Texas Medical Board’s Lawsuit against CAM Cancer Pioneer Dismissed!

[MachineGhost]

In the 1980s, the Texas Medical Board (TMB) charged this caring and pioneering doctor with breaking a law that didn’t actually exist, and tried to revoke his medical license. Numerous investigations later—including an appearance before the Texas Supreme Court—found no violation of any law or standard of care.

The FDA, the pharmaceutical industry, and the National Cancer Institute, knowing how promising Dr. Burzynski’s therapy was proving to be, tried to duplicate his invention, then tried to steal his patents—but failed. Despite the fact that two informal medical board settlement panels found that Dr. Burzynski was acting within the standard of care, the TMB refused to drop the case and, earlier this year, made another attempt to revoke Dr. Burzynski’s medical license.

Had the Board been successful, it would have resulted in the closure of the Burzynski clinic, the abandonment of all his patients, and the end of any possibility of antineoplastons gaining FDA-approval. The actions of the Texas Board have been nothing short of disgraceful and illustrate some of the worst problems of today’s special-interest-driven medicine.

A week before trial was scheduled to take place last April, administrative law judges (ALJ) dismissed most of the charges against the doctor. This forced the TMB to reevaluate, and it eventually agreed to dismiss the entire case. On November 19, judges from the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings dismissed the TMB’s case against Dr. Burzynski for novel off-label use of combination gene-targeted therapy.

Rick Jaffe, Dr. Burzynki’s attorney, pointed to an important recent change in Texas law. In the previous legislative session, the Texas legislature stripped the TMB of its ability to summarily overturn the findings of the ALJ, and Dr. Burzynki’s case was one of the first to come under this new statute. The Board was thus forced to abide by the ALJ’s ruling.

A stunning documentary on Dr. Burzynski’s fight has won numerous awards worldwide.

[Benko]

I am generally dismissive of your conspiracy theories (since there are other more likely explanations), but in the area of alternative docs getting raided with attempts to shut down, it does happen.  I don't know how it comes about, though.

I should add that just because they are trying to shut him down without cause, does not mean that his treatments actually work. 

[MachineGhost]

I am generally dismissive of your conspiracy theories (since there are other more likely explanations), but in the area of alternative docs getting raided with attempts to shut down, it does happen.  I don't know how it comes about, though.

I should add that just because they are trying to shut him down without cause, does not mean that his treatments actually work.

I didn't know I believed in "conspiracy theories" -- the idea of which makes me wince.  Which ones are you generally dismissive of?