Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1638

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

Offerhaus L.
[The pharmaceutical industry in scandal: Mercury or Aesculapius?]
Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd 2004 Dec 18; 148:(51):2554-6

Abstract:

During the last decade public sympathy for the pharmaceutical industry has gradually been eroded because of excessive protectionism and profit margins. Its reputation as a healthy, profitable and prosperous industry has recently been seriously damaged by several errors of judgement. Data from early trials proved to be less positive than expected. The responsible drug manufacturers decided to cover the results up. So far the pharmaceutical industry has managed to weather the criticism, but recently a multitude of damaging data was published by an unexpected outsider. Angell, a former editor in chief of one of the most respected, peer-reviewed medical journals in the world, the New England Journal of Medicine, decided to collect such data and to analyze them critically. She also used this analysis to draw up recommendations for improving of what she regarded as an unhealthy situation. The book gained bestseller status on the American market and received much praise from reviewers. Although quickly denounced by the industry as controversial and excessively negative, it contains a lot of data, opinions and conclusions that also apply directly to the European situation.

Keywords:
Conflict of Interest Drug Industry*/economics Drug Industry*/standards Economics, Pharmaceutical English Abstract Europe Humans Publishing