CareToLive has just learned Alison Martin no longer works at NCI. Remember her? She helped Howie Scher write his leaked letter. She now works for the Melanoma Research Alliance. Check out their website. It will be fully up and running on August 19th.

http://www.melanomaresearchalliance.org/

This is a new organization found under the auspices (patronage; support; sponsorship) of the Michael Milken Institute. It intends to support ambitious and innovative projects from both individual scientists and research teams to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic avenues relevant to pathways governing the behavior and clinical outcome of melanoma.

Skin cancer represents the most commonly diagnosed malignancy, surpassing lung, breast, colorectal and prostate cancer.
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer.
Even though it is rare, malignant melanoma is responsible for 75 % of all skin cancer related death cases

Meanwhile, back at the NCI ranch, we tried to pursue the missing gaps in the FOIA documents, namely, Scher’s “personal” e-mail. Under the rules, we can’t have his personal letter if it has his mother’s maiden name, his social security number, his phone number, home address, etc. Well what we learned is, this e-mail has his personal opinion. Did he say bad things about the Advisory Committee, its panelists, the patients who made public statements, CBER, Dendreon and Provenge? Did he brag how Asentar and GVAX and Abiraterone are better options? We want to know. Personal information and personal opinion are two different things, especially when that opinion influences a decision.

You can view the NCI FOIA documents here:

http://caretolive.com/NCI-FOIA-Response.pdf

Well, NCI tells us that since Alison Martin no longer works there, and since Scher doesn’t work for NCI, they do not have to turn over the e-mail. Can you believe that? What Alison Martin did when she worked for NCI should be fair game. Our tax dollars paid for that “work”. And what Scher, the most conflicted doctor on the Advisory Committee panel, had to say is most relevant in why he fought so hard to stop Provenge from being approved. We are sure he didn’t ask Alison Martin her bra size because it appears she forwarded the e-mails to Howard Streicher. We will continue to pursue this.

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13 pages of Freedom of Information (FOIA) documents received from Commissioner von Eschenbachs office concerning the Provenge License Delay for Prostate Cancer Debacle 3/5/2008.
READ THEM HERE
foi-docs-recvd-3-4-08.pdf

If you recall on 1/30/08 we were told there were no documents from Andy.
FOIA denial that Andrew Von Eschenbach received any documents concerning the “leaked” letters despite the fact that Dr. Scher & Dr. Maha Hussain CC’ed Von E their letters prior to “leaking” them. 1/30/08 (click this link)

See the research page of CareToLive for other Freedom of Information documents we received.

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We are hot on the trail of the miscreants that derailed Provenge, a safe and effective immunotherapy for prostate cancer, condemning 30,000 American men to death without hope, in order to reap windfall profits.

Ed Silverman of Pharmalot reports on the shenanigans. (click link)

They may have taken down the links but we have the Proquest Investments 2007 Scientific Advisory Committee on our CareToLive research page showing the connections to Howard Scher and Milken’s Prostate Cancer Foundation that claims they want faster cures, yet remained mum on the Provenge Debacle. 3 Congressment are now calling for a Congressional hearing.

See our prior blog on Michael Milken’s Prostate Cancer Foundation and The Proquest Investment Fund / Howard Scher /FDA Unholy Alliance.(click link)

CareToLive is asking the public to help get to the bottom of the Provenge debacle by joining Congressmen Mike Michaud of Maine, Dan Burton of Indiana, and Tim Ryan of Ohio, who are calling for a congressional hearing into what happened. Contact your elected officials to ask for a congressional hearing, visiting the CareToLive website, dig our blogs, and join in the battle.

30,000 American men will die each year (not to mention the rest of the world) without this safe and effective immunotherapy. 1 in 6 men will get prostate cancer int heir lifetime. The FDA’s delay of Provenge was unprecedented in a terminal disease with an overwhelmingly positive panel that showed survival advantages, where no other options exist. Only one treatment for prostate cancer has been approved in 42 years. Send a clear message to Congress, the dysfunctional FDA, Wall Street, and the Chemo Cartel that we want this nontoxic immunotherapy approved NOW! More than 10 years of trials have shown it increases survival. Some men are alive as long as 6 years.

CONGRESSIONAL LETTER ASKING FOR A HEARING  PDF (click here) Please fax this letter to your own congressional representatives and ask them to join this action. TIA
Continue Reading Proquest Tries to Cover Its Tracks over Scher Provenge Debacle »

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While Michael Milken and the Prostate Cancer Foundation are whooping it up at the ballgame, some men are sneaking off to have their testicles removed in hopes that it will stop their PSA from rising, and their lives from ending prematurely from late stage prostate cancer. 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes. Over 30,000 American men will die from prostate cancer this year. Only 1 very toxic drug has been approved for late stage pc in over 42 years.

Along came Dendreon’s Provenge, an Immunotherapy voted overwhelmingly safe and effective by the FDA’s panel of experts convened to review Provenge. Was there foul play afoot when the FDA decided to delay approval. Perhaps if our men put some extra pine tar on their bats, we could get some coverage of this story. You would think that the deaths of 15,000 men since the delay would be enough.

Note the Picture on the bottom — David Solit, Tommy Lasorda, Dr. Howard Soule, Dr. Howard Scher and Mike Milken join together in support of the PCF’s Home Run Challenge at the New York Mets vs. Anaheim Angels game on June 10th, 2005 (click link)

Why hasn’t Michael Milken and his Prostate Cancer Foundation stepped up to the plate and publicly voiced his disappointment and disapproval of the decision by the FDA to delay Provenge? Is Milken financially conflicted? The whole thing is permeating a stench in the world of financially conflicted advocacy groups. Continue Reading Michael Milken and the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Foul Balls »

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On a night in early April, 2007, the temperature was hanging around 35 degrees outside. It was considered good sleeping weather on the East Coast. But a particular doctor could not sleep. He tossed. He turned. His mind was still rapidly busy with the activities from a few days ago.

He could still see his fellow panelists sitting around the table in that hotel room in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He tried his best to influence them, to show them the flaws in the medical treatment they were evaluating. He kept pointing them to trial design problems, failed endpoints, and survival that surely could not have come from the agent.

Then the doctor’s gut suddenly felt that guilt-wrenching churn. Novacea and ProQuest had just popped into his head. If those panelists persuade the FDA to approve Provenge, he is finished. “Oh, no,” he thought, “and Schering-Plough will back out of that deal. I have to do something.”

Dr. Howard Scher sprang out of bed and headed to another room.

Continue Reading Sleepless in Asentar »

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Download the Memorandum - Click here

CareToLive Attorney Kerry Donahue files on behalf of the men with terminal prostate cancer who are running out of hope and time as thet desperately seek Provenge. We need everybody’s help in calling attention to this grave situation. Please Leave your comments and digg it. TIA

P.S. Two fleets of buses are rolling around DC and Rockville with our “Get on the Bus Gus” Provenge Confidential ad campaign.

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Download the leaked letters - Click here

This is the continuing saga of the Provenge debacle whereby men with terminal prostate cancer are being denied access to Provenge, a safe and effective immunotherapy. Has the Chemo Cartel tossed off this immunotherapy to the detriment of the men who are desperately seeking access in order to keep the the profits rolling in? Stay tuned as we try to get to the bottom of this. Please leave your comments be sure to Digg this post. TIA

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Today 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.

Continue Reading Get On The Bus Gus! »

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