Bad Pharma
Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 4:03 pm
A friend of mine forwarded me a newsletter that describes recently released books about science.
The newsletter included a book called "Bad Pharma", which I'm almost afraid to read based on the description. If anyone else has more time and/or energy and has the guts to read this book (I'm afraid it will be quite distressing), it would sure be interesting to know more of the details. The little bit I do know about drug companies has already made me very hesitant to consider using prescription drugs. I am a big believer in the benefits of Vitamin D3 though.
Here is the description about the book from the newsletter:
The newsletter included a book called "Bad Pharma", which I'm almost afraid to read based on the description. If anyone else has more time and/or energy and has the guts to read this book (I'm afraid it will be quite distressing), it would sure be interesting to know more of the details. The little bit I do know about drug companies has already made me very hesitant to consider using prescription drugs. I am a big believer in the benefits of Vitamin D3 though.
Here is the description about the book from the newsletter:
Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients
By Ben Goldacre
Goldacre shares that all people should be able to understand precisely how data manipulation works and how research misconduct on a global scale affects everyone. This is the pharmaceutical industry as it has never been seen before.
Publisher Comments
We like to imagine that medicine is based on evidence and the results of fair tests. In reality, those tests are often profoundly flawed. We like to imagine that doctors are familiar with the research literature about a drug, when in reality much of the research is hidden from them by drug companies. We like to imagine that doctors are impartially educated, when in reality much of their education is funded by the pharmaceutical industry. We like to imagine that regulators let only effective drugs onto the market, when in reality they approve useless drugs, with data on side effects casually withheld from doctors and patients. All these problems have been shielded from public scrutiny because they're too complex to capture in a sound bite. But Ben Goldacre shows that the true scale of this murderous disaster fully reveals itself only when the details are untangled. He believes we should all be able to understand precisely how data manipulation works and how research misconduct on a global scale affects us.
With Goldacre's characteristic flair and a forensic attention to detail, "Bad Pharma "reveals a shockingly broken system and calls for something to be done. This is the pharmaceutical industry as it has never been seen before.