
 

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, 8 June 2009 

• Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror by Mahmood Mamdani, Verso, 320pp., £17, 2009, ISBN 978 1 84467 341 4

Corporate Europe Observatory, 3 June 2009

“The Copenhagen Call” issued by  the World Business Summit on Climate Change presents a large number of corporations’ wish list for an international agreement on climate. While the Call recognises the importance of the climate crisis, the proposed methods to combat climate change are carefully crafted to fit the interests of big business. If adopted, it could result in such big loopholes that they could undermine even an ambitious agreement.

Marisa De Andrade, 2 June 2009

THE Scottish Government has been urged to review its cervical cancer vaccination programme and follow the lead of Germany, which ordered experts to show hard evidence the jab is effective and safe in the long-term.

Marisa de Andrade, 1 June 2009

LAST year, I became aware of Cervarix when co-presenting a radio show. Sandwiched between talk segments were 60-second promotional adverts commissioned by the Scottish Government aimed at girls aged 12-17. They were advised to get jabs "critical in helping to protect Scottish women from a disease that can attack them in the prime of their lives".

A listener from America immediately texted in. By the end of last year, more than 23 million doses of rival vaccine Gardasil had been distributed in the US and reports of side-effects were flooding in. Why wasn't this information being conveyedto Scottish schoolgirls?

So the HPV vaccines became one of the case studies for my PhD in public health communication. I started digging. The US listener wasn't the only person with concerns about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. Campaigners, scientific experts, doctors and parents all over the world were asking questions.

Marisa de Andrade, 1 June 2009

Campaigners are calling for the vaccination programme to be suspended, claiming there are unanswered questions about the long-term effectiveness and safety of Cervarix. They are concerned that official information refers to mild side-effects, when some girls have reported serious reactions to the jab.

The families of six girls in England are suing GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the maker of Cervarix, after the girls suffered severe reactions resulting in partial paralysis, seizures and chronic fatigue. The Scotsman has learned two more have contacted the same solicitor after suffering severe painful swelling of joints.

Tamasin Cave, 27 May 2009

Is Cameron’s reform strategy designed to resurrect the image of his opponent as a tyrant holding onto power (or "hoarding power" as he put it)? Remember the Stalin jibe thrown at Brown? Cameron, by contrast, will give “power back to the powerless”.

Tamasin Cave, 26 May 2009

Wow. Strong words from David Cameron today. Only six years after a national poll found that over half of us felt we had "no say over what government does", he's today calling for "the redistribution of power from the powerful to the powerless".

"Through decentralisation, transparency and accountability we must take power from the elite and hand it to the man and woman in the street," he says.

But is his analysis of the public mood and need for reform complete?

The Climate Greenwash Awards 2009 are organised by Corporate Europe Observatory, Attac Denmark, The Climate Movement, ClimaX and Friends of the Earth Denmark to challenge the corporate capture of the UN climate talks.

Big business is keen to be part of the climate solution – and is holding its own Business Summit in Copenhagen from 24th - 26th May. The Danish government is facilitating the event. Several big carbon emitters are involved. Does big business have the real solutions to the climate crisis? Or are they trying to look green while polluting as usual?

An internet vote will decide which company has been making the most outrageous claims to be green ahead of this year’s crucial UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Cast your vote to decide which of the six nominated companies should win the Climate Greenwash Award.

The nominated companies are ArcelorMittal, BP, DONG Energy, Repsol, Shell and Vattenfall.