Tag: big pharma

KA-CHING! Big Pharma Stocks Soar as They Plan Next Vaccine to Solve Bird Flu Pandemic

Major pharmaceuticals had a fantastic week in the global markets amid speculation that they may be ready to develop a vaccine to treat bird flu.

As fears grow around the world over the risk of another pandemic following the detection of avian bird flu in humans, pharmaceutical companies are benefitting from talk that they may be ready to develop another vaccine to stop another pandemic in its tracks.

The Motley Fool reports:

Shares of vaccine stocks Moderna, Novavax, and BioNTech SE rallied this week, appreciating 23.4%, 16.4%, and 9.3%, respectively, through Thursday trading, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

While these three stocks gained notoriety back in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears this week’s detection of avian bird flu in a second U.S. citizen and the first-ever detection of avian flu in a human in Australia are spurring fears of an outbreak and thus a possible boon for companies that can quickly produce a bird flu vaccine.

A new avian flu, H5N1, was detected in cattle back in March, with one worker in Texas coming down with associated conjunctivitis at that time. But on Wednesday this week, a second U.S. dairy worker in Michigan tested positive for the avian flu as well. That same day, an Australian dairy worker also tested positive for avian flu, marking the first-ever human case of avian flu in that country.

The discoveries spurred fears of an outbreak. That same day, the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, Dawn O’Connell, noted that Moderna and Pfizer, which partnered with BioNTech on the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, were in talks over a potential mRNA vaccine program for the new avian flu.

As has been extensively reported by The Gateway Pundit, major pharmaceuticals including Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca made billions in profits for their shareholders after developing a series of vaccines intended to treat COVID-19.

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Further Ethical Concerns on a Recent Self-Amplifying RNA Vaccine Study

I called for the ongoing study to be ceased given the mass safety signal pointed out by The McCullough Foundation.

Today, I outline further ethical flaws:

  1. Informed Consent:
  • Participants must be fully informed about the novel nature of srRNA technology, including potential unknown long-term effects. Ensuring that informed consent is genuinely informed is critical.
  • Detailed information about the potential risks and benefits, including those observed in preclinical and early-phase clinical trials, should be provided.
  • Since the long-term risks are unknown, this seems impossible.
  1. Conflict of Interest:
  • The authors are employees of Replicate Bioscience Inc., which raises concerns about bias. The review should disclose how the conflict of interest was managed.
  • Independent oversight or review by third-party experts who do not stand to benefit financially from the vaccine should be conducted.
  1. Safety Monitoring:
  • Continuous monitoring for adverse effects is essential, especially given the novel nature of srRNA vectors.
  • Clear protocols for reporting and managing adverse events, including long-term follow-up, and plans to mitigate the ill-health effects of AEs and SAEs, must be transparent and outlined up-front.
  1. Methodological Issues

Cause of Death Determination:

  • Accurate determination of causes of death in clinical trials is crucial. There should be a standardized protocol for post-mortem analysis to ascertain whether deaths are related to the vaccine or underlying conditions. Doctors working for the company determining that the vaccine was not the cause of death is insufficient: it’s a novel vaccine: how do they know they are not confusing deaths from COVID19 with deaths from vaccines? PCR is known to be fraught with errors in this context. How do they know that the vaccine does not interact with COVID19 infection and increase mortality?
  • Independent medical reviews of cause-of-death determinations can mitigate bias.

Manufacturing Quality:

  • The article mentions impurities from poor manufacturing that lead to systemic inflammatory responses. To minimize such risks, strict quality control measures and validation processes should be in place.
  • Detailed documentation and transparency regarding manufacturing practices are essential to ensure reproducibility and safety.

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What’s the Difference Between Big Tobacco and Big Pharma?

The psychiatric drug industry and big tobacco share striking similarities in their tactics, particularly when it comes to downplaying the risks associated with their products and targeting vulnerable populations like youth. The psychiatric community has gotten away with pretending it is based in science and medicine to sell its snake oil, while the tobacco industry wasn’t so lucky.

A key difference lies in the government’s stance – while tobacco companies face increasing regulations and warnings, the psychiatric drug industry enjoys substantial government support and promotion despite the existence of black box warnings on many of their medications. Both industries have a history of misleading marketing practices and minimizing potential harms.

Big tobacco companies notoriously concealed evidence linking smoking to lung cancer and other diseases for decades. Similarly, psychiatric drug manufacturers have been accused of selectively publishing favorable trial data and underreporting adverse effects.

Despite black box warnings – the FDA’s strongest safety alert – on many psychiatric medications, big pharma’s marketing often portrays an overly rosy picture. A prime example is antidepressants carrying a black box warning about increased suicidality risk in youth. Yet, these drugs continue to be heavily promoted, with limited emphasis on this severe side effect. Worse yet, antidepressants are not approved for under 18’s and still they are prescribed off-label to the age group in increasing numbers. Atypical antipsychotics like Seroquel and Zyprexa also bear a black box warning about increased mortality risk in elderly dementia patients, but their use in this vulnerable population remains widespread.

Moreover, both industries have targeted youth, securing future customers through early exposure and addiction. Big tobacco’s calculated efforts to market to adolescents are well-documented. Many of us remember getting boxes of candy cigarettes as children. The tips of the candy cigarettes were even painted red to simulate they were lit. Likewise, the psychiatric drug industry has been criticized for driving the dramatic rise in childhood psychiatric diagnoses and medication use, despite limited long-term safety data.

However, a crucial difference emerges in the government’s approach. Tobacco companies face intense scrutiny, with advertising restrictions, graphic health warnings on packaging, and mounting litigation. In contrast, the psychiatric drug industry enjoys considerable government financial support, 10.8 billion in the 2024 budget, and lack of stringent oversight.

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Many countries have reached the point of over-medication

The fact that hospital waiting lists are increasing all the time, that the amount of sick leave taken by working men and women seems to rise each year, that mental illnesses are getting commoner every time statistics are brought up to date, that the incidence of heart disease seems to be on the increase, that there is a massive increase in the amount of pollutant-inspired illness, that 80 per cent of modern cancers are thought to be caused by chemicals of one sort or another, and that the number of health professionals needed to cope with all the sickness is increasing rapidly, seem to suggest that medical research has had relatively little effect on the morbidity rates or upon the quality of life at any time in the last century.

In addition, there is evidence that medical research has actually detracted from the quality of life, causing ethical problems and using funds which could be better used on projects more likely to contribute to good health.

Indeed, there is not only evidence for the uselessness of much medical research: there are also sound indications that many developed countries have reached a point of over-medication which is harmful to health. As Dr. Vernon Coleman pointed out in his book ‘Coleman’s Laws’, if a patient has two conditions – two diseases – there is a very good chance that one of those diseases was caused by the treatment for the other.

Writing in the Journal of Human Resources, an American researcher, Charles T. Stewart, has shown that life expectation is approximately the same in countries with between 4 and 16 doctors per 10,000 people. It is a certain fact that while the number of patients treated by doctors is increasing in numerical terms, the number saved as a percentage of those who could be saved is falling dramatically.

There is a savage irony in the fact that we have now reached the point where, on balance, well-meaning doctors in general practice, and highly trained, well-equipped specialists working in hospitals, may do more harm than good. The epidemic of iatrogenic disease which has always scarred medical practice has been steadily getting worse and today most of us would, most of the time, be better off without a medical profession.

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Woman With Vaccine Injury in Clinical Trial Sues AstraZeneca

An American woman who suffered an injury from AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine sued the company on May 13, alleging the company breached a contract by not paying for the medical care she requires to deal with the injury.

“They left us no choice,” Brianne Dressen, a preschool teacher in Utah, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Ms. Dressen has paid tens of thousands of dollars to drugs to treat the nervous system disorder and other issues she’s experiencing, according to the complaint, filed in federal court in her home state.

Ms. Dressen chose to participate in AstraZeneca’s clinical trial in 2020 because she wanted to help the company develop its COVID-19 vaccine. The consent form she signed stated in part that AstraZeneca would “cover the costs of research injuries” and “pay the costs of medical treatment.”

“With these reassurances should something go wrong, Bri signed the form, rolled up her sleeve, and let the drug company inject the experimental product into her arm. Her mind was at peace, as Bri believed she was doing the right thing for her country, her students, and her family,” the suit states.

Ms. Dressen soon started experiencing problems, including blurred vision, tinnitus, and vomiting. She later became extremely sensitive to light and suffered spikes in her heart rate.

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Chemical tweaks to a toad hallucinogen turns it into a potential drug

It is becoming increasingly accepted that classic psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and mescaline can act as antidepressants and anti-anxiety treatments in addition to causing hallucinations. They act by binding to a serotonin receptor. But there are 14 known types of serotonin receptors, and most of the research into these compounds has focused on only one of them—the one these molecules like, called 5-HT2A. (5-HT, short for 5-hydroxytryptamine, is the chemical name for serotonin.)

The Colorado River toad (Incilius alvarius), also known as the Sonoran Desert toad, secretes a psychedelic compound that likes to bind to a different serotonin receptor subtype called 5-HT1A. And that difference may be the key to developing an entirely distinct class of antidepressants.

Uncovering novel biology

Like other psychedelics, the one the toad produces decreases depression and anxiety and induces meaningful and spiritually significant experiences. It has been used clinically to treat vets with post-traumatic stress disorder and is being developed as a treatment for other neurological disorders and drug abuse. 5-HT1A is a validated therapeutic target, as approved drugs, including the antidepressant Viibryd and the anti-anxiety med Buspar, bind to it. But little is known about how psychedelics engage with this receptor and which effects it mediates, so Daniel Wacker’s lab decided to look into it.

The researchers started by making chemical modifications to the frog psychedelic and noting how each of the tweaked molecules bound to both 5-HT2A  and 5-HT1A. As a group, these psychedelics are known as “designer tryptamines”—that’s tryp with a “y”, mind you—because they are metabolites of the amino acid tryptophan.

The lab made 10 variants and found one that is more than 800-fold selective about sticking to 5-HT1A as compared to 5-HT2A. That makes it a great research tool for elucidating the structure-activity relationship of the 5-HT1A receptor, as well as the molecular mechanisms behind the pharmacology of the drugs on the market that bind to it. The lab used it to explore both of those avenues. However, the variant’s ultimate utility might be as a new therapeutic for psychiatric disorders, so they tested it in mice.

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More than 30 Babies Mistakenly Vaccinated with Pfizer or GSK’s RSV Shots

At least 34 babies were mistakenly given the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine and one of those babies was hospitalized according to a study published today in Pediatrics.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) for the RSV vaccines, which are not approved for children.

The researchers found 27 reports of the Pfizer RSV vaccine (Abrysvo) and seven reports of the GSK RSV vaccine (Arexvy) mistakenly administered to children under 2 between Aug. 21, 2023, and March 18, 2024.

“While rare, vaccine administration errors are known to occur and may increase after a new vaccine or product is introduced,” Dr. Pedro Moro, lead author of the study, told MedPage Today.

Both vaccines were first approved in May 2023 for people ages 60 and older. Pfizer’s Abrysvo was approved in August 2023 for pregnant mothers during part of their third trimester, targeting RSV prevention in babies.

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Pfizer To Bypass Doctors, Pharmacies By Selling Drugs Online Directly To Consumers: Report

Pfizer is forging ahead with plans to introduce a direct-to-consumer platform for online sales of some of its medications, including Paxlovid and a migraine nasal spray.

The Defender reports that this initiative marks the latest maneuver by major pharmaceutical companies to circumvent conventional routes of distribution through primary care physicians and brick-and-mortar pharmacies. 

Pfizer is set to roll out its platform before the year’s end. 

Its website will enable patients in the U.S. to consult independent telehealth professionals for prescriptions, with an online pharmacy partner handling the fulfillment and shipping of orders, per the Financial Times.

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Toddler Dies in Pfizer Gene Therapy Trial

Yesterday I republished a video and article entitled, “What Happened to Their Babies,” describing the lack of ethics and grossly inhumane experimentation that Pfizer conducted on babies and toddlers with their COVID-19 mRNA gene-editing injections.

Just a few hours ago, multiple industry outlets began breaking this official statement from Pfizer that a toddler died of a cardiac arrest in an investigational trial of boys, aged 2 to 4 year olds, to treat a rare form of muscular dystrophy with a recombinant adenovirus gene editing technology.

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Pfizer agrees to settle 10,000 lawsuits accusing pharma giant of hiding cancer risks of heartburn drug Zantac

Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits alleging it it of hiding the cancer risks of its heartburn drug Zantac.

The financial details have not been revealed but pharma rival Sanofi agreed to pay more than $100million to resolve 4,000 Zantac-cancer claims last nonth.

The over-the-counter pill was pulled in the US in 2020 after animal studies found a key ingredient released ‘probable human carcinogens’.

Pfizer was the primary manufacturer of Zantac from 1998 to 2006, when several suits claim it should have known that the drug was contaminated with NDMA.

Plaintiffs claimed the drug was contaminated with the impurity through improper manufacturing practices, and that Pfizer withheld this information from consumers.

NDMA is a chemical byproduct of many industrial manufacturing processes, including the production of rocket fuel.

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