These stories examined how the FDA approved cancer and diabetes drugs over the last decade. It found that in 74% of cancer drug approvals and all diabetes drug approvals, the decision to allow the drugs on the market was based on surrogate measures of effectiveness such CT scans or blood tests rather than real clinical outcomes such as improved survival or reductions in heart attacks, strokes or blindness. Other major findings: ? Some cancer drugs were allowed to remain on the market for years without drug companies providing proof of improved survival and despite evidence that the drugs caused serious side effects and, on average, cost about $10,000 a month. ? Some newer diabetes drugs were linked to a disproportionate number of deaths and hospitalizations. ? Conflicts of interest were common, including at the FDA, which receives hundreds of millions of dollars annually from drug companies in exchange for making speedy drug approval decisions. The conflicts also included medical societies and doctors who received millions of dollars from drug companies while changing the definition of diabetes and pre-diabetes so that tens of millions more Americans would be candidates for drug therapy.
