Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15347

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Shaughnessy AF.
An insider’s view of the drug industry
BMJ 2009 Mar 25; 338:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/mar25_1/b1138?papetoc

Abstract:

Too often the only face of the drug industry we see is the slick young men and women hawking their wares, the omnipresence of advertisements at medical meetings, and our images of executives in the companies known only by the decisions they make in the relentless pursuit of profit.

However, there is another aspect of the industry. Far removed from the business side are the scientists holed up in laboratories who start the process of discovering the chemicals that will be miraculously turned into “medications” that save or improve the lives of many people.

Drug Truths, written by a research chemist who spent his career with Pfizer, presents a view of the industry from inside these laboratories, far from the suit filled boardrooms where the business is conducted. Although he exchanged his white coat for a pinstripe suit as he moved during his career from the bench to become . . .