What is an ADR or Adverse Drug Reaction?

It is an unpleasant or harmful side-effect of medication

WHY WAS THIS WEBSITE SET UP? - It was created to provide a forum for people who have suffered an adverse drug reaction as a result of taking pharmaceutical drugs that have been "safety tested" on animals. It is intended to shed light on the hazardous world of legal drugs. It is also for the relatives and friends of people who have suffered ADRs, because ADRs can kill, and those who are no longer here cannot speak for themselves - their relatives and friends must speak for them.

Everyone is welcome to read the material on this site, and to contribute to the discussion about ADRS. Whether or not you feel strongly about animal experimentation, by contributing to this site, you can help to make other people better informed about ADRs. Here you can describe what happened to you when you had the ADR, express your feelings about it and make connections with other people.

ADRS FORUM

TO POST ON THE FORUM, CLICK HERE, THEN CLICK ON WHICHEVER PART OF THE FORUM YOU WISH TO POST ON, E.G. GENERAL, A, B, C, ETC. YOU WILL THEN SEE TWO BOXES ON THE RIGHT NAMED ‘NEW THREAD’ CLICK ON THE UPPER BOX. ENTER A SUBJECT, NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS, YOUR MESSAGE, THEN CLICK ON THE ‘POST’ BUTTON. YOU DO NOT NEED TO ENTER YOUR CONTACT DETAILS ON THE GENERAL BOARD, ONLY ON A-Z BOARDS. TO EXIT THE FORUM, CLICK ON 'ADRS FORUM' ON THE TOP LEFT. PLEASE DO NOT POST MESSAGES THAT ARE INNACURATE, DEFAMATORY, OR ABUSIVE.

**THE OWNERS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS OF PEOPLE WHO POST MESSAGES ON THE FORUM**

PETER ROST MD, former Pfizer Vice-President turned whistleblower: “It is scary how many similarities there are between this industry (drugs industry) and the mob……… The side effects of organised crime are killings and deaths, and the side effects are the same in this industry. The mob bribes politicians and others, and so does the drugs industry, which has been proven in different cases……….” “Clearly the drugs industry doesn’t want to kill people but at the same time I’m not sure it is always completely unintentional. Yeah, they don’t want to kill people because it’s bad business, right, but if you look at the number of these cases where people inside the company knew they had problems. If you look at Merck with Vioxx for example; if you look at Bayer and the lipid lowering drug they had that caused liver failure, Baycol, those guys knew those problems resulted in serious side effects, including death. Yet, they kept on selling the drugs. So, is that intentional or not?……………………… “We have to recognise that these big companies are all building small paramilitary organisations inside the companies that answer to no-one except the company itself……….it shows that there aren‘t really any limits to what big companies - in the drugs industry and others - will do……………” “I do think the press can change things to an extent…………….the general population, they have no idea what‘s going on………….” Extract from Peter Rost’s interview with “Guernica” Magazine, June 2008. Please click here to read the full interview

WARNING! YOUR MEDICATION IS BEING TESTED ON YOU! WARNING! ONLY TESTED ON ANIMALS AND A RELATIVELY SMALL NUMBER OF PEOPLE!

ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS - THE SILENT HOLOCAUST Adverse drug reactions, caused by animal-tested drugs, are a massive problem in the UK today and prove that vivisection is scientific fraud. Even those in the industry admit there is a problem: "Our best guess for a correlation between adverse reactions in man and animal toxicity data is somewhere between 5-25%." (Ralph Heywood, former scientific executive of Huntingdon Life Sciences, Europe's largest animal testing lab.) "90% of drugs only work for 30-50% of patients." (Dr. Allen Roses, Vice-President of genetics at Glaxo Smith-Kline.) Professor Pirohamed from the University of Liverpool, England, conducted a study into ADRs at the Liverpool Royal and Arrowe Park hospitals in 2001 - 02 and found that they cause 18,000 deaths and 600,000 hospital admissions in the UK every year, costing the NHS £466m per year. (British Medical Journal 3/7/04) "We need to do more research into how patients react to drugs and also produce better drugs to prevent ADRs," (Professor Pirmohamed) In the USA, ADRs cause 106,000 deaths and 2.2 million hospital admissions every year. (Journal of American Medical Associations 15/4/98) THE INTRANSIGENCE OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT The Government remains steadfastly in denial over the issue of ADRs: "The Home Office has not commissioned or evaluated any formal research on the efficacy of animal experiments... and has no plans to do so." (Caroline Flint MP) *LATEST NEWS* New figures compiled as part of an investigation into the pharmaceutical industry and its relationship to public health and regulation reveal that adverse drug reactions are costing the taxpayer £2 billion annually and that in 2006 adverse drug reactions caused 1, 040000 hospital admissions. Guardian (3rd April 2008). A full report will be published in Autumn 2008. Zoe Gannon, who led the investigation by the centre-left think tank Compass, said: "It is increasingly apparent that the lack of regulation is costing the taxpayer and in some cases causing unnecessary suffering". Historic Bill launched - On 26th January 2009 a cross-party group of MPs launched the Safety of Medicines (Evaluation) Bill. This calls for a comparison of currently-required animal tests with a set of human biology-based tests.The MPs also launched Early Day Motion 569 in Support of the bill in order to allow Parliament to show its strength of feeling on the issue. EDM 569 was signed by 243 MPs; it was the joint-tenth most signed EDM of the ast Parliamentary session. It has been re-tabled as EDM 29. PLEASE ASK YOUR MP TO SIGN EDM 29 IN SUPPORT OF THE SAFER MEDICINES (EVALUATION) BILL. For more information, please visit: www.safermedicines.org Please ask your MP to sign EDM 212 which calls for an increase in the accessibility of human tissue samples for health research.

ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION - PROVIDING MISLEADING EVIDENCE For many years, nonhuman animals have been used in medical experiments to supposedly prove that drugs intended for humans are safe. However, there is now an ever growing body of evidence that such medical experiments are scientifically unsound - other animal species react to many drugs in different ways from us humans. More and more people are now coming forward with stories of adverse reactions to drugs that have been animal-tested. The supporters of animal experimentation use a mixed up argument to defend it - on the one hand, they say that other animals are so different from us that it's all right to test drugs on them, yet on the other hand they are so similar to us that the results obtained in vivisection labs are truthful and reliable. The fact is that all the scientific evidence of the last 150 years, since Darwin proposed evolution, shows that we are an animal species, we are a species of Primate, distantly related to the other great apes, so we are similar to other species in that sense. However, other species do differ from us in many ways, and that is why they are not reliable models for the testing of medicines. A little bit of thought will show that even we humans would not make 100% reliable models for the testing of drugs, for the simple reason that every human individual is different - we are all of different heights, weights, builds, blood groups, metabolisms, etc. - one human individual may react to a drug in a completely different way from another, so how can blanket results obtained from experiments on completely different species be officially regarded as reliable? In March 2006, six people were left fighting for their lives after clinical drugs trials went disastrously wrong at Parexel. There were some reports that the drugs given to these human guinea pigs had previously been tested on nonhuman animals WITHOUT ANY ADVERSE AFFECTS, even though the nonhuman animals had been given doses up to 500 times stronger! Conventional drugs can help some people in life or death situations, but it is a fact that the majority of people would be better off not relying on conventional medicines. Our bodies are very clever. They have developed natural defences over millions of years of evolution that can protect us from many illnesses, but we don't always help ourselves because of our unhealthy habits, such as smoking, drinking, eating fatty foods and taking little or no exercise. People can reduce the need to use pharmaceuticals by eating a balanced diet and trying to follow a healthy lifestyle. The major pharmaceutical companies make their profits from selling their products to us. IT IS IN THEIR INTEREST TO ENSURE THAT WE CONTINUE BUYING THOSE PRODUCTS.

WHAT YOU CAN DO VALITOX is a new toxicology test that does not use animals. Developed by the French group PRO ANIMA, it is more accurate than animal tests at predicting adverse reactions in humans. VALITOX is 86% accurate while tests on mice are thought to be 65% accurate and test on rats 61% accurate. It is currently in the process of being validated by the European Committee for the valuation of Alternative Medicines. (ECVAM) Once VALITOX is validated by ECVAM animal toxicology tests will be finished. Please ask your MEP to press for more funding to be allocated to ECVAM to speed up the validation of VALITOX. For more information please visit www.proanima.fr Please click here to visit the site Another thing you can do is to write to your MP and ask them to demand more funding to be allocated to these areas of research, all alternatives to unreliable animal testing: In Vitro (Cell Culture) In Silico (Computer modelling) Microdosing Proteomics BELOW IS THE SUGGESTED WORDING FOR A LETTER THAT YOU COULD WRITE TO YOUR MP ASKING FOR AN ENQUIRY INTO ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION.

SAMPLE LETTER Dear Sir/Madam, I strongly believe that animal experimentation has no scientific value, and that the misleading results from it are causing the unneccessary deaths of countless thousands of people in the UK every year. It is the duty of a democratically elected government to ensure that its people are told the truth, especially when such a high death toll is involved. Yours faithfully,

TO PRINT OUT A COPY OF THE ITEM BELOW AS A LEAFLET, HIGHLIGHT IT, CLICK ON 'FILE' IN THE TOP LEFT-HAND CORNER OF YOUR SCREEN, THEN CLICK PRINT, CHOOSE 'SELECTION' FROM 'PAGE RANGE' AND CLICK 'PRINT'AGAIN.

MESSRS SIR PAUL STEPHENSON & PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON: adverse drugs reactions caused by animal tested drugs kill thousands of people in the US and UK every year**, but have you ever heard these guys mention it? SPEAK OUT FOR CHANGE! www.exposeyouradrs.org **British Medical Journal 3/7/04, Journal Of The American Medical Association 15/4/98

REVEALED: LABOURS CASH FOR INFLUENCE SCANDAL Margaret Moran, Luton MP, boasted that she could call on a “girl‘s gang” of colleagues on behalf of clients. Among those she named were Jacqui Smith, former Home Secretary, and…Harriet Harman, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. Sunday Times, 21st March 2010. No one in the Coalition Government has called for Jacqui Smith to be investigated for corruption. Why is that? Is it because they are playing the same game themselves? Left: Jacqui Smith. As Home Secretary, she had responsibility for granting licences to animal testing laboratories, regulating medicines, and for the Police.

The Safer Medicines Campaign has produced a film which offers solutions to the problem of unsafe medicines. Tony Benn has called it "A very important film". Please click here to view the film

Please visit the website below.

Please click here to visit the Vivisection Information website. Animal experiments and science. The facts. Latest news stories about vivisection and it's consequences.

Please visit the website below. It has a damning article about vivisection from a recent edition of the Ecologist magazine. Please click here to read the July 2005 Ecologist article on vivisection Please visit the vivisection-absurd website below, an excellent site which shows how ludicrous vivisection is. Click here to visit the vivisection-absurd site Please visit the website below as well. It details how medical advances have been HELD BACK by animal research. Please click here to visit the eye-opening Anti Psychiatry Coalition website, which is about treatment used on patients with mental problems Please visit the U.S. website below. Please click here to read a shocking article about ADRs in the U.S. Please visit the website below. It is very informative. Please click here to visit the Vernon Coleman site Please click here to visit the Doctor Within site FURTHER INFORMATION: Please click here to view a list of animal welfare EDMs on the Animal Aid site BOOKLIST: Dispensing With The Truth - the Victims, The Drug Companies and the Dramatic Story behind the battle over Fen Phen, by Alicia Mundy, St. Martins Press. Bitter Pills - Inside The Hazardous World of Legal Drugs, by Stephen Fried, Bantam USA. Prescription Games - Money, Ego and Power Inside the Global Pharmaceutical Industry, by Jeffrey Robinson, Simon and Schuster. The Truth about the Drugs Companies - How They Deceive Us and What To Do about It, Marcia Angell - Random House, Trade. What the Drug Companies Wont Tell You and your Doctor doesn't Know - the alternative treatments that may change your life and the prescriptions that could harm you. Author - Michael T. Murray MD Publisher - Atria Amazing medicines the drug companies don't want you to discover Publisher - University Medical Research Publishers. The Big Fix - how the pharmaceutical industry rips off American consumers Author - Katherine Greider Publisher - Sarah Crichton Our Daily Meds - How the pharmaceutical companies transformed themselvesinto slick marketing machines and hooked the nation on prescription drugs Author Melody Peterson Publisher - Farrar, Straus and Giroux Side Effects - a prosecutor, a whistleblower and a best selling antidepressant on trial Author Alison Bass Publisher - Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill Shyness - How Normal Behaviour Became A Sickness Author - Christopher Lane Publisher Yale University Press The Great White Hoax - the supressed truth about the pharmaceutical industry. American freedom vs. medical power. Author Robert Catalano, publisher iUniverse. Whistleblower - Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman Author: Peter Rost Publisher: Soft Skull Press Available on Amazon Roche Versus Adams Author: Stanley Adams Available on Amazon Your Health At Risk - what doctors and governments aren’t telling you Author: Toni Jeffreys phD Medical Nemisis (Limits to Medicine) Author Ivan Illich Publisher: Marion Boyers Available on Amazon Sacred Cows and Golden Geese - the human cost of experiments on animals. Authors: Dr. Greek Publisher: Continuum Available on Amazon What Vets Don’t Tell You About Vaccines Author: Catherine O’Driscoll Available on Amazon All the above titles are available on Amazon. The following titles are NOT available on Amazon: Dirty Medicine - an assault by big business on natural health care. Author: MJ Walker Cured to Death - the effects of prescription drugs Authors: Melville & Johnson Immunization Author: Neil Z Miller A Shot in the Dark/vaccine damage Authors: Harris L Coulter & Barbara L Fisher The Poisoned Needle Author: Eleanor McBean Animal Research takes lives - both humans and animals suffer Author: Bette Overell Publisher NZ Anti-Vivisection Society The Great Billion Dollar Medical Swindle Author: Keith Alan Lasko MD The Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry Author: Braithwaite MD The Great Drug Deception Author: Dr. Robert Fine The Secrets of Medical Decision Making - how to avoid becoming the victim of the healthcare machine Author: Oleg Reznik Publisher: Loving Healing Press Vaccine - The Modern Plague Author: Pat Ratiggan The Drug Story Author: Maurice Beale This site was last updated on 6th June 2010