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1. Clinical Trial Doctor Yves Benhamou Facing 25 Years Prison For Insider Trading

Doctor Yves Benhamou, clinical trial and insider trading corruption
(Caption Courtesy Of One Click)
Overseeing a clinical trial certainly has its advantages - prestige, insight into new therapies and extra income. But having the freedom to tell a favored portfolio manager about the progress of the drug being studied is not one of the usual privileges. Somehow, Yves Benhamou decided to ignore this small point, and now he is under arrest and faces up to 25 years in prison for insider trading. How did he screw up? Well, Benhamou, who is 50 years old and lives in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a principal investigator and on the steering committee that was overseeing a trial for Albuferon, a hepatitis C drug being developed by Human Genome Sciences. However, he was also a paid consultant to a portfolio manager and various hedge funds and other investors. In fact, he was good friends with the portfolio manager and even asked him for investment advice, underscoring the frailty of the process for overseeing clinical trials. Benhamou was arrested on Monday in Boston while attending a conference but arraigned in New York, and faces civil and criminal charges. We asked Cheryl Scarboro, associate director of the SEC Division of Enforcement why the portfolio manager and hedge fund managers were not arrested, but she declined to comment. However, she did say the investigation is continuing. Various reports says the hedge fund involved in this mess is FrontPoint Partners and that a portfolio co-manager Chip Skowron is now on leave.
Ed Silverman, Pharmalot

2. 30-Year-Old Benzodiazepines Brain Damage Scandal Set To Erupt In Class Action

Secret documents reveal that government-funded experts were warned nearly 30 years ago that tranquillisers that were later prescribed to millions of people could cause brain damage. The Medical Research Council (MRC) agreed in 1982 that there should be large-scale studies to examine the long-term impact of benzodiazepines after research by a leading psychiatrist showed brain shrinkage in some patients similar to the effects of long-term alcohol abuse. However, no such work was ever carried out into the effects of drugs such as Valium, Mogadon and Librium – and doctors went on prescribing them to patients for anxiety, stress, insomnia and muscle spasms. MPs and lawyers described the documents as a scandal, and predicted they could lead the way to a class action costing millions. There are an estimated 1.5 million "involuntary addicts" in the UK, and scores display symptoms consistent with brain damage. There are a growing number of claims a gainst individual doctors for negligent prescribing benzodiazepines. Ray Nimmo, prescribed Valium as a muscle relaxant for stomach pain in 1984, received £40,000 in an out-of-court settlement in 2002 after 12 years of addiction. In the 1980s 17,000 claimants began a class action against the pharmaceutical manufacturers Roche Products and John Wyeth. Procedural delays, technical motions and escalating costs prevented the cases coming to trial.
Nina Lakhani, The Independent On Sunday

3. Proposal For Compulsory Deadly MMR Vaccine Blasted By Parents

A campaigning Wigan mum has blasted proposals for children to be barred from school if they haven’t had the MMR vaccine. Jackie Fletcher, founder of the Jabs pressure group, said she was “appalled” by the suggestion tabled by East Lancashire PCT’s public health director Sohail Bhatti who said that such a “draconian step” was the only way to get children immunised as early as possible. Dr Bhatti has also demanded a change in nursery and school admission policies, making it compulsory to be vaccinated. But Mrs Fletcher, whose son Robert received a landmark payout from the Vaccine Damage Payment Unit after it ruled that MMR had caused his severe disabilities, today urged the Department of Health not to heed his call. She said: “It is easy for him to be make such inflammatory and insensitive remarks as he and his profession take no responsibility for children brain damaged by vaccines. It’s a bit hypocritica l for him to say vaccine should not be compulsory but at the same time you cannot attend a school unless you have had one. Especially as there is an accepted 90 per cent under-reporting of side-effects so there is no reliable safety data. Responsible parents have the right to refuse all vaccines being pushed in this manner. I am appalled that such a scheme could be contemplated. I will be taking this up with my MP Andrew Burnham and hope others do the same.”
Wigan Today
Related Links:
* FOIA: Multiple UK Children Disabled And Killed By Child Vaccines
Sarah-Kate Templeton, The Sunday Times
* Brain Damage - Payout For MMR Vaccine Disaster
Martin Delgado, Daily Mail

4. British Police Thugs Are Out Of Control

On Friday, One Click published Full Pay Thug In Police Uniform Awarded Retrial that deals with the assault carried out by 6ft 3in Sgt. Mark Andrews on defenceless 59-year-old Pamela Somerville in police custody. The video of this assault contained very disturbing images. Today we publish the video of four police officers from Cheshire assaulting Stephanie Rutter, 25. The video footage shows Rutter being stripped naked, elbowed in the jaw, handcuffed and put in leg restraints as four officers kneel or stand on her in custody. This video also contains very disturbing images. The police then proceeded to accuse Rutter of assaulting them. Once the court had seen this video, Rutter was entirely cleared. This is how thugs in police uniform treat the British public. More than 2,000 police officers had at least three complaints made against them by members of the public over the past year. The British police are out of control.
Information Release, The One Click Group
Related Links:
* Full Pay Thug In Police Uniform Awarded Retrial
Mike Wilkinson, Gazette & Herald
* Thug Cop Freed After Just Six Days
Steven Morris, The Guardian
* Judge Condemns Two More Anonymous Thugs In Police Uniform Working In Wiltshire
Caroline Gammell, Daily Telegraph
* Police Officer Assaults Woman In Cell Causing Severe Injuries
BBC News
* Survey Reveals Massive Level Of Complaints Against Police
Matt Dickinson, Press Association, The Independent

5. Expenses Scandal - UK MPs & Peers Profit From Alleged Crime

As the judgement day approaches for the four MPs and two Lords facing trial, an FOIing co-conspirator makes a very valid point. Asking how much Lord Paul (£41,982), Bhaitia (£27,446) and Baroness Uddin (£0) have paid back to date, they were informed that no interest was added. The same logic must have applied to all the money from the fiddlers in the Commons, much of which is still being chased from MPs… If the repayments, which were quiet admissions of guilt that no ordinary citizen could use as penance for a crime, do not include interest then surely the honourable Members and Peers have profited from their little “borrowings”?
Guido Fawkes
Related Links:
* Another Eight UK MPs In Expenses Storm - Police Called In
Jason Groves, Daily Mail
* Secret Deals Being Offered To Expenses Abuse MPs
Rosa Prince, Daily Telegraph
* Taxpayer Foots Bill As Former MPs In Expenses Scandal Appeal To Supreme Court
Jason Beattie, Daily Mirror
* Abusive UK MPs Brand Expenses Staff As Fucking Idiots & Monkeys
Macer Hall, Daily Express
* Expenses Scandal MPs Granted Legal Aid
Big Pond

6. Papers Please! UK ConDem Coalition Government Wrecks Civil Liberties Again

The House of Lords has been scrapping Identity Cards this last fortnight. Sort of. It's not simply a matter of "scrap the ID scheme", as the coalition government promised. It's like one of those magic tricks: the Identity Documents Bill will make ID cards vanish but - tadaah! - the government will still be holding the powers that made them so objectionable in the first place. This ID scrapping bill won't be enough "to stop the development of a 'papers please' culture in Britain," says No2ID in its brief on the legislation. No2ID takes particular offence at how the ConDem's ID legislation will make it a criminal offence with up to 10 years imprisonment to try and carry off a false ID. There are no end of reasons why someone might justifiably goof some busybody official into thinking they are someone they are not. They might want to send Transport for London's heavies the wrong way for a start. Yet the strangest thing about the ConDem's ID Doc's Bill are in is its Clause 10. And they are its data sharing powers. The ConDem's will with this bill introduce a wide power for linking disparate data sources to passport records, to keep them for police intelligence and to extend them at the home secretary's discretion. Just the sort of powers they protested about in opposition. Not that you can compare British officials to Nazi commandants. The ID Docs Bill doesn't give them the power to take you into the woods to have you shot if you have the wrong papers. They will merely have the power to send you to prison for 10 years.
Mark Ballard, Computer Weekly
Related Links:
* Outcry As ConDem Coalition Government Collides With Civil Liberties In Plan To Spy On Every British Citizen
James Slack, Daily Mail
* Disgusting ConDem Government U-Turn On Reversing The British Surveillance State
Alex Deane, New Statesman

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http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk