Author: Suzanne B. Robotti

Suzanne B. Robotti

Suzanne is the President and Founder of MedShadow, and the Executive Director of DES Action USA.  MedShadow’s mission is to preserve quality of life by ensuring everyone has access to the risks, benefits and alternates to using drugs to manage healthcare. Read More

Makena Off The Market This past weekend I had a horrifying conversation. My husband and I were at a garden party in Central Park, New York, enjoying the early evening breeze and chatting with other guests. A woman we just met mentioned she was a nurse, working in an infertility clinic run by her OB/GYN husband. I mentioned what I do and how happy I was that Makena was now off the market.  Makena, a synthetic progesterone hormone, was given “fast track” approval by the FDA about ten years ago because early studies indicated it might help women carry births…

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This isn’t another lengthy blog on the multitude of problems with America’s healthcare system. Well, OK, maybe it is. But, instead of just droning on about the countless ways the system could improve (because, let’s face it, there are plenty), what if there was a way you could make a difference? It doesn’t take a massive donation of finances. It doesn’t take writing to or running for Congress. It doesn’t take lobbyists or legal battles. It just takes you. John Q. (or Jane Q.) Public can make a difference. Want to know more? Keep reading. Just How Bad Is America’s…

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OTC

The Pill – 60th Anniversary As I write this, it is one day after the 60th anniversary of the first oral birth control that was approved for use in the United States. It was part of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and access to “The Pill,” as it was called, famously separated sex from procreation. “Oh pish posh,” you say, there were many types of contraceptives available for hundreds of years, maybe thousands. The Pill, however, was dramatically more effective than other birth control methods available until then. Here’s a diagram from Perrigo Company (manufacturer of OPill) illustrating that…

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A Texas judge recently decided that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a drug that has been used for 23 years safely was wrongly made and that the drug should not be allowed to be used.  It doesn’t matter what drug it is and it doesn’t matter that the judge’s decision was riddled with inaccuracies, loaded phrasing, and partisan wording.  What matters is who decides what drug is safe and effective to use. And who do you think is trained to make those decisions? Who has a process in place for evaluation? And, who is the leading organization…

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FDA

FDA Drug Approvals & Advisory Committees Do you want drugs to get to the market faster? Is safety a higher priority for you? What about who gives advice to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), should it only be people who have no financial conflict of interest?  I had the opportunity to meet with Robert Calif, Commissioner of the FDA, a couple of weeks ago. I went as MedShadow’s representative member of the Patient, Consumer, and Health Coalition, a group of organizations that educate, inform, and empower those concerned with the overuse of medicines and medical devices. As a…

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Motion Sickness .. Mal De Mer I spend a lot of time preaching to people to depend less on medicines, more on lifestyle changes, milder drugs, alternatives. But not when it comes to my pain!  I’ve had motion sickness my whole life. Mal de mer, (other words for motion sickness). I’ve had it all and it sucks. As Mark Twain said, “At first you’re afraid you’re going to die, then you are afraid you aren’t.” Long flight or short, by the time I’d get off the plane I was jelly-kneed, covered in sweat, needed a bathroom desperately, deep into a…

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Prescribing a drug to a person who does not need that drug is unconscionable – I mean that word in the old-fashioned sense of an act being done by a person with no conscience.  When I was a child, Jiminy Cricket was a regular visitor in cartoons on Saturday mornings. He’d perch on a character’s shoulder and whisper, “you know you should not do this.” Woe to those who ignored Jiminy Cricket’s warnings, as there were always bad consequences.  A Sorry State of Our Union This week, in his State of the Union address, President Biden told America that “We’re…

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A friend asked me the following question:  “I believe I have tinnitus. I believe it might be linked to long covid. I wondered if you could have a look at this link and please tell me if you heard of this and what your organization thinks about it. I didn’t buy it. Thanks so much.” A link to a video about a supplement called Silencil was attached. When I clicked on it, my computer malware popped up a warning, but I overrode it on the theory that my friend had already gone to the site and her computer had not…

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Makena Presented to the FDA as a Drug That Might Lower The Preterm Birth Rate On Monday this week I testified as a public speaker at the FDA/CDC hearing evaluating the research the manufacturers of Makena have presented. Makena was presented to the FDA as a drug that might lower the rate of preterm birth. Because preterm births have no other drug therapy available (but there are nondrug protocols with research to support their use), Makena was approved through the “Accelerated Pathway” process. That required Makena to conduct additional research to prove it is both effective and safe. The manufacturer…

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I finally finished the entire film, Uninformed Consent (great title), and I have a lot to say about it. It is produced, written, and edited (and filmed!) by Todd Michael Harris. Vaccine Choice Canada and Children’s Health Defense are both credited as executive producers. Both of these organizations have public positions that include skepticism of all vaccines. For example, the institutions have both promoted views tying autism speculation to long-used and well-tolerated vaccines – which are a key part of the dramatic increase in the length of average human life over the past 50-plus years. The film challenges the safety…

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