The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for the safety of both prescription and non-prescription drugs,  our food supply and medical devices but it has failed us miserably.  It's nearly impossible to watch television without an attorney commercial for damages received by the use of prescription drugs.  Conversely, the airways are inundated with commercials for new drugs to ask your doctor for which are required to reveal potential side effects but Americans have become desensitized to the potential risks of prescription drugs.  

By the FDA's own admission, they regulate 20% of ALL dollars spent by American consumers.  That's a lot of power! 

 So why did 440,000 people die of preventable medical errors in  2014?   Why is seeking medical treatment the 3 biggest cause of death in the US after heart disease and cancer?  One needs to look no further than the organizational structure of the FDA to see that the Organization's function has morphed from protecting the people to increasing profits for the pharmaceutical industry.   

1)  FDA Commissioners:  For nearly 6 years (2009-2015),  Dr Margaret Hamburg served as one of the longest seated FDA Commissioners.   During these 6 years, the sales of vaccines skyrocketed aided by laws that promoted the administration of vaccines by retail pharmacists.  Coincindentally Dr. Hamburg had previously served as Director of Henry Schein, one the largest distributors  of vaccines in the United States.  As a pharmacist,  I was targeted for my refusal to administer vaccines which was the stimulus for my decision to quit the practice of Pharmacy.  

2)  Drug Approval Committees:  Similarly,  the very "experts" that approve new drugs are overpopulated with "industry insiders".  On average 13% of the member on an FDA advisory committee have financial interests in the company whose drug is under review and committe members who served on the sponsoring drug company's advisory board voted for the drug approval 84% of the time.  

There are also significant conflicts of interest by many physicians.  Everyone knows that drug companies spend millions of dollars wining and dining physicians.  While 85% of physicians say that accepting drug company invitations doesn't influence their prescribing practices, the fact is that those physicians who accept drug company perks, tripled their prescribing of the manufacturer's drugs.  They also are more likely to push to have that drug company's drugs put on the formulary of hospitals where they practice which causes many othere doctor's to prescribe that drug because they must choose drugs on the hospital's formulary for their patients in that hospital.

In my 13 years as a drug regulator for the State of Florida, I personally witnessed selective enforcement where big pharmaceutical manufacturers were not prosecuted for aggregious and dangerous practices while mom and pop companies were heavily fined for minor infractions.  There is no doubt that money rules the world and that financial control trickles down to us at every level.

In 2014,  my dad became a victim of the medical system.  It took one week in the ICU for me to convince his doctors that his ventricular tachycardia was due to an overdose of his heart medicine and not endogenous heart abnormalities.  During that week in the ICU, he was given the very drug that he was overdosed on and his blood levels had gotten so high that my mom couldn't take watching the effects and decided he'd been through enough.  As a result, my dad was basically euthanized with morphine because family members couldn't stand to watch the effects of the overdose which was reversible.  So it should be noted that these preventable medical errors extend beyond the patient to the loved ones who are often in disagreement on what to do.  I have learned that this disparity is especially difficult on family members in the medical profession who work tirelessly to identify the problem while other family members rely on the doctors rather than the medical person that cares more than anyone else.   In my case, when I sat and watched my dad dying of an overdose  I was told by his doctor that I have educated the entire medical community and that I will save many lives in the future having identified this potential overdose of the very commonly prescribed Amiodarone.  The problem was that there was only one person that I wanted to save and I couldn't. 

It's my goal through this website to reveal factual and scientific information that the industry and our government officials don't want you to know and to offer consumers options to free themselves from the often fatal effects of relying on a medical system that is controlled by drug companies who have strong financial conflicts of interest.  Stay tuned for my next post which will address the influence that drug companies have over most medical professional's education.