Foreseen Thyroid Medicine Restrictions And Big Pharm Control

Mary Shomon, Thyroid Disease Expert, says, “The new ATA (American Thyroid Association) guidelines are worse than we thought, not only conflict of interest but they want to refer us for mental health evaluation if we don’t feel well on levothyroxine. They want to take away licenses and cause legal troubles for doctors who prescribe T3, T4 and natural thyroid drugs.”

About Health says, “Levothyroxine is the synthetic version of the hormone thyroxine (T4) used as thyroid hormone replacement.”

The American Thyroid Association’s Task Force on Thyroid Hormone Replacement published new “Guidelines for the Treatment of Hypothyroidism” in the journal Thyroid. To read more click here. This 207 page report concluded the authors volunteered their expertise without compensation or conflict of interest of any sort while saying, “Levothyroxine should remain the standard of care for treating hypothyroidism. We found no consistently strong evidence for the superiority of alternative preparations.”

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About Health went on to say, “Interestingly, they fail to mention that the American Thyroid Association itself — which convened the task force – receives substantial general funding and meeting sponsorship funding from three different levothyroxine manufacturers — AbbVie (Synthroid), Pfizer (Levoxyl) and Akrimax (Tirosint), (ATA Sponsors).”

The thought of only one method of healing and assisting the thyroid sounds sketchy. Saying no other methods can assist this situation when millions of patients see success on desiccated thyroid is naive and shady. There is little profit in desiccated thyroid, in fact it is laughable in comparison to levothyroxine.

Metabolism.com says deciccated thyroid lacks quality control and is therefore potentially dangerous. Statements like this runs rampant in the education of medical doctors sourced from the pharmaceutical companies themselves.

They add, “A medication like Armour could be made but no qualified individual or agency is available to certify its ingredients or standardization. …a product called Thyroid S produced in Thailand, which is a supposed substitute for Armour thyroid and is available without a prescription. My reaction is that until we can be certain of the formulation of a medication that the best thing to do is to avoid using it. Perhaps in time someone will be able to provide the necessary information required to evaluate this product but as editor-in-chief of this website I will try to guard our readers against becoming victims of scams and exploitation.”

During the fiscal 2012 year Kenneth Burman, MD, one of the authors of the 207 page report, received almost $60,000 in research grants from Pfizer, who manufactures levothyroxine. Click ProPublica Dollars for Doctors Database to see more.

PubMed says, “Controversy exists over the fact that physicians have regular contact with the pharmaceutical industry and its sales representatives, who spend a large sum of money each year promoting to them by way of gifts, free meals, travel subsidies, sponsored teachings, and symposia.”

They go on to say, “Physician interactions with pharmaceutical representatives were generally endorsed, began in medical school, and continued at a rate of about 4 times per month. Attending sponsored CME events and accepting funding for travel or lodging for educational symposia were associated with increased prescription rates of the sponsor’s medication.”

Bottle-necking all patients into one medical treatment is absurd.

Shomon wrote another article entitled “Is Your Endocrinologist ‘Under the Influence?'” where she specifically discusses the conflicts of interest with drug companies and physicians. She has received attacks from some of the physicians for pointing out these aspects with one, Dr. Ain, saying Shomom is, “Creating dissent and controversy regarding fictitious conspiracies between academic physicians and pharmaceutical companies.”

Dr. Ain is a compensated speaker for Abbott Laboratories, a paid speaker for Genzyme (a company that produces Thyrogen a thyroid cancer treatment drug) and is a paid researcher for Celgene Corporation, a company that produces cancer treatment drugs.

Shomon says, “Approximately 90 percent of the $21 billion marketing budget of the pharmaceutical industry continues to be directed at physicians.”

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