Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15384

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

Garattini S, Chalmers I.
Patients and the public deserve big changes in evaluation of drugs.
BMJ 2009 Mar 31; 338:b1025:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/mar31_3/b1025

Abstract:

The drug industry has an image problem, and big changes are needed to restore public confidence. The reasons why it has got itself a bad name are well rehearsed. They include research agendas distorted by priorities that are important to industry but not to patients1; inappropriately restricted study populations that exclude patients with multiple health problems2 and children3; uninformative trial designs that fail to assess whether new drugs are better than existing treatment options4; outcome measures that ignore the effects of treatments on morbidity and mortality or on the quality of life5; biased under-reporting and over-reporting, not only of whole studies,6 7 8 but also of outcomes within published reports of research9; and specious promotion of drugs, including disease mongering.10

Industry makes much of the expense of bringing a new drug to market. In fact, directly and indirectly, the public provides most of the support for developing . . .