Congress will vote today on a nearly 1,000-page bill that holds drastic changes for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If the bill is approved, it would speed up the approval of new drugs and medical devices. The House has been heavily criticized for allegedly rushing piece of legislation through without sufficient scrutiny. [1]
Source: National Center for Health Research
Two new types of genetically modified (GM) potatoes were approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on October 28. The GM potatoes are designed to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine.
Source: PotatoPro.com
The approval covers Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Co.’s Ranger Russet and Atlantic varieties of the company’s 2nd generation of Innate potatoes.
On September 26, a marijuana-based childhood epilepsy drug took a step closer to winning approval when its maker announced promising phase 3 clinical trial results. [1]
Justin Gover, CEO of the British biotech company GW Pharmaceuticals, said that the children participating in the trial had previously tried 10 other anti-epileptic drugs. Despite using the medication, the young participants still experienced 3 seizures a day, approximately 90 a month. Said Gover:
Before coming to write for Natural Society, I worked for a national law firm. I primarily wrote about lawsuits, the majority of them concerning prescription drugs. It was there that I began to learn how dangerous many drugs can be, and how desperately the pharmaceutical industry wants the public to place blind trust in its products.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is facing a lawsuit filed by nearly a dozen fishing and environmental groups that are trying to block the agency’s recent approval of genetically modified salmon.
The Food and Drug Administration has recently given a green light to a genetically modified potato engineered to resist a pathogen that is responsible for causing the Irish Potato Famine. No different than with their approval of GM salmon, the FDA seems oblivious to risk assessment and consumer concerns that deem a GM potato undesirable, claiming that the GE potato is indeed safe for consumption.
