Shock of the Day - Drug companies 'put profits over lives'

Patients are being deceived into taking drugs they do not need, that do not work and even put lives at risk, according to a scathing review of the influence big drug companies have on healthcare. Drug companies "masterfully influenced" medicine, a joint review between Australian, British and US researchers has found, describing how the enormous profit involved in making and selling drugs gave the industry power to influence every stage of the health system. "As a result of these interferences, the benefits of drugs and other products are often exaggerated and their potential harms are downplayed," their research published in the European Journal of Clinical In-vestigation found. Concerned about the relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical companies : Dr Ken Harvey, Medicines Australia Transparency Working Group. A co-author of the paper, Emmanuel Stamatakis, from the University of Sydney's school of public health, said it was "entirely illogical" to rely on the pharmaceutical industry to fund medical research. "The profits involved are just too large and the temptation to manipulate the evidence is difficult to resist, even when this may lead to the loss of lives," Dr Stamatakis said. He cited anti-diabetic drugs as an example, which he said increased the risk of heart problems and were prescribed despite interventions such as exercise being more effective. One such drug, Rosiglitazone, is still prescribed in Australia despite being pulled from the European an...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs