(NaturalNews) For several reasons, a stigma has been placed on scientific research which has caused many people to become quite skeptical and cynical of what is being produced and published. Much of the reluctance to embrace contemporary research findings has stemmed from Ioannidis' 2005 article, "Why Most Published Research Findings are False." This article has gone viral and has been quoted by numerous websites and right-winged critics in their attempt to discredit scientific research.
Since then, Marcia Ansell,
Harvard Medical lecturer and previous editor of the
New England Journal of Medicine, has cast wood on the fire. Several of her articles including "Industry-Sponsored Clinical Research: A Broken System," published in the
Journal of American Medicine, and "Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption," published in
The New York Review of Books, tell a story that sounds like a fiction thriller filled with conspiracy, lies, and evil. Ansell contends that because of the corruption, greed, and significant kickbacks to physicians with prescribing rights, "Children as young as two years old are being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with a cocktail of powerful drugs, many of which were not approved by the
Food and Drug Administration....No one knows the total amount provided by drug companies to physicians, but I estimate from the annual reports of the top nine U.S. drug companies that it comes to tens of billions of dollars a year. By such means, the pharmaceutical industry has gained enormous control over how doctors evaluate and use its own products. Its extensive ties to physicians, particularly senior faculty at prestigious medical schools, affect the results of
research, the way medicine is practiced, and even the definition of what constitutes a disease."
Evidently, medical schools in the 70s and 80s did not have extensive financial dealings with the industry, and faculty investigators who carried out industry-sponsored research generally did not have other ties to their sponsors. Today, though, schools have significant ties with the industry. Bekelman et al. report that about two thirds of academic
medical centers hold equity interest in companies that sponsor research within the same institution. Moreover, Campbell et al. report that two thirds of medical school department chairs receive departmental income from
drug companies and three-fifths received personal income. It should be no wonder that several landmark cases continue to reach the judicial system as more and more "Big Pharma" suits cost pharmaceutical companies and executives billions in damages. The system has been proven to be false and corrupt.
Sources for this article include:Ioannidis, JPA. Why most published research findings are false. PLoS 2005. Med 2(8): e124. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124
Angell, M. Industry-sponsored clinical research: a broken system. : JAMA 2008; 300(9):1069-1071.
Angell, M. Drug companies & doctors: a story of corruption [online]. The New York Review of Books 2009; 56(1). [cited Sept 2012]. Available at:
http://www.nybooks.comBekelman JE, et al. Scope and impact of financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research: a systematic review. JAM 2003; 289(4):454-65.
Campbell, E, et al. Institutional academic industry relationships. JAMA 2007; 298(15):1779-86.
Gever J. Research fraud probe leads to criminal charge [online]. c 2012 Medpage Today. [cited Sept 2012]. Available at:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/Ethics/17985Thomas K, Schmidt MS. Glaxo agrees to pay $3 billion in fraud settlement [online]. c 2012 New York Times. [cited Sept 2012]. Available at:
http://www.nytimes.comSzalavitz M. Top10 drug company settlements [online]. c 2012Time Healthland. [cited Sept 2012]. Available at:
http://healthland.time.comHarris PE, Cooper KL, Relton C, Thomas KJ. Prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use by the general population: a systematic review and update. Int J Clin Pract 2012; 66(10): 924-939.
About the author:Eric is a peer-reviewed, published researcher. His work on heart disease and autism has been accepted internationally at various scientific conferences through organizations like the American Public Health Association and Australian-based Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.
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