Tell the truth on drugs!
The pharmaceutical industry was critised by senior figures in medical research recently.
They say multinationals withhold information to protect profits, and expose patients to drugs which could be useless or harmful.
Biased results, under-reporting of negative findings and selective publication are rife, they say.
This accusation has also been made quietly by complementary therapists, who feel excluded by unfair competitive practices. The reason for the quiet is that these multinationals have the ear of governments around the world, enormous budgets, and the pseudo-credibility of scientific comparisons. Scientific methods are not felt to be valid with treatments that work in different ways to mainstream drugs, and experiments reported - especially in the popular press & TV - are ‘bad science’.
As Einstein said:
“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.”
This latest attack was triggered by an analysis of published and unpublished trials of modern antidepressants, including Prozac and Seroxat. This showed they offer no clinically significant improvement over placebos (dummy pills) in most patients. It is notable that rewearchers had to use the US ‘freedom of information’ laws to gain access to the data.
Opinion:
The drugs market was worth £10.1bn in the UK in 2006, amounting to 11 per cent of total NHS costs. This figure is bound to rise with the cost of oil, as most pharmaceuticals are derived from petrochemicals. This cannot be allowed to stay a simple ‘market forces’ issue.
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