Paul Golberg in hiding? Provenge update and links . .

I haven't updated the blog in quite some time, but after reading the latest developments - I decided that this whole debacle was just too interesting and far too important for me not to blog about it.

My gut instinct told me something was terribly awry with Dr. Scher and Dr. Hussain's dogmatic and frenzied media campaign against Provenge. So I started digging around to see what would make these doctors go out of their way and act so unprofessional. What I found was merely the tip of the iceberg. Since my last blog entries many other internet bloggers, investors, cancer patients and advocates have dug up more dirt than I could have ever imagined possible.

There have been so many twists and turns in the past few months that I could not possibly write about all of them today here are some links where others have documented recent developments in this Provenge tragedy.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4697788418701224822&hl=en

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2007/tc20070724_550192.htm

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003813806_dendreon31.html

http://pharm-aid.blogspot.com/2007/07/provenge-companies-and-pr-firm.html

http://ahrp.blogspot.com/2007/08/pharmalot-blows-lid-off-fda-coi-waivers.html

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2167383659619688797

http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/provenge-delay-triggers-furor-among-cancer-victims/2007-07-06

http://blog.myspace.com/Slimguitz

http://www.myspace.com/approve_provenge_now

http://www.zacks.com/blog/comments.php?cid=8288

Ironically my last article was about Paul Goldberg and his publication The Cancer Letter.

There is a non for profit that has started a lawsuit against the FDA. The group goes by the name Care to Live. The lawyers representing Care to Live want some info from Mr. Goldberg in court. They want to know is exactly who in the FDA 'leaked' the letters to Mr. Goldberg. Goldberg was responsible for publishing what some view as an orchestrated media campaign against Provenge's approval.

In this media campaign Howard Scher and Maha Hussain - doctors with a seemingly never ending list of financial conflicts of interest - wrote letters against Provenge's approval that were later published in Goldberg's publication.

Many people thought the timing of Goldberg's publishings was rather suspect... and that perhaps hedge funds knew about these letters before the were published.

Mr. Goldbedrg started publishing these letters about a month before the final FDA approval date. The first letter he started off with was from Dr. Howard Shcher. The publication came out on a Friday -before the market closed. The stock plummeted after Goldberg published Scher's letter.

The following week the stock started gradually recouping in it's price per share. Then once again the following Friday before market closed Goldberg releases yet another letter in his publication. This time around the letter was from Dr. Maha Hussain - yet another doctor with numerous conflicts of interests. Click here to read her conflicts of interests and time line.

The stock once again plummeted after Goldberg published Hussain's letter. Next week Dendreon's stock starts to recuperate. Then the following Friday Mr. Goldberg published the mack daddy letter of them all. This time the letter from the nationally recognized statistician who specializes in clinical trials design. Dr. Thomas R. Fleming wrote his own letter pleading for Provenge to be denied.

What was Goldberg's motivation to publish these letters? Why didn't he publish all the letters in the same week? Do one big pithy story on Provenge? Yet he decided to save each letter and published them on a weekly basis leading up to the final date? Did his contact at the FDA give him these letters all at once? Were Hussain, Sher, and Flemming together on this? I find it odd that in Flemming's letter he writes about how Howard Scher was kept up all night after the advisory panel's positive review on Provenge,

" Reportedly, Scher felt motivated to write the letter after being kept awake the night following the March 29, 2007, FDA Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee"

Flemming himself goes onto write, "I also was kept awake the night following the panel".

We may never find out what Goldberg's motivations were or what his reasons were behind the timing of releasing these letters. However finding out the exact identity of the mole at the FDA who leaked these letters might shed more light on this whole situation.

Looks like Mr. Goldberg doesn't want to give up the info. Take a look at this Pharmalot article written by Ed Silverman . . . .

There’s nothing like the Provenge controversy to generate interesting tales. For those who don’t recall, Provenge is a prostate-cancer vaccine developed by Dendreon, and was recommended by an FDA panel last spring. But approval was unexpectedly delayed by the agency after two dissenting panel members wrote the FDA commish to think twice.

That set off a firestorm - threats and charges of conflicts of interest against the two panel members; protests by cancer patients; angry Internet missives by investors and, most recently, a lawsuit against the FDA filed by a newly formed non-profit called Care To Live, which appears to have been created specifically for this battle.

Now, the attorney who filed the lawsuit has posted details of how his private investigator stalked Paul Goldberg, who broke the story of how panel member Howard Scher wrote the FDA to delay Provenge approval. Goldberg publishes The Cancer Letter from his Washington, DC, home with his wife, Kirsten, who’s the publisher. The non-profit wants to know how Goldberg got the letter.

Two days ago, attorney Kerry Donahue took the unusual step of writing on the Investor Village web site: “Last night, the Goldbergs hid in their basement and refused to answer their door to accept CareToLive subpoenas. Today, they left town…

…in order to avoid further service (their counsel already acknowledged receipt of faxed subpoenas in this matter). Today they were served by personal process service on their household to a person over age 18. The Goldbergs thought they escaped town and avoided legal process. WRON

Wow -Paul Goldberg is hiding out in that murky basement of his? Refusing to answer the door? Gee what does he have to hide? Who at the FDA is he covering for?

Goldberg must be loving every minute of this excitement. This Russian immigrant probably hasn't had anything this exciting happen to him since exposing Martha Stewart. This time around though the tables are turned, and he's the one that is risking exposure.

I smell a rat somewhere. Hopefully the slow wheels of justice will be able to find out exacty where and what that rat is. I am sure there is a begnin and logical explanation for all of this Mr. Goldberg -there's no need to hide :) .