they don't go through the agony of protocols put out by the fda. so wei not really knocking brand drugs here, are we? >> not at all. what congress said is there is a period of time where the brand manufacturer has the right to monopoly price the product and get return on that investment and there is a point at which though, consumers have the right to have access to those drugs when the patent expires. and i agree with you, this is not about knocking brand manufacturers. it's about a balance. it's finding a balance between ensuring. we have enough investment in brand pharmaceutical companies to insure a continuing stream of invasion but also that we have a point at which those patents expire and the price comes down and then consumers who by the way, through their taxes, are supporting a lot of the basic research that goes into this drug development, they have a right to get access to those drugs at a price they can afford. >> i know. but the brand -- if i were the ceo of a brand company i would think a lot of these generic companies are paracytic.

tainted materials chinese government wrote back slamming the fda. se of the deaths have not been determined. wrote from the perspective of thew76: chinese side there might be something wrong with the fda investigation guidance. >> i don't believe that. they're one of the top scientists. >> the letter from the people's republic of china warned not to influence public opinion ask z.to clear the q eliminate the negative impact m they will be receiving several feet of snow f you have travel plans to head out there, winter storm watch going up friday morning. thank you to our transmission control for that view. we zr r r do have clear skies. we have our own radar in combination with national weather service radar will be watching for next storm. our radar tracking next storm first. it's coming in from northwest. temperatures falling and it's going to be a cold night. 44 degrees in fairfield, mid-40s around livermore and antioch. so get ready. there is another freezing cold night. official arrival of winter we have winter chill in the air. there are freez

and wants the fda to approve the aqua-advantage salmon for american dinner plates. already, 80% of our corn, soybeans and sugar beets are genetically altered. but until now, never meat. >> it's a whole other section of the grocery store for this technology which we think is still not fully understood. >> reporter: sensitive to criticism that these fish could escape into the wild and wipe out natural salmon, aquabounty is anxious to show what it says are 16 redundant safety nets to keep their fish inside. >> we've been operating this facility for more than 20 years. and we've never lost a fish. >> reporter: another safeguard? the superfish are sterile. >> these fish can't transmit their genetic information to a subsequent generation, they're incapable of breeding. >> reporter: despite the resemblance to dr. john hamman in "jurassic park." where dna experiments went tragically awry. >> don't you see the danger inherent in what you're doing here? genetic power is the most awesome force the planet's ever seen. >> reporter: he assures us nothing can go wrong with this fi

i don't believe the fda killed all those people. but i do believe that our bad policies contributed to this outcome. and how many of these illnesseses and deaths -- and think of the money involved, the billions of dollars in health care costs that we just wasted simply because we weren't prepared in 2009 to deal with the h1n1 influenza pandemic. before we go back to more barack obama, let's stop and recall president george w. bush who was regularly accused of manipulating scientific data often by barack obama himself. promoting science is about insuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda and that we make scientific decisions base withed on facts, not ideology. president barack obama, march 9, 2009. well, did he live up to that? the bp oil spill was one of the biggest global oil spills in world history. how did the obama administration respond to this tragedy? quoting from the los angeles times, taken together two of the reports paint a picture of a government that was as unprepared to dea

. >> reporter: the fda says the medical offices bought botox from a canadian supplier and it could be unsafe because it's not fda-approved. a letter was sent to the doctors saying, the fda is very concerned that products distributed by the suppliers may cause harm to patients because they may be unsafe or ineffective. for peter, a century city plastic surgeon and expert on botox, he says using nonfda- approved injectibles can be dangerous. >> very specifically when it comes to botox, this is a very, very potentially poisonous material. use it in tiny doses on patients. but it's an agent used in chemical warfare and it can permanently paralyze you. >> reporter: he says he is shocked and saddened to hear there's a large list of medical offices buying botox through a non--approved fda sort. >> my advice to be very cautious maybe even confront the physician and say, you know, this is my understanding that you might be getting medication from a source that's not fda-approved. can you talk to me about it? >> that was amber lee reporting. doctors say patients can request to see the bottle an

you don't trust what the fda says? >> no, i do. y for the, for the conspiracy theorists out there i suppose i put that in. these folks do a good job and they have been charged with our safety. so they have done the study, they have done the research and they believe it is safe. melissa: do you think they have done enough research over time? this strikes me as one of those things that comes back years later, the same way things leaching off plastic putting into the microwave. things considered safe for a long period of time and then they go back and say oops. that wasn't the case. you feel confident this wouldn't be one those? >> reasonably confident, yes, within the realm of probability, yeah. i mean this has been going on for over 10 years now and so i think within the realm of probability it's safe. is it possible something will happen? sure, absolutely. but i think you have to weigh the benefits against the side-effects. the other issue that should be mentioned, as we move forward is, the ethical and moral issue of genetically al

the fda's review of company data found those concerns unfounded. is this something i should be afraid of? >> man has been altering the nature of animals since man walked upright and began domesticating animals. >> reporter: a new lab-created meat in the pipeline for fda approval that is at once very different and just the same as america's favorite dish for dinner. same texture. eating frankenfish. >> please don't use that term. >> and jim avila with us now. so, jim, how soon could this be approved and in supermarkets? >> reporter: well, that's the latest mystery about this fish, diane. the fda just won't say. its scientists approved it as safe two years ago. the company says they may go out of business before the fda actually approves it. >> and will there be a label on it? is it a required -- is it a requirement that there be a label on it if it's in the supermarkets? >> if this fish is approved, it will not be labeled separately from farmed atlantic salmon so you will not know unless you buy organic or you buy a wild salmon. if you buy farm salmo

the analogy i can get you, the fda, food and drug administration crackdown on drugs that were illegalt it took? getting interpol involved which is the international police agency in 24 countries which came together, and they busted this wing -- ring of illegal operators had medicine, and so every year operating environment that is so vast it becomes problematic. melissa: i hear you, but i will go back to you. this was a domestic operaon. you look at things like buying counterfeit goods online, fake fancy shoes and designer handbags. those are made here in the u.s., sent from addresses here in the u.s. to people off buying counterfeit goods. that's obviously illegal, but someone sets up shop and it's up for a long time, doing transactions with a credit card, mailing it from where they are. if anyone wanted to enforce the law it seems like it would be really easy. the police not care about illegal businesses online? >> no. not at all. the police to care. the problem is, the resources because these enterprises, it takes nothing to start and stop and start up again for these businesses an

the number of drugs on the fda's shortage list has more than triples. >> reporter: how concerned are i think the public needs to be concerned but not pan pinged virtually every hospital in the country is facing the difficulty. >> reporter: manufacturing problems, drug companies eliminating older drugs in favor of more profitable one, and middle-man companies that buy up drugs in short supply and reselling them at huge markups. it gained big attention after brenda freese and her husband spoke out about a drug that her son needed to survive was in short supply. >> i think if it's not criminal, it should be made a crime, because what you're dealing is stealing somebody's life. >> reporter: derek malcort, wjz eyewitness news. >> the fda has tightened rules on drug manufacturers. >>> the national hurricane center is changing its warning system after superstorm sandy caught many off-guard. they are changing the definitions so people will be ready for extreme conditions. >>> people in krisfield are still suffering from sandy's damage after a federal decision not to provide aid to storm- batt

so the fda are charged with protecting the food supply. an 8.2% budget cut translates to a combined $157 million. >> there's no word exactly what cuts would mean to inspector staffing. >> both the fda and usda-already stretched thin when it comes to inspection activities. they need increased resources, not fewer resources. >> agencies all say they're stretched. >> he is with freedom works and that's the cuts leave nothing to fear. >> arguing that getting spending under control endangers public health and safety is a really irresponsible scare tactic. especially when you realize that these aren't real cuts. these are reductions from anticipated increases in spending. >> cut the budget for the work these agencies do, it's going to signaturancely impact them today. going to significantly impact them tomorrow. >> you made that one. >> theresa and her kids are now healthy and food safety advocates. >> remember, we all have to eat. >> and they say nobody should have to fear what they eat. >> ama: a company that tracks food recalls says there war

the fda taking its time in getting to the issue. think most people are at home going ew. >> i don't have a problem necessarily with steroid being injected into the chicken to make them larger. there's a reason that animals were created and supposed to stay exactly how they are. no cross-pollination here. interesting, little chance a salmon could escape and breed. if that happens, bred with wild fish they could disrupt everything. but there's -- >>> if the frankenfish got together with other fish. freaky fish! >> chaos. a freak every now and then. i knew willis would enjoy that. >>> still to come, getting ready for the end of the world. >>> as the countdown to the end of the mayan calendar draws near, we'll meet a man who is making sure he is ultra prepared, maybe even a little weird. >> announcer: "world news now" continues after this from our abc stations. >>> very important. very good news to report this morning. the u.s. government has confirmed the world is not going to end on the 21st of this month. >> thank god. >> whew. all r

we are submitting early next year two supplemental or sblas for two additional indications with the fda, we expect a plethora of data with more than 10 different trials, in fact we have more than 20 trials under way, but expecting a lot of data over the next year. and we have a full pipeline of other products, so there really is a lot of catalyst looking forward and we're very excited about how we're helping patients. >> i want you to stay in touch with us because every time, you know, you have made us money, a lot of people, it's money of the most asked about stocks on the lightning round and from the people i see on the street, so please come back when you have more data, because i think it's a very compelling story and i'm glad you came on "mad money." >> i would be delighted to. >> that's the president and ceo of seattle genetics, i know many of you follow it. i like the data, remember, 2013, we don't know if it's going to be flat or not. we just know that the pipeline is filled with drugs that could help people a lot. ally bank. why they have a raise your rate cd. tonight our guest

stocks today even though the drug developer got fda approval friday for mental health treatment drug.say ther this seems toa disconnect between the realities of approval from the fda and exactly what that means. shares are down nearly 14% after having just jumped 50% in five weeks. shares are down more than 30% this year. there's been a wild ride to say the least. let's send it over to david asman and lori rothman. david: thank you very much. the market is down once again the end of a trading day. a quick trading day today because ending at 1:00. some very interesting movement of individual stocks. lori rothman. lori: merry christmas, everybody. david: talk about retail, everybody is talking about retail. we will be talking a little bit later on with adam shapiro following it directly, but jcpenney, everybody was assuming their model isn't working, we don't understand how the discount works, but the stock took off today down a little bit but at one point over 4%. speaker that is because they basically said they are doing a lot of promotions at jcpenney and now bringing in the foot tra

experts say the fda may have to rely on complains from third parties to find out about -- companies thatevading the requirements. ellen brightman, new york stock exchange. >>> everybody is hoping the rain holds off, it holds off today, better part of tomorrow, keep our fingers crossed. you can see some of the fog moving about this morning thickest north bay valleys, tiburon, belvedere over to about oakland this morning. clouds gone so is the rain, dry now rotating you can see it up there scan being the skies looking for that next storm from the west tomorrow afternoon. let's talk about right now. temperatures running mainly in the 40s and 50s out there. heads-up on guerneville and napa river, russian river guerneville and napa river at napa, for the most part crested starting to fall even with the extra rain i don't think there will be flooding concerns tomorrow into wednesday. 37 napa, santa rosa everybody else in the 40s, low to mid 40s monterey bay and inland. partly cloudy and dry today. wet and breezy christmas especially afternoon and evening mainly dry thursday through sunday. her

goinn over the fiscal cliff means big budget cuts for the fda and drug approval. to acorda and how their company will fare. ashley: let's o to nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole? >> ashley, tracy, this is one of those days where you see the back and forth action, right? we stay in this trend line, just establishing right around the unchanged line, the dow jones industrials for example, are up .1 of 1%. the s&p is up a quarter of 1%. tech negative nasdaq the most interesting story today because it has been under pressure while you've seen the other two indices last few days trying to give it a go. the nasdaq has been held back. one of the main reasons because of apple which you duly noted at the top of the show. take a look at nasdaq composite right now which is gaining more than half of 1%, seeing a gain of about 17 points for the tech-heavy nasdaq. it is not back at the 3,000 mark yet. let's look also at apple. because that's key. it is up almost 11 dollars here, a gain of 2%. it traded as low as 5 -- 518 today. down 20% from the

the fda previously said the fish appears to be safe to eat. >> christmas has really come early in theorm of a $1 million grant. an anonymous donor provided the zoo with that gift. the donor advised. the donation comes as the zoo says there will be more additions and necessary improvements. the zoo's president called the gift truly extraordinary. >> holiday travel got a bit easier today for passengers at chicago's o'hare international airport. more than 350 flights called off yesterday due to a winter storm. some 200,000 passengers are expected to fly out of o'heir today. >> officials have closed a section of interstate 5 up in northern california after a storm and led to unsafe driving conditions. the california highway patrol has closed highway 10, 10 miles north of reading. they're advising drivers to use an alternate route. a foot of snow has fall in some areas. could see 7 feet of snow before the storm moves out on sunday. >> well snow there, rain here. first in a series of storms over to our meteorologist now. safe to say the worst is over for tonight? >> we will have more cluste

the fda decided it was safe to be effective they weren't certain that if was safe and there is some environmental group. then the environmental groups came into protests it was substance was dangerous. and to have rearch to back it up. >> and to save nine humans to use the product but a and the ap -- epa to label the pesticide. >> is good for identified this. john: it kills a pass. >> the epa bacteria is a fancy word for a germ is considered a past. then these in midges of ddt. >> johnson & johnson and? >> quite an extensive use of. maybe they say tt publicly but to predict it will happen in the future. finally after 40 years they make a decision to go against them. in terms of planning commit makes sense to assume after 40 years they may never make a decision if they do, it may not be in their favor. is a safe product and it is then your toothpaste. john: your tax dollars at work? >> more horrible examples of government good intention gone wrong. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] they are a glowing example of what it means to be the best. and at this special time of year, they shine even brighter. come to

a couple activists who used to work for the fda didn't like this really cool scientific process that rates the beef trimmings and you get the remaining ground beef so they coined this term deliberately to hurt the company, and -- >> the company was doing something our instinct, taking the last bit bet of beef off the bone by trimming slightly and saved the money and saved the environment. >> anding for get just the environment. i get tired of hearing that argument. what about us? everybody on abc constantly saying, oh, you should eat leaner beef, worry about your health. so when we try to eat the leaper beef, they tack that away from us, too. >> and not using it wastes 5,000 companies a -- cows a day. >> they said the term pink slime 178 times either on their broadcast. >> then they started taking it back. >> there's a classic journalism. they said the term commonly used -- and then of course what you find, no, it's not. washington post, new york times, one or two times a most they ever used it prior to that. >> what's the agent? why? >> the agenda is all the activists who are pushing

. >> drug shortages have been increasingly common from 2005 to 2011 the number of drugs on the fda's shortage list has more than tripled. >> how concerned are you about the shortages? >> i think the public needs to be concerned but not panic. every hospital in the state and the country is facing the same sort of difficulty. >> several factor red -- factors are to blame manufacturing problems and middleman companies that buy up medications in short supply and resell them at huge mark ups. the issue gained national attention when university of maryland basketball coach brenda freese and her husband spoke out. congressman elijah comings has led the national charge to investigation drug shortages. he promises to crack down on wholesaleers. -- wholesalers. >> if it's not criminal it should be made a crime because you're stealing somebody's life. >> the fda already tightened its rule on manufactures. >>> sky 13 was over this scene yesterday after a car went off the road and down into an embankment. he went off winters road run. rescue crews pulled the 21-year-old driver from the car. we hav

the fda decided it was safe but not sure it was effective. lso involved in rug la regulating assessment. it was effective but they weren't sure it was safe venlth this started 40 years ago they would do the research and submit the papers. >> and we pay for it? >> of course. >> it has gone on for so long the environmental groups came in and started protesting claiming that the substance was harmful phoningsly dang -- potentially dangerou dangerous. >> they have huge amounts of rats. >> the rats in sexual organs will grow too large. >> testicles grew too large. >> they gave to sheep and it affected the estrogen level of sheep. they aren't testing on humans. but it has gone on for so long they got involved. they are getting congress involved. >> the epa scared people by labelling the chemical a pesticide. a pesticide in here. i use this stuff. >> gingivitis. >> it kills bacteria that's why they call it a pest. it kills a pest which is bacteria. >> a bacteria is considered a pest. so if you kill a pest you are a pesticide. you have all of these im

despite a multiyear review, the fda still has not given final approval. the decision could take months or years. the c.e.o. of aqua bounty says the company may run out of money before that approval comes. >>> internet radio pandora is offering a bleak forecast for the next year. they posted better than expected third quarter results but said they expected a full year loss for the fiscal year that ends in january. pandora shares slid more than 18% in after hours trading. this is their latest stock diver due to increasing concerns about competition from apple. >>> netflix is adding newly released movies to its streaming service, but not until 2016. they inked a deal with disney that takes licensing rights away from stores at the end of 2015. >>> britain's dumpess of cambridge, kate middleton, spent a second day in a london hospital while being treated for acute morning sickness. prince william aarrived at the hospital this morning. he quickly walked inside to spend another day at his wife's bedside. the palace announced catted is less than twelve weeks along

the fda says it cannot be sure it is safe and effective. it could also be counterfeit. it was not manufactured in the proper way. operators of more than 4000 websites were ordered to stop selling unapproved drugs to u.s. customers. a majority of those websites were operated by canada drugs. doctors should only get botox from licensed u.s. pharmacies. now to the topic of obesity. it is the time we all seem to gain a little bit more is the holidays at. it can increase your risk for cancer. it would seem that eating less would help, but it is more complicated than that. even if we were to be the same amount of calories, there is still inconclusive evidence that it would reduce cancer risk. so, what can we do? >> it is an interesting question. is cancer really caused by adult weight gain, but the city? over a lifetime, avoiding the weight gain will absolutely translate into lower cancer risk. >> scientists are still working to find a solution. maryland officials are confirming the first hypothermia-related death of the winter. it happened sometime between december 18 and de

they're often regulated by different federal agencies, the fda regulates cosmetics, the environmental protection agency, pesticides and most synthetic chemicals but it's all over the place, one chemical might be regulated by any number of agencies, you have to step back and say we need to make sure all chemicals are safe and they're screened carefully, the european union did this, at least there's movement in that direction, the united states has not yet done this. so, the law that currently regulates chemicals was passed two years after i was born and i'm sorry but i think a lot has changed in the world about what we know about chemicals and what chemicals are used in the duration of most of my lifetime so we could change the laws so that new knowledge is integrated in how we screen chemicals for safety. today we think about 84 thousand chemicals are out there and about 1 thousand more are added each year and most of these, we don't have any human health data for, 90%, no human health data at all and hundreds of these are in our bodies, we know from studies, so we need to pass compre

the fda decided it was safe to be effective they weren't certain that if was safe and there is some environmentalhen the environmental groups came into protests it was substance was dangerous. and to have research to back it up. >> and to save nine humans to use the product but a and the ap -- epa to label the pesticide. >> is good for identified this. john: it kills a pass. >> the epa bacteria is a fancy word for a germ is considered a past. then these in midges of ddt. >> johnson & johnson and? >> quite an extensive use of. maybe they say that publicly but to predict it will happen in the future. finally after 40 years they make a decision to go against them. in terms of planning commit makes sense to assume after 40 years they may never make a decision if they do, it may not be in their favor. is a safe product and it is then your toothpaste. john: your tax dollars at work? >> more horrible examples of government good intention gone wrong. you have to obey this. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about low-cost investing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're committed to offering you tdd#: 1-800