Summary: FDA drug-safety official and GAP client Dr. David Graham contends in a new unpublished study that "48,000 heart attacks, strokes and other problems between 1999 and 2009" could have been avoided if patients taking the diabetes drug Avandia had switched to a different one. Dr. Graham and others, including coalition partner Public Citizen, which has called on the FDA to end a study of Avandia, have argued that the drug should be withdrawn from the market. Dr. Graham also contends that the FDA is delaying the release of his study, which is an effort he is familiar with: Graham also blew the whistle on the FDA's suppression of information about Vioxx.
The Daily Beast: Pentagon Manhunt
Summary: The Pentagon is searching for the founder of whistleblowing website Wikileaks.org following the arrest of an Army intelligence specialist two weeks ago for allegedly passing classified information to the site. Out of fear that the site will share secret State Department cables allegedly passed by the specialist, the Pentagon is searching for founder Julian Assange. The cables may have to do with American diplomatic and intelligence efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Anti-War Radio: Scott Horton Interviews Daniel Ellsberg
Summary: Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who recently gave the closing remarks at the National Whistleblower Assembly, talked to journalist Scott Horton on this podcast about the arrest of the Army specialist, the alleged State Department memos and the Obama administration escalation of anti-whistleblower ideology.
Washington Post: Restoring Leadership and Integrity to the Office of Legal Counsel
Summary: A former lawyer and failed nominee for the head of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, which became well-known after the release of the infamous torture memos, argues in this op-ed that the OLC desperately needs a confirmed leader after six years without one. The author also calls for a return to nonpartisan practices and the confirmation of a leader who will be able to say no the President on any issue.
New York Times: Drug Maker Seen as Uncooperative on Inquiry
Summary: The head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform says Johnson & Johnson, which has been under investigations by both Congress and the FDA due to a number of recent recalls of children's medicines, has not been cooperative in the investigation and has delayed proceedings and provided misinformation.
Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary McNeil Consumer Healthcare is under investigation for several practices, including hiring contractors last year in an attempt to buy up defective medicine (Motrin) from stores around the country rather than alert the public to a recall. The FDA discovered the "phantom recall" when one of the contractors accidentally left his instructions from the company on the floor of a store - only after this did the J&J division, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, announce a recall. That recall became the first of four announced by the division over the past year, "including the April 30 recall of 136 million bottles of infant and children's Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Zyrtec."
At a House committee hearing in February, a senior McNeil executive said the company was trying to take samples of the recalled medicines from stores during the "phantom recall" but said, when pressed, that she could not tell the committee "what they were instructed to do or not." A drug safety expert said in his testimony that he had never heard of any sort of a "phantom recall" being attempted previously.
In addition, the FDA is still investigating McNeil's production plants, including its largest plant in Fort Washington, PA, where it found multiple violations of good manufacturing practices. The FDA has reported 37 child deaths and 775 cases of children experiencing adverse reaction to the recalled product in that case.
New York Times: New Estimates Double the Rate of Oil that Flowed into Gulf
Summary: The same amount of oil that was spilled into Alaskan waters during the iconic Exxon Valdez tanker disaster may be spewing into the Gulf of Mexico every eight to ten days, according to new estimates by a government panel. The panel places their new estimate at 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil a day, or over one million gallons.
Boston Globe: Senate Snubs Limited on Greenhouse Gas Regulation
Summary: A Senate resolution to deny the EPA the authority to put into practice greenhouse gas emissions rules was defeated yesterday in a 53 to 47 vote. The vote increases the chances for passage of a comprehensive climate and energy bill.
Food Safety News: $8 Billion Proposed for Child Nutrition
Today
Summary: The Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee announced a nutrition bill yesterday that will ask for $8 billion in additional funding to significantly improve food safety in schools, help ease hunger and tackle childhood obesity. The bill is similar to one pending in the Senate, although it adds $4.5 billion in additional funding. The Obama administration's has requested $10 billion for the issue.
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Beth Adelson is Communications Fellow for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower advocacy organization.
