On Wednesday the European Commission approved the use of Avastin (bevacizumab) for treatment of advanced stage breast cancer. This decision, which follows from a recommendation of a European Union advisory panel, stands in marked contrast to the policies of the FDA.

In testimony before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson claimed that cuts to the EPA’s budget would devastate both the country’s land and water and the health of its people. Her assertions were made in response to proposals from both the Obama administration and House Republicans to cut her agency’s budget. The Obama administration wants to cut the EPA’s budget from $10.3 billion in the present fiscal year to $9.0 billion in the next fiscal year.

Before the EPA could say precautionary principle, Wal-Mart sent word to its suppliers last week that starting June 1st it would test for and not sell consumer products containing the flame retardants polybrominated diphenyl ether (PDBE). Wal-Mart said that it made this decision following the example of some state regulatory agencies. These agencies have responded to data correlating the substances with health problems in lab animals.

Improved infant care before, during and just after birth appears to decrease the incidence of the neurodevelopmental condition cerebral palsy (CP).

President Barack Obama acknowledged last week that the current FDA infrastructure is not capable of assessing recent advances in medicine and biotechnology. He calls for a modernization of the FDA that balances safety with economic interests in the creation of drug and medical device regulations:

The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) believes mentholated cigarettes do not pose a greater health threat than unflavored cigarettes. The U.S.

Last May, a body calling itself the President’s Cancer Panel issued a report blaming environmental chemicals for causing cancer in America and calling for stricter regulation of chemicals to protect Americans from these supposed dangers. Despite widespread scorn among experts — including the American Cancer Society — the 2010 President’s Cancer Panel report was used as a platform for a New England Journal of Medicine perspective piece.

Canadian epidemiologists provide yet another reason to mandate more widespread use of the HPV vaccine: head and neck cancer are on the rise because of HPV. "Over the past 20 years, we have just seen this wave of patients that are younger people, that are healthy, that are non-smokers and non-drinkers that are developing cancers of the tonsil and the back of the tongue," head and neck surgeon Dr.

We encourage our Dispatch followers to read an op-ed by ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom that criticizes the Obama administration’s attempt to hasten the currently slow drug development process through a $1 billion plan by which the government will allocate funding to work with private industry to develop new drugs. The new NIH branch would focus its efforts on areas the pharmaceutical industry perceives as too risky, but as Dr. Bloom points out, the NIH has very little expertise in this high-risk arena:

Josh Bloom, The Daily Caller March 2, 2011
The NIH on Drugs