Pharmaceutical Videos - The Documentary Network

Outsourced: Clinical trials overseas

Documentary.net staff — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:23:11 +0000

US pharmaceutical companies have moved their operations overseas over the course of the past decade. Instead of testing trial medicines on Americans, more and more of these tests are being carried out on poor people in faraway places. Russia, China, Brazil, Poland, Uganda, and Romania are all hot spots for what is called clinical research or clinical trials. Now employing CROs—or Clinical Research Organizations—the industry is big business, worth as much as $30 billion US dollars today. One country has experienced a boom like no other in this industry--India. Spoken English, an established medical infrastructure, welcome attitudes toward foreign industry and most importantly legions of poor, illiterate test subjects that are willing to try out new drugs have transformed the Indian landscape into a massive testing ground for pharmaceuticals. Fault Lines' Zeina Awad travels to India to see what the clinical research practices look like on the ground. What role are the US regulatory bodies playing in overseeing the trials? Are participants aware that they are taking part in a clinical trial? Is the testing being held up against international ethical standards?

Drug Money – Fraud and Corruption in US Pharmaceutical Industry

Documentary.net staff — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:43:46 +0000

This documentary investigates fraud and corruption running through the veins of the US pharmaceutical industry. The US healthcare industry is the world's biggest, with $300bn per year spent on prescription drugs. For many these drugs have brought undeniable benefits. But recent months have seen health scandal after health scandal making headlines in the US. Two of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies have been fined billions of dollars after investigations into their secret working practices. What these cases have revealed will change the way the drug industry is perceived forever. Revelations have emerged of pervasive fraud, fatal side effects, and huge kick-backs paid to doctors. This investigation by Melanie Newman and Chris Woods reveals how healthcare became unhealthy profit.

Burzynski: Cancer Is Serious Business

Documentary.net staff — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:58:57 +0000

This documentary takes the audience through the treacherous, yet victorious, 14-year journey both Dr. Burzynski and his patients have had to endure in order to obtain FDA-approved clinical trials of Antineoplastons. It is free to watch until ~~June 20th~~ further notice. Burzynski, the Movie is the story of a medical doctor and Ph.D biochemist named Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski who won the largest, and possibly the most convoluted and intriguing legal battle against the Food & Drug Administration in American history. His victorious battles with the United States government were centered around Dr. Burzynski's gene-targeted cancer medicines he discovered in the 1970's called Antineoplastons, which have currently completed Phase II FDA-supervised clinical trials in 2009 and could begin the final phase of FDA testing in 2011–barring the ability to raise the required $150 million to fund the final phase of FDA clinical trials. When Antineoplastons are approved, it will mark the first time in history a single scientist, not a pharmaceutical company, will hold the exclusive patent and distribution rights on a paradigm-shifting medical breakthrough. Get the DVD here