Who knew we were feeding our kids drugs?

[andtckrtoo]

This is ridiculous. And aren't there oatmeal commercials that say the same thing about lowering cholesterol if you eat it regularly?

Wow, I feel bad for the company. They will be paying some hefty fines for this and probably have to relabel everything.

Which means that we are paying via taxes to increase the price of our Cheerios... How wonderful

 

[LauraMax]

Ugggh! It just makes me furious!!!

Why doesn't the FDA do some productive stuff like checking on the clinical trials that are run and that are manipulated. And then those drugs come on the market killing people or at the very least causing serious side effects while the FDA is looking the other way.

But the FDA only checks up on 1 % of all clinical trials. I guess they are so busy chasing the real dangerous offenders like Cheerios

Dammit Carola, you beat me to it! But allow me to add, perhaps if they stopped fiddling around w/this BS it wouldn't take them 7-10 years to approve prescription drugs that could actually save people's lives.

 

[hiitdogs]

Dammit Carola, you beat me to it! But allow me to add, perhaps if they stopped fiddling around w/this BS it wouldn't take them 7-10 years to approve prescription drugs that could actually save people's lives.

Actually most drugs are going through an accelerated approval process these days. I think it is a double-edged sword since the drugs that are approved that way have only gone through Phase II clinical trials (Phase II means that the drug is tested on 25 to 300 people), not exactly a good indicator if it actually is effective and what the side effects are. Phase III and IV trials are done after the drug is already approved.

Additionally, the drug makers either run their own clinical trials or "sponsor" it - basically pay for it. But what most people don't know, if drug companies run 10 testings or clinical trials of their drugs and only 2 are favorable, they do not have to disclose the unfavorable ones and only turn the positive results in for FDA approval. This is absolutely legal! And I don't even want to go there as to how many of the clinical trials are manipulated to receive a remotely favorable outcome.

The FDA does not protect the public's interest, they protect the drug companies, maybe because the FDA is mainly financed through drug companies and drug company representatives are in key positions and on advisory boards. This is not the altruistic search for a cure or to save people's lives as they make people believe, this is about making money.

This is an interesting video about the symbiotic relationship between the FDA, drug companies and lawmakers, it's 1.5 hours long but well worth it. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2502546838698762400

 

[kathryn]

Isn't that something?
The FDA has declared that only drugs or surgery can 'cure' diseases, so foods can't claim to (even when they do! I'm not talking about Cheerios, but about real foods).