A Prescription for Big Pharma

[Hannah Bell]

Marcia Angell (MED’67) is taking a stand against the drug industry, which she says deceives and exploits us....Former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the country’s most prestigious medical journals, she is now a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School. Her new book, The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It, is a searing indictment of the pharmaceutical industry as corrupt and corrupting. A physician trained in pathology, Angell has dissected big pharma from stem to stern...

During her two decades at the Journal, Angell saw firsthand the meteoric rise of big pharma and the spreading influence of drug companies on American medicine. “I was dismayed at the extent to which the medical profession was abdicating its responsibility to educate medical students and physicians about prescription drugs,” she says, “and instead allowing the drug companies to do that.” ...drug makers have been “exercising too much influence over the design and reporting of clinical research — that is, over the evaluation of their own products. I was seeing more and more obviously biased trials.”

Her book reveals that drug companies spend far less on R&D than they would have us believe..."...over twice as much on marketing and administration, and they actually make more in profits than they spend on R&D.” “You can’t call an industry risky when it has consistently been the most profitable in the United States for over two decades...”

...Angell says big pharma is hardly innovative....“In the past six years, of the 487 drugs that entered the market, 379 — 78 percent — were considered no better than older drugs. And most of those were not even new compounds, just old ones in new combinations or formulations.”

http://www.bu.edu/alumni/bostonia/2004/fall/perspectives/prescription/index.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. But she's obviously an ignorant, anti-science fundie...

[trotsky]

5. Pre-emptive snark and strawman mocking?

How noble. Way to raise the level of debate!

[Hannah Bell]

6. and trotsky predictably signs in.

dispensing his predictable personal insults, predictably ignoring the points raised in the article.

[trotsky]

8. I'm sorry, were you talking to this?

[Hannah Bell]

10. that's all you got. bankrupt.

[trotsky]

11. Look, I'm going to make this very simple.

No one in this forum has ever taken the positions that 1) big pharma is pure as the driven snow, or 2) that everyone who criticizes big pharma is a "fundie" or whatever. So your reply to your own OP was a pointless personal attack using a strawman. It was not intended to foster discussion, it was a passive-aggressive smear on those you dislike. You respond, predictably, by attacking me instead of trying to keep the debate civil.

[Hannah Bell]

12. Look, I'm going to make this very simple. You've never tried to discuss

anything with me on any level except snark & ridicule. So far as I'm concerned, I'll call you out for it as I like.

[trotsky]

13. Thank you for your respectful, civil response.

:eyes:

[Hannah Bell]

14. Thank you for yet another in your vast collection of eye-rolling smilies.

How about a hippopotomus photo? Or maybe one of david hasselhof?

You're the last person to lecture anyone on civility.

[trotsky]

15. Duly noted.

Along with the fact that you yourself started the snark on this thread. You have no one else to blame, despite your pathetic attacks on me.

[Hannah Bell]

16. My snark was general. You made it personal. "Duly noted" as well.

[Hannah Bell]

17. Here's how it went:

HB post 1:

A Prescription for Big Pharma
Marcia Angell (MED’67) is taking a stand against the drug industry....Former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the country’s most prestigious medical journals, she is now a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School.


HB Post 2:

But she's obviously an ignorant, anti-science fundie.


Trotsky Post 1:

Pre-emptive snark and strawman mocking? How noble. Way to raise the level of debate!



Who took it from the general to the personal, trots?

[trotsky]

19. You keep rationalizing it to yourself.

I'm sure you will eventually succeed.

[Hannah Bell]

20. i rationalize nothing. i simply know your game, trots.

So long as i post stuff you don't like, i'll get snark.

now you can have the last snarky word.

[beam me up scottie]

23. "i'm sure the pharmaceuticals rest easy knowing you're here to protect their interests."

And you wonder why people don't like the "stuff" you post.

[trotsky]

18. Way to raise the level of debate! Way to encourage civility!

That IS what you're trying to accomplish, right? Or are you only interested in misrepresenting and insulting others in a "general" way and then claiming the moral high ground when they respond?

In other words, when are you going to start practicing what you preach?

[Hannah Bell]

21. you first.

[trotsky]

22. Fine by me!

How about next time you start a thread, you post and then refrain from the snark that starts it?

Deal? Ready to be civil and nice?

[DCKit]

2. She'd be a shocking choice for Obama's head of the FDA, eh? n/t

[Hannah Bell]

3. I wish....

[supernova]

4. Not only do pharma companies

do the education on these drugs (offering CME credits to the MDs who take these seminars -- a lot of which just happen to be in the swankiest restaurants and resorts), but in many cases it's the SALES REP who does the education! A marketing person with no scientific background whatsoever.

It's appalling on so many levels.

[Hannah Bell]

7. thanks for bringing up cme's - wotta racket.

appalling's the word.

[supernova]

9. My boss at the time,

an Oncology doc, referred to it as the gravy train. Boy was he ever right. One of my jobs running the office was to keep the drug reps away from him.

I made a mental note to observe who signed on to those things and if I ever needed their services, specifically NOT request those docs who went on those jaunts.

[mhatrw]

24. Sounds like a great book.

I will have to check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Drug-Companies-Deceive/dp/0375508465