Drugs or Nothing: New FDA policy targets practitioners who offer an alternative

There seems to be a sea change in the enforcement policy of America’s health watchdog, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  It’s targeting more alternative and complementary practitioners, and using methods taken straight out of the Stasi Customer Relations manual.

Dr James Forsythe, of Renor, Nevada, got an early taste of the new Love and Light approach when armed FDA officials pushed their way into his crowded surgery while he was seeing a patient, demanding that he appear in court the following day.  They then intimidated his staff and patients for good measure before leaving.

While this was going on, a libellous article against Dr Forsythe and his wife appeared in his local newspaper, and hospitals near his surgery were urged to deny him privileges, insurance companies were told to drop him, and nursing homes were told to sever directorships with them that he held.

These tactics have successfully broken alternative practitioners in the past, and the great thing is that nothing has to be proved in court.

This is just as well, as the case against Dr Forsythe seems to be slight to the point of being non-existent.  Dr Forsythe has been a board-certified oncologist for 33 years who, along with the usual chemotherapy drugs, treats his patients with human growth hormone.  

It’s a therapy that may be controversial, but it’s one that is working well for Dr Forsythe’s patients.  He’s achieving between a 70 per cent and 80 per cent response rate, even among stage 4 cancer patients, which compares well against conventional centres that are recording response rates of between 3 and 14 per cent.

The FDA seems to be almost as interested in Dr Forsythe’s wife, Earlene, a nurse practitioner who was also slandered in the local newspaper article.  She’s been a thorn in the side of the Nevada Medical Board for the longest time, having formed the Homeopathic Medical Board, saved chelation therapy as a choice for Nevada citizens, and set up the Nevada Institutional Review Board, which evaluates natural medicines.

No wonder that in the article an investigator with the Nevada State Medical Board described the Forsythes as some of the state’s “worst offenders”.   

(Source:  Townsend Letter, 2007; 282: 17-8).


E-news broadcast 11 January 2007 No.324 [Subscribe]