The publication of Ben Goldacre’s new book, Bad Pharma, which strongly criticizes the pharmaceutical industry appears to have the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) on the defensive. Following an article on Bad Pharma in the New Statesman by Helen Lewis the ABPI responded with a letter arguing some of the points made in the article.
Dr Goldacre has responded to this letter with a letter of his own reinforcing some of the claims made in the book and accusing ABPI’s CEO, Stephen Whitehead of making false claims in his attempt to defend the
I am currently about halfway through reading Bad Pharma myself and it is certainly a very revealing book. It will be interesting to see if the pharmaceutical continues to defend itself against Goldacre’s claim which are substantial and severe.
“Drugs are tested by the people who manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on hoplessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analysed using techniques that are flawed by design, in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments,” he writes. “When trials throw up results that companies don’t like, they are perfectly entitled to hide them from doctors and patients . . . academic papers, which everyone thinks of as objective, are often covertly planned and written by people who work directly for the companies, without disclosure.”
I hope dr goldacre has a good secure job. his career path within the health industry would certainly be limited with comments like this.