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1. Former F.D.A. Chief Is Charged With Conflict
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/washington/17fda.html?_r=2&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1198166538-kmS4fFvhs4yX0X9p5lUOQA

2. Director, Division of Enforcement
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission  
100 F. Street NE
Washington, D.D. 20549-0213

Ms. Thomsen:
We are writing to request tht you investigate insider trading activity between Thomas Frist, Jr. and his brother Bill Frist, the current U.S. Senate Majority Leader. Thomas Frist, Jr. is the largest individual shareholder in HCA, (Hospital Corporation of America) with 5.5 million shares that were worth over $263 million at the end of trading today. Mr. Frist is an HCA Director, and has also held the positions of Chairman, Predsident and Chief Executive Officer at the company.
Senator Frist sold all the HCA, shares owned by himself and his immediate family, worth millions of dollars according to U.S. Senate disclosures, just two weeks prior to a disappointing earnings report that resulted in a double digit drop in the value of the  shares.
Frist’s father founded the company. His brother, Thomas, ran the company and continues to hold a positiion of influence. Thomas Frist, Jr. qualifies as an insider under the Securities and Exchange Act.
Senator Frist instructed the manager of his shares to sell them in mid-June as the price of HCA stock was peaking. His shares were sold by July 1 and his family’s shares sold on July 8. The company’s stock value fell precipitously on July 13 after the announcement of poor quarterly earnings that failed to meet  expectations.
Given the close relationship between Senator Frist and Thomas Frist, it is imperative that their communications concerning th sale of Senator Frist’s HCA stock be investigated fully, including use of you subpoena power to acquire phone and financial records, board meeting minutes, and othr pertinent records to verify the veracity of the assertions by the subjects of the investigation.
Sincerely,
Jamie Court                                                     Carmen Balber
cc Eliot Spitzer, New Your State Attorney General
     U.S. Attorneys, Southern District of New York, Southern District of Tennessee

3. NVIC-BL Fisher Note:
Drug companies making vaccines have used blackmail tactics before to try to bully Congress into letting them off the hook for vaccine injuries and deaths. They did it in the 1970's with the bogus swine flu scare that convinced Congress to immunize companies from all liability for the hastily prepared swine flu vaccine that ended up brain damaging many Americans, few of whom ever got the promised "government compensation" they were supposed to get.

 Vaccine makers blackmailed Congress in the 1980's, threatning to leave the nation without any childhood vaccines if they were not given protection from lawsuits on behalf of children brain damaged from the highly reactive whole cell DPT vaccine. Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 that eliiminated almost all liability for doctors and vaccine manufacturers. It worked: there were four drug companies marketing vaccines in the U.S. in 1982 (Wyeth, Lederle, Merck, Connaught) and today that number has doubled to eight (Wyeth, Merck, Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, Medimmune, Chiron, Bioport, Vaxgen).

 Now big Pharma wants to cut off citizen access to the judicial system if they are harmed by experimental or licensed vaccines potentially mandated to be used whenever the Secretary of Health and Human Services declares a public health emergency and Governors follow suit (see NVIC letter to Senate staffer Kadlec at www.nvic.org). The Pharma bail-out by Congress will result in vaccine casualties who will be left to fend for themselves for the rest of their lives long after the "emergency" is over.

4. "We must ensure the federal government acts as a partner with the private sector, providing the incentives and protections necessary to bring more and better drugs and vaccines to market faster, "Sen Richard Burr, R-N.C.
2003-2004, Richard Burr received donations from the Health industry amounting to more than $500,000.

5. SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- 38 U.S. Senators with up to $13.4 million in pharmaceutical holdings increased the value of their stock portfolios last night when they approved an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that immunizes drug makers from accountability to the public when they sell dangerous drugs and other products, according to the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR).

"When Senators can vote to harm the health and safety of the American public and line their own pockets while they're at it, the motive behind every vote is in question. No Senator should be able to vote in his own financial interests at the expense of the public," said Carmen Balber, consumer advocate with the nonprofit, nonpartisan Foundation for Taxpayer and
Consumer Rights.

FTCR released an analysis of Senate personal financial disclosures last week, revealing that 42 senators -- 27 Republicans and 15 Democrats -- held pharmaceutical stock worth between $8.1 and $16 million in 2004. Senators earned an additional $2.5 to $7.2 million in capital gains and dividends, and two senators' spouses also earned salaries from pharmaceuticals. View the analysis: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/SenPharma.pdf.

"The fact that Senators had the guts to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but failed to eliminate this giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry, shows this body is beholden to drug companies and their personal stake in the industry's profits," said Balber.

The 38 Senators with pharmaceutical stock that voted for the provision are:
Allen (R-Va.), Bayh (D-Ind.), Bingaman (D-N.M.), Bond (R-Mo.), Boxer
(D-Calif.), Brownback (R-Kan.), Burns (R-Mont.), Carper (D-Del.), Coburn
(R-Okla.), Cochran (R-Miss.), Conrad (D-N.D.), Crapo (R-Idaho), Dayton
(D-Minn.), DeWine (R-Ohio), Dole (R-N.C.), Ensign (R-Nev.), Feinstein
(D-Calif.), Frist (R-Tenn.), Hatch (R-Utah), Hutchison (R-Texas), Inhofe
(R-Okla.), Isakson (R-Ga.), Kerry (D-Mass.), Kyl (R-Ariz.), Landrieu
(D-La.), Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Levin (D-Mich.), Lieberman (D-Conn.), Lott
(R-Miss.), Reed (D-R.I.), Reid (D-Nev.), Roberts (R-Kan.), Stevens
(R-Alaska), Sununu (R-N.H.), Talent (R-Mo.), Vitter (R-La.), Voinovich
(R-Ohio) and Warner (R-Va.). Four Senators with pharmaceutical holdings did
not vote.

The provision grants immunity to drug companies for any vaccine or product, classified by the Bush Administration as necessary to respond to a public health threat, when patients are harmed by dangerous drugs. Its broad language will protect any product considered a "countermeasure," not just vaccines or drugs needed to respond to health emergencies.
Sen. Bill Frist added the provision to the defense conference report, approved by the House of Representatives on Sunday, after conferees had signed what they were told was the final product. Nine members of the Senate conference committee hold pharmaceutical stock.

Sen. Frist's blind trust included stock in drug companies Abbott Laboratories and Johnson & Johnson through 2004, each worth $15,000 to $50,000 when the trust was created. Frist also reported holdings in Orthodontic Supply Inc. worth between $1,001 and $15,000.

Congressional leaders tried to provide similar protection to the makers of the vaccine additive Thimerosal in 2002 with an amendment to a Homeland Security bill based on legislation Frist carried. Public backlash forced the Senate to remove the immunity provision.

6. Politicians who got the most pharmaceutical company contributions:

George Bush---$850,000
Orrin Hatch---$650,000
Bob Franks---$250,000
Rick Lazio---$250,000
Bill Bradley---$150,000
Bill Thomas---$150,000
Spencer Abraham----$125,000
Bill Frist---$100,000
Al Gore---$100,000
Joe Lieberman---$100,000
Rudolph Guiliani---$98,000

These totals are since 1990. Millions of dollars paid to lobbyists is not included.
It is also not known what was agreed to in advance prior to this money being paid.

8. Biological Terrorism Dangers Overstated, Expert Says
By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire
WASHINGTON — U.S. biodefense advocates have been “crying wolf” on the potential for catastrophic bioterrorism, playing up worst-case scenarios and driving billions of dollars into developing questionable defenses against questionable threats, a U.S. military analyst said yesterday (see GSN, March 9).

13. Frist’s Self-Serving PhRMA Pork

14. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has maintained for years that his stock holdings in the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain posed no conflict of interest for a policymaker deeply involved in health care matters.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/21/AR2005092102065_pf.html

15....Frist said to rig bill for drug firms....
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11849.htm

16. Government Of, By and For The Pharmaceutical Industry
http://www.smmirror.com:80/MainPages/DisplayArticleDetails.asp?eid=2423