Bad Pharma is surely the most comprehensive account to date of how the pharmaceutical industry games the regulatory process. Still, Bad Pharma is short on practical prescriptions for reform, and it is not until the last ten pages that Goldacre acknowledges that drug companies are manufacturing products that save lives and alleviate pain for billions of people. —Chris Wilson
Product Description
We like to imagine that medicine is based on evidence and the results of fair testing and clinical trials. In reality, those tests and trials are often profoundly flawed. We like to imagine that doctors who write prescriptions for everything from antidepressants to cancer drugs to heart medication 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 have some code of ethics and 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 in the medical industry affects us on a global scale. With Goldacre's characteristic flair and a forensic attention to detail, Bad Pharma reveals a shockingly broken system and calls for regulation. This is the pharmaceutical industry as it has never been seen before.
From Booklist
In the follow-up to his popular Bad Science (2010), British medical doctor Goldacre reveals how pharmaceutical companies mislead doctors and hurt patients. They “sponsor” trials, which tend to yield favorable results, while negative results often remain unreported. He also reports that drug companies spend twice as much on marketing and advertising as on researching and developing new drugs. Unfortunately for U.S. readers, he focuses largely on the UK, but ghost authorship of studies and “continuing medical education” boondoggle trips for doctors are problematic everywhere, and he does refer to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on multiple occasions. And everyone, everywhere should feel unsettled by his discovery that pharmaceutical companies funnel $10 million to $20 million a year to such major medical journals as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Not surprisingly, he notes, studies funded by the pharmaceutical industry are that much more likely to get published in these influential journals. Goldacre’s essential exposé will prompt readers to ask more questions before automatically popping a doctor-prescribed pill. --Karen Springen
Review
Praise for Bad Pharma
“[ Bad Pharma ] is a book to make you enraged—properly, bone-shakingly furious—because it’s about how big business puts profits over patient welfare [and] allows people to die because they don’t want to disclose damning research evidence . . .This is a book that desperately needed to be written . . . A work of brilliance.” —Max Pemberton, The Telegraph
“A thorough piece of investigative medical journalism. What keeps you turning its pages is the accessibility of Goldacre’s writing, . . . his genuine, indignant passion, his careful gathering of evidence and his use of stories, some of them personal, which bring the book to life.” —Luisa Dillner, The Guardian
About the Author
Ben Goldacre is a doctor and writer. His first book Bad Science was an international bestseller, and has been translated into twenty-five languages. He is thirty-eight and lives in London.
From Bookforum
Bad Pharma is surely the most comprehensive account to date of how the pharmaceutical industry games the regulatory process. Still, Bad Pharma is short on practical prescriptions for reform, and it is not until the last ten pages that Goldacre acknowledges that drug companies are manufacturing products that save lives and alleviate pain for billions of people. —Chris Wilson
Product Description
We like to imagine that medicine is based on evidence and the results of fair testing and clinical trials. In reality, those tests and trials are often profoundly flawed. We like to imagine that doctors who write prescriptions for everything from antidepressants to cancer drugs to heart medication 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 have some code of ethics and 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 in the medical industry affects us on a global scale.
With Goldacre's characteristic flair and a forensic attention to detail, Bad Pharma reveals a shockingly broken system and calls for regulation. This is the pharmaceutical industry as it has never been seen before.
From Booklist
In the follow-up to his popular Bad Science (2010), British medical doctor Goldacre reveals how pharmaceutical companies mislead doctors and hurt patients. They “sponsor” trials, which tend to yield favorable results, while negative results often remain unreported. He also reports that drug companies spend twice as much on marketing and advertising as on researching and developing new drugs. Unfortunately for U.S. readers, he focuses largely on the UK, but ghost authorship of studies and “continuing medical education” boondoggle trips for doctors are problematic everywhere, and he does refer to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on multiple occasions. And everyone, everywhere should feel unsettled by his discovery that pharmaceutical companies funnel $10 million to $20 million a year to such major medical journals as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Not surprisingly, he notes, studies funded by the pharmaceutical industry are that much more likely to get published in these influential journals. Goldacre’s essential exposé will prompt readers to ask more questions before automatically popping a doctor-prescribed pill. --Karen Springen
Review
Praise for Bad Pharma
“[ Bad Pharma ] is a book to make you enraged—properly, bone-shakingly furious—because it’s about how big business puts profits over patient welfare [and] allows people to die because they don’t want to disclose damning research evidence . . .This is a book that desperately needed to be written . . . A work of brilliance.” —Max Pemberton, The Telegraph
“A thorough piece of investigative medical journalism. What keeps you turning its pages is the accessibility of Goldacre’s writing, . . . his genuine, indignant passion, his careful gathering of evidence and his use of stories, some of them personal, which bring the book to life.” —Luisa Dillner, The Guardian
About the Author
Ben Goldacre is a doctor and writer. His first book Bad Science was an international bestseller, and has been translated into twenty-five languages. He is thirty-eight and lives in London.