Rising Number of Uninsured Tops Health News for 2006

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Scientists, Regulators Lose Their Luster. A number of "faked research" scandals shook the public's faith in medical research over the past 12 months. First up: disgraced South Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who admitted faking what he had described as the world's first cloned human embryo.

Later in the year, leading journals retracted articles by Norwegian cancer research Jon Sudbo, who fabricated data for a study that postulated a link between over-the-counter painkillers and cardiovascular disease.

These and other infractions caused editors at some of the world's leading medical journals to put stricter guidelines on publication.

Over at the FDA, critics hit regulators with charges of bias and industry interference after debacles such as the withdrawal of painkillers Vioxx and Bextra and continuing controversies over the emergency contraceptive Plan B and SSRI antidepressants.

The agency's critics gained ammunition from research published in April in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study found that three-quarters of the FDA's advisory panels included members who had conflicts of interest due to financial ties to industry.