Get On The Bus Gus!
November 5th, 2007 | Posted by CTLToday CareToLive, a nonprofit group, rolled out a bus ad campaign in their continuing battle against the FDA, on behalf of cancer patients who are fighting for their lives. They are taking on a major target in the FDA. CareToLive is fighting them in the streets and in the Court for approval of Provenge, an immunotherapy that may enable men with prostate cancer to live longer, healthier lives.
CareToLive began its advocacy efforts with rallies in Washington D.C. and Chicago, and more recently at FDA headquarters in Rockville, Md. They also took a half page ad in the Washington Post outlining this travesty and calling out the FDA, whom they say operates in a dysfunctional manner. “It is an uphill battle for us but it is one that we feel we must fight,” said CareToLive spokesperson Mike Kearney. “There are currently 30,000 men in the United States with terminal stage prostate cancer. These men are running out of time. We are not going away until somebody takes action to right this injustice. This is an emergency!”
SIX MONTHS ANNIVERSARY SINCE “BLACK WEDNESDAY”
May 9, 2007, dubbed “Black Wednesday” by Dr. Mark Thornton in a Wall Street Journal Commentary, was the day a few bureaucrats inside the FDA chose to overrule their own panel of expert’s overwhelming recommendation for approval, and instead delayed this treatment for an end stage disease with no viable alternatives, an “unprecedented” action. CareToLive filed litigation in Federal Court (Southern District of Ohio) on behalf of prostate cancer patients desperately seeking Provenge. CareToLive Advocacy Ads Throughout Rockville, MD and Washington D.C.
WHAT DO THESE PROVOCATIVE ADS MEAN?
The 2007 holiday season is fast approaching, and while millions of Americans are planning celebrations with family and friends, tens of thousands of other families will be left out of the festivities and are instead preparing to get estates in order because of the impending deaths of their husbands, fathers, grandfathers, sons and brothers from late stage prostate cancer.
Many of these men afflicted with prostate cancer might live to see 2008, 2009, 2010 and beyond, if they were allowed access to Provenge, a safe immunotherapy. Their doctors are awaiting the right to prescribe Provenge for them, but due to political infighting at the FDA, approval has been delayed.
The FDA’s error may result in thousands of men dying each month, without access to Provenge. Many of these men served in the military, risking their lives for the rights of others, only to find that in their time of need, their own right to live is being trampled right here at home by the agency sworn to protect their health. They believe the FDA has failed in its Congressional mandate to bring safe, effective cancer treatments like Provenge to market, as quickly as possible.
WHO — CareToLive, a nonprofit, that advocates for advanced prostate cancer patients.
http://www.CareToLive.com Email info@CareToLive.com
WHAT — Provenge Confidential Unveiled — “Get On the Bus” Ad Campaign
WHERE — Now playing on 25 Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority buses in Northern D.C. and Montgomery County
WHEN — Monday, November 5, 2007 Début — showing for one month with possible extension.
WHY — The ongoing advocacy efforts of CareToLive have again taken them through the streets of Washington D.C. and Montgomery County to draw attention to this travesty. CareToLive will no longer stand idly by and allow this tragedy to remain unchallenged in the dark, back offices of the FDA. The American public deserves answers. We call to action all citizens to contact Congress to open an investigation into why the FDA will not allow prostate cancer patients and their doctors the right to choose life when it comes to safe, effective cancer treatments.
Download a copy of the CareToLive “Get On The Bus Gus” Press Release - November 5, 2007
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Tags: Andrew Von Eschenbach, Care To Live, CareToLive, CareToLive Lawsuit, FDA, Get on the Bus Gus, Hop on the Bus Gus, howard i scher, Immunotherapy, Mike Leavitt, provenge, Provenge Confidential, Richard Pazdur
November 6th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
The FDA continues to refuse to be accountable to the public and patients it is sworn to serve and protect.
It’s disgraceful that the FDA believes it does not have to account to anybody but drug manufacturers.
The FDA has grown too powerful and that power needs to be divested. They cannot even do a simple thing like approve an undeniably safe therapy for cancer patients who have no other choice but death.
They are a heartless and uncaring agency.
They allow power mongers like Richard Pazdur to control approvals even when his division of the agency has not even been given the authority to do so. He has proven himself to be an egotistical and power hungry individual who will glady trample over cancer patients if it gets him what he wants.
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