Replies

Dr. John P.A. Ioannidis, Chief of Stanford University’s Prevention Research Center, claims THE MAJORITY OF MEDICAL RESEARCH IS ~~WRONG~~ FRAUDULENT

Most research is fraudulent and unscientific.

1) Big pharma and medical device manufacturers fund most of the research and surprise, surprise, guess what the outcomes of that research is? 2) FDA officials who approve these drugs and medical devices for market are often hired by the very companies they were paid to regulate.

a) "Industry-funded research often favors patent-holders, study finds." Specifically, the American Journal of Psychiatry study authors said, "In 90% of the studies, the reported overall outcome was in favor of the sponsor's drug... On the basis of these contrasting findings in head-to-head trials, it appears that whichever company sponsors the trial produces the better antipsychotic drug."

b) n a more recent study, Canadian doctor Joel Lexchin and colleagues did a comprehensive meta-analysis of what is currently known about the alleged tendency of drug company sponsorship to produce biased research results. They concluded that there is a systematic bias to the outcome of published research funded by the pharmaceutical industry. When research is funded by the pharmaceutical industry, it is significantly more likely to favour the industry's products than when the funding is industry-independent. The results apply across a wide range of disease states, drugs and drug classes, over at least two decades and regardless of the type of research being assessed.

1) Scientists in the US are more likely to publish fake research than their colleagues from other countries, a study has revealed. The findings appear in the November 16 online issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics.

2) Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, has asked several anesthesiology journals to retract 21 drug studies published between 1996 and 2008 by anesthesiologist Scott S. Reuben, M.D., a pioneer in the area of multimodal analgesia.* The studies were funded by Pfizer, Merck, and Wyeth. Reuben was also paid by Pfizer as a speaker to promote its products.* Raymond F. Kerins Jr., a Pfizer spokesman, said: “It is very disappointing to learn about Dr. Scott Reuben’s alleged actions.”

3) Drugmakers have surpassed every other industry when it comes to defrauding the US government, according to a new analysis by Public Citizen, which calls for stiffer penalies and increased criminal prosecution of pharma execs.

The findings: Of 165 settlements comprising $19.8 billion in penalties during the past 20 years, 73 percent of the settlements and 75 percent of the penalties - representing $14.8 billion - have occurred in just the past five years. And four drugmakers - GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Merck’s Schering-Plough -accounted for 53 percent, or $10.5 billion, of all financial penalties.