Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
There was a day in Texas when sleaze artist Stephen Barrett could call up the Executive Director of the Texas Medical Board and “arrange” a prosecution of a Texas cutting-edge doctor, even offering his even sleazier “skeptic” companion bobbie baratz as the do-all, be-all, expert witness against that doctor. Those days are over. The Texas Medical Board is on a short leash, after an assault by the Texas legislature, at the request of components of the the US Health Freedom Movement.
As you can see below, from an excerpt of an email sent to me by Burzynski‘s attorney, Rick Jaffe, the Board decided it had other things to do, rather than continue to be mauled by Burzynski‘s network. See below:
Stan Burzynski’s Four Year Battle with the Texas Medical Board Ends. Case Dismissed!
On November 19, 2012, judges of the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings dismissed the Texas Medical Board’s pending case against Dr. Burzynski. The investigation started by the board in 2008 involved Burzynski’s novel off-label use of combination gene targeted therapy. Early on, two medical board informal settlement panels found that the use of these combination drugs on the advanced cancer patients involved was within the standard of care. However, the Texas Medical Board refused to drop the case and instead filed a formal complaint against Dr. Burzynski alleging the same standard of care violations previously rejected by the board settlement panels. After two years of intense litigation, the case was set for trial in April 2012. However, a week before trial, the administrative law judges dismissed most of the charges against Dr. Burzynski which forced the Board to seek to adjourn the case to do some reevaluation. After the judges denied the Board’s attempt to reverse the previous partial dismissal of the case, the Board did more reevaluation and moved to dismiss the entire case. We didn’t oppose the motion and on November 19, 2012, the case was dismissed.
The cutting-edge, multi-agent gene targeted therapy devised by Dr. Burzynski which was at the heart of this proceeding is still being given at the clinic and is helping countless patients. The Burzynski Clinic thanks all of its supporters and wishes all a Happy Thanksgiving and thanks – Rick.
Click here to see a copy of the Order.
According to Burzynski’s lawyer Rick Jaffe. “I’m glad we didn’t have to spend three weeks on a trial. It would have been a complete waste of time and money.”
Jaffe also says that “things are a little better in Texas now that the Texas Medical Board has been stripped of its power to summarily overturn decisions by the independent state office of administrative hearings, I’d like to see that happen in more states. Sometimes the judges are reasonable, but the boards have a bias against CAM practitioners and in most of the states I litigate in, they can do what they want.”
The Amusing Part…
Burzynski‘s victory, I think, will be particularly galling to the “skeptic” movement who had organized an internet “hate” campaign against Burzynski, clearly attempting to destroy him and his reputation. Despite their best efforts, that, obviously, has failed.
More, the “skeptic” campaign to stop Burzynski’s FDA approved Clinical Trials of his therapies, has failed just as miserably.
Stay tuned…
Tim Bolen – Consumer Advocate