Paul Goldberg fights the cancer "right wing insurgency"

Insurgents

1. Rising in revolt against established authority, especially a government.

2. Rebelling against the leadership of a political party.

Paul Goldberg of The Cancer Letter does not seem to fancy the idea of Provenge approval either. He has been the one responsible for publishing "leaked" negative FDA letters in his publication the Cancer Letter.

Who is Paul Goldberg, and why might he not want Provenge to be approved?

Paul Goldberg, along with his wife, runs a home business by publishing the Cancer Letter out of their D.C. basement. Neither of them are doctors. It is a very lucrative business, earning the Goldbergs approximately 500, 000 thousand dollars a year in income.

According to a Washington Post article Paul Goldberg decided to work at the Cancer Letter because,

"It was money and I needed it."

Paul Goldberg is very political. Merril Goozner writes in one of his articles,

"Paul Goldberg's influential "Cancer Letter" pointed out in its August issue how a right wing "insurgency" is pushing for early approvals of cancer drugs.."

Paul Goldberg is not a big fan of the current FDA chief that was appointed by President George W. Bush. According to a New York Times article,

"Paul Goldberg, editor of The Cancer Letter, a Washington newsletter that has been critical of some of Dr. von Eschenbach's policies, said he suspected that if given free rein, Dr. von Eschenbach would relax standards on drug approvals. "

Dr. von Eschenbach was appointed head of the FDA by president George Bush. He is a man on a mission. That mission is

"eliminating suffering and death due to cancer by 2015."
.

Paul Goldberg has gone out of his way to public these allegedly "leaked" letters from the FDA. Making a public circus of it all. It should be a private dignified debate within the FDA, but Goldberg doesn't seem to want to keep it private. Perhaps this excerpt from Goldberg's Cancer Letter will give some insight as to why he wants to make this a public fight,

"By refraining from challenging von Eschenbach's four-year stewardship of NCI, Democrats forego the opportunity to question his reorganizing the institute for the pursuit of a blatantly unachievable and now apparently abandoned goal to 'eliminate suffering and death due to cancer' by 2015. "

So The Cancer Letter thinks that finding cure to cancer by 2015 is a "blatantly unachievable" goal? This is the opinion coming from two people who are not even doctors, or scientists. They feel that Democrats should not refrain from challenging Von Eschenbach? Since when is cancer and finding a cure a partisan subject? Is cancer political?

Why doesn't Paul Goldberg publish something positive about Provenge? Wouldn't that be fair and balanced?There were, after all, 13 scientists and physicians who voted for Provenge.

No - he only publishes letters by doctors who don't want Provenge to be approved. Could it be that Goldberg is making his own "counter-surgency" attack via his newsletter?

Just yesterday Mr. Goldberg published another ‘leaked’ letter from the FDA. This time the letter was from Dr. Maha Hussain. . .

Who is Dr. Maha Hadi Hussain?

Dr. Maha Hussain graduated from the Baghdad University School of Medicine. She escaped from Iraq and now practices in the USA. She is also in Dr Scher’s camp of treating cancer. She is an expert in her field. She has dedicated her whole life to the subject of cancer. Both Scher and Hussain work with chemo. She, like Scher, is also currently acting either as a paid consultant or investigator or sub investigator for several of Dendreon's competitors.

Another similarity between Dr. Howard Scher( Goldberg published his letter) and Dr. Maha Hussain is that they both had to sign conflict of interest waivers in order to vote on Provenge.

Why? Well her husband Dr. Salam Jafar Hussain, a physician at Ann Arbor Radiation Oncology center, owns stock in companies that could be viewed as competetors with Dendreon.
He is in charge of phase III clinical trial for Taxotere® at Michigan Cancer Research Consortium, and at St. Joseph Mercy Cancer Center. Cick here as well for more information.

Dr. Howard Scher's is also studying III clinical trials for Taxotere®. Taxotere® is a chemo based drug that is targeted to treat late prostate cancer. So technically speaking it is a competetor for Provenge.

Take a look at Dr. MahaHussain's conflict of interest waiver here.

During the FDA panel she was very adamant and loud about her views. She really did not want Provenge to receive a positive recommendation.

I ask myself - why doesn't Paul Goldberg publish something positive about Provenge? He's gotten a hold of these negative letters written by doctors who have had to sign conflict of interest waivers ...why won't he do the same for the pro Provenge train of thought? Or would anything positive about Provenge play into his " right wing insurgency theory"?"

Perhaps to get an answer to my question I should just ask Harmon Eyre, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, what he thinks about the Goldbergs.

"They serve as their own editors so there is no one reviewing reports for accuracy and fairness and you can see the slant"

Oh I get it now . . . Thanks Dr. Harmon Eyre for clearing that up!

Mathew Herper from Forbes and Dr. Scher's rep say: No way Jose!

In a Forbes article released today Dr. Howard Scher "rep" alleges that he does not know of any family members that would benefit financially if Provenge was not approved.

A Memorial Sloan-Kettering spokeswoman says that Scher had nothing to do with his letter leaking, and that he knew of no family members who would benefit financially either way if Provenge were approved.

In my previous brainstorming I gathered enough information to believe that there was enough evidence to conclude that Barry S. Lafer is a member of Howard Scher's family in law.

Barry S. Lafer owns Lafer Equities which is an offshore arbitrage hedge fund in the Cayman Islands. They are worth around 200 million. Alot of the stock they own is in companies that have in one way or another something related to cancer and chemotherapy.

Now how are you so sure Barry and Alan Lafer are related to Deborah Lafer ( Howard Scher’s wife) you might ask me.

Where's your proof?

Ok point well taken, so put your thinking caps on and let me show you step by step how I came to this conclusion based on facts I found. Just keep in mind I am not 100 percent sure. Just 99 percent sure they are all in the same big happy family.
First off Howard Scher wed Deborah Lafer who worked for Warburg Pincus at the time of their wedding. Click here to read the article.

Now in the New York Times there is a death notice for a Louis Lafer.

Click on this link and you can read it yourself.

Louis was the father to Barry and Alan Lafer. One of the surviving brothers was Fred Lafer.

According to this New York times article Fred Lafer is Deborah Lafer’s father.

Click again here to see proof.

According the the New York Times death notice Barry Laffer’s father was Louis Lafer. Deborah’s father Fred is Barry Lafer’s uncle. In other words Deborah and Barry are first cousins.

Louis Lafer ( brothers) Fred Lafer
Father of Father of
Barry Lafer Deborah Lafer

I find it odd , given the fact that his wife used to work in one of the world's largest hedge funds, that Dr. Howard Scher is oblivious and does not know that his wife's family has over 200 million dollars in an offshore hedge fund in the Cayman Islands. And they invest in one of his favorite subjects - cancer! How can that subject not come up around the dinner table?

Just in case you’re still a doubting Thomas let’s look at some more connections between Deborah Lafer-Scher and Barry Lafer.

They have both made campaign donations from the same Wayne New Jersey location .
Click here to see Barry S Lafer’s donation
Click here to read Howard Scher's mother in law's donation location.

Now back to Matthew Herper's article. He goes on to scoff at the idea of a connection stating,

In response to a previous Forbes story, readers wrote in alleging that Scher's wife works for a hedge fund that might be short Dendreon stock (betting against its rise). This is not true. She works in human resources for a nursing home company that could not conceivably benefit materially from any news about Dendreon..."

On this blog I mentioned that Dr. Scher's wife used to work at a company that runs UBS and has one of the worlds largest hedge funds. Never did I say that she works for a hedge fund. Her family does though. Lafer Equities.Howard Scher's family's hedge fund according to this SEC document was heavily invested in Cancer/Chemo stocks last quarter.

Murphy Blinded Journalist?

Why a journalist for such a respected publication as Forbes would not look a little deeper before completely ruling out any connection is tantamount to shoddy, and sloppy one sided reporting.

Making dogmatic conclusions and printing them as fact in Forbes ( of all publications) without further investigating them makes me think this particular writer is not the brightest bulb in the closet. Either that or he just wants people to see things how he wants them to.