FDA approves Gemzar for ovarian cancer despite its lack of efficacy

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Nov, 2006 by Ralph W. Moss

As the Cancer Letter commented: "By refraining from challenging von Eschenbach's four-year stewardship of NCI, Democrats forego the opportunity to question his reorganizing the institute for the pursuit of a blatantly unachievable and now apparently abandoned goal to 'eliminate suffering and death due to cancer' by 2015. Similarly, von Eschenbach's controversial plan to expand reliance on biomarkers escaped questioning by the committee" (August 4, 2006).

The dominant forces in American oncology (inspired by the profit drive of Big Pharma) are now in a position to substitute clinically irrelevant "surrogate markers" for actual proof of life prolongation in the evaluation of new treatments. Dr. von Eschenbach has pulled out all the stops, using the absurd demagogy of the 2015 goal to befuddle the population into accepting such changes, promising an imminent cure for cancer in exchange for carte blanche over the drug approval process. How bitter it is to see those politicians who are self-proclaimed guardians of the commonweal themselves become eager promoters of the same monumental illusions.

Notes

1. 1. FDA panel recommends rejection of Eli Lilly drug Gemzar to treat ovarian cancer. Available at: http://www.kaisernetwork.org.

2. Dooren C. Wall Street Journal. 3/13/06.

3. Jonathan Turley. Available at: http://catallarchy.net/blog/archives/2004/05/27/slaughterhouses-restaurants-and-agency-capture/.> 4. Gemzar sales. Available at: http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?dist=newsfinder&siteid=google&guid={BE52E3F3-87F0-4CIC-B72E-023B5AB4592C}&keyword.

by Ralph W. Moss, PhD

www.cancerdecisions.com