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Mr Pitts was annoyed over the Senator's comments about the FDA after Merck lost the first Vioxx trial, in stating: “The Food and Drug Administration was also negligent in the Vioxx case … Those running the nation’s public safety agency repeatedly dismissed the concerns of their own scientists and seemed to do everything possible to keep the public in the dark about emerging problems with Vioxx.”
"And talk about bellying up to the tort bar!" Mr Pitts wrote. "I wonder how much more money the Senator will get from the trial lawyer lizards as a reward for such vituperative rants?"
Of course, he failed to mention that the contributions by the “lizards” could never match the money doled out on Capitol Hill every year by the pharmaceutical industry.
Mr Goldberg’s April 18, 2007, blog pretty much preannounced the winner with the headline: "David Graham: Public Health Enemy," and the statement that:
"Members of Congress and senior officials of the FDA should be ashamed of themselves for giving Graham the chance to not only rant on about Vioxx and SSRIs but to make the same claims about Ketek and drugs for schizophrenia."
But all the Clipboard winners should feel equally honored by the CMPI awards, because judging by the number of slanderous attacks they each received, their combined efforts to expose drug safety issues and fix the broken FDA are obviously what's working.
Evelyn Pringle
