Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients Hardcover – February 5, 2013

Evidence based medicine is a term held near and dear, but evidence based research, studies etc. are not based on anything positive- all the so-called evidence is distorted in dozens of crucial stages including drug regulation and laws supposed to protect people.1) New drugs are not needed, just more expensive and/ or replacements of less new dangerous drugs, or don't work well.2) Data is purposely skewed to favor benefits. Bad trial data is lost or unreported.3) Tests on humans are done in third world countries with less than ideal patients for the purpose of the drug4) Regulators do not do their job as there is a big financial conflict of interest.5) Doctors are either fooled or paid to push these drugs6) Most doctors don't even know the difference between Relative Risk and Absolute Risk- big problem as this is the main way that drug's benefits are falsely increased and risks reduced- but it is all just distortion or statistics.The big problem is that nobody in the industry wants to do anything about it. And if they try then they will be lambasted and thrown out of their medical society. We see the same thing happening with politics today- speak up and you are finished.There are many more 'tricks of the trade' that are either deliberately used or become convenient loopholes in every stage of a drug's production and marketing that get used by scientists, regulators, academics and doctors either knowingly, knowingly with the acceptance of money or increased job status to further their interests.Medical journals, for example are not published or edited by the serious scientific minds that we are led to believe- these magazines are either literally owned by the pharma companies themselves or bought with different forms of bribery.The process from a drug's invention (usually a "me too" copy of a molecule) to it's marketing is filled with loopholes that have zero concern for the health or well being of the patient. In fact most drugs since the 1970s are only "invented" as a means to make more profit.This book more than confirms my fears, doubts, and criticisms of medicine I've had my whole life, experienced and studied. And it is a very good reference for all the claims. As the author states, the main reason why people are so impressed and willing to be herded like cattle to slaughter when it comes to trusting medicine, is due to the fact that most people hate effort, especially when it comes to dry material and understanding statistics and systematic review. If it can't be explained in one sentence then most people are not interested.The bottom line is that health is your main concern and drugs will never ultimately save you- only your diet and lifestyle can do that. Yet I am all too convinced that most people do not want to be helped- they just want to remain either helpless victims or they are just too stubborn to put the change and effort in to at least help their own situation, but becoming more aware of their own body and health,. Just like alternative medicine-another group of dubious individuals- people love to swallow a miracle pill and just let their faith guide them without ever gaining any genuine awareness of reality. That is fine with me- this is a free society to so what you please- just that the drug and supplement industry are not transparent, so that the majority of effortless people will unfortunately be misled and as a result suffer much harm, as we see with this health crisis.At best we can look forward to the missing data becoming published in the public domain so that people can at least look at it. But few will do this. And, sadly, even IF the pharma system corrects the dozens of problems that mislead doctors and harm patients, most of the drugs that people take are based on the old system anyway.I have little faith is any system, and am committed to helping people yes, but as Jesus said, "You have to save yourself".2000 years later George Carlin added, "Ya gotta wanna"

Bad Pharma highlights serious issues with the way the pharmaceutical industry works today. In the book Ben highlights the problems with the industry from several angles, how the tests can be tweaked, how negative tests are not published, how you can make a neutral test appear positive by sub-dividing the goals and then emphasize the fluke positive one. He also shows how the medical journals are part of the problem and the issue with ghost written articles. He shows the problems with the regulatory side as well, for example the European Medicines Agency, their lack of transparency, and how they have effectively blocked access to critical data for researchers. All through the book Ben makes use of well documented examples, and all the issues highlighted are well documented and exemplified.The book is written in an easy to access language, and so it reads well. He does repeat himself a bit, so one more round of editing and cleanup before release would probably have been a good idea. Some readers on amazon.co.uk have criticised this, but I don't see it as an issue.You don't need to have a degree in medicine or a higher degree in general to understand the issues Ben highlights.Ben Goldacre runs the Bad Science website (badscience dot net) and has previously written the book Bad Science. Where Bad Science was an attack on quackery and pseudo science, and his website to a large degree has dealt with the same topics, this book is a critical look at the pharmaceutical industry. As such it ought to silence those that have attacked Ben Goldacre for being in the pockets of the Pharmaceutical industry over time.Ben Goldacre has done society a big favour by writing this book. I definitely recommend reading it if you want to understand more about how US and European health care works and what can be done to improve it in the future.