Women who take drospirenone have twice the risk of developing thromboembolism than women who take widely prescribed contraceptive pills containing levonorgestrel.

FDA OK's votes by members with financial ties to drug makers but not members who oppose dangerous drugs

Each of the four advisory board members with ties to the pills manufacturer voted in favor of the pills.

The committee's decision that the drug's benefits outweighed the risks was decided by a four-vote margin.

Interestingly, while the FDA allowed the four members with financial ties to vote on the drug, it barred another member and former researcher, Sidney M. Wolfe, from voting on the grounds that he had "an intellectual conflict of interest".

Based on several years of data, Wolfe had advised his readers six years earlier not to take Yaz. Because of this "conflict", he was barred from voting.

In other words, the FDA apparently believes that there is no conflict when someone gets paid by a drug manufacturer but there is a conflict when someone has researched a drug and found it to be dangerous.

The FDA also failed to provide the panel with recently unsealed court documents which revealed that former FDA commissioner David Kessler had accused Bayer of hiding data on blood clot risks associated with the birth control pills.

The court documents also revealed that Kessler reported that Bayer paid $450,000 to a high profile gynecologist to sponsor the pill, including off-label use of the drug, during her book tour.

It is far from the first time that the FDA has approved a dangerous drug or overlooked conflicts of interest. It is also far from the first time that drug companies have hid evidence of harm.

Think of Vioxx, Fosamaxx, Avandia, and Gardasil to name just a few examples.

It is a common practice for drug companies to pay doctors and scientists to endorse their drugs, the same as it is common for drug companies to offer kickbacks and rewards to doctors who prescribe their drugs.

Drug companies also pay doctors, researchers, and other medical experts for "consulting jobs" and speaking engagements to the tune of several hundreds of millions of dollars - which is considered legal despite the obvious blatant conflict of interest.

With Yaz being the top-selling birth control pill in the US, Bayer has quite the strong vested interest in getting endorsements for Yaz and Yasmin.

Though thousands of women have filed lawsuits against Bayer, saying they were injured by Yaz or Yasmin, as we have seen with other highly profitable dangerous drugs, drug makers typically consider such lawsuits merely part of the price of doing business.

Sources included:

http://www.anh-usa.org/fda-huge-conflicts-of-interest-with-big-pharma/
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2012/01/the_yaz_men_members_of_fda_pan034651.php
http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/FDA_Panel_Judging_Bayer_Contraceptive_Risk_Had_Ties_to_Bayer_120112
http://www.naturalnews.com/034443_FDA_advisory_panel_corruption.html

*** Tony Isaacs is a natural health advocate and researcher and the author of books and articles about natural health including Cancer's Natural Enemy. Mr. Isaacs articles are featured at Natural News, the Health Science Institute's Healthiertalk website, CureZone, the Crusador, AlignLife, the Cancer Tutor, the American Chronicle, The New Zealand Journal of Natural Health and several other venues. Mr. Isaacs also has The Best Years in Life website for baby boomers and others wishing to avoid prescription drugs and mainstream managed illness and live longer, healthier and happier lives naturally. In addition, he hosts the Yahoo Oleandersoup Health group of over 2500 members and the CureZone Ask Tony Isaacs - Featuring Luella May forum. Mr. Isaacs and his partner Luella May recently began hosting The Best Years in Life Radio Show for the Wolf Spirit Radio Network.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED
Scandal at the FDA: board members with drug maker ties voted to approve drug that's killing women
http://www.tbyil.com/FDA_Scandal_Drospirenone.htm