BIG PHARMA
This paper first appeared in the Summer edition of the 'Skeptical Intelligencer', 2023, p4.
McGill University's Office of Science & Society's weekly newsletter almost invariably has one or more scholarly articles of interest to skeptics and the May 26th issue is no exception, featuring an article by Jonathan Jarry MSc entitled 'What the "Big Pharma" Accusation gets Right (and Wrong) about the Drug Industry' (note 1). He summarises the gist of his paper thus: 'Valid criticism of the pharmaceutical industry often snowballs into demonization, leading conspiracy theorists to promote an alternative that is simply hypocritical.'
This message will be whole-heartedly endorsed by skeptics in the UK, who recognise the immense debt of gratitude we all owe to the pharmaceutical industry and are aware that many of the criticisms we hear from vocal but rather uniformed quarters are simply naïve and ill-conceived. Nevertheless this industry does have a long history of questionable and dishonest practices and egregious self-interest, sometimes even endangering the health and lives of patients. This was extensively documented by the UK's Professor Ben Goldacre in his 2012 book Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients and in many publications by him and others since.
Acknowledging both the good and the bad sides of Big Pharma, Mr Jarry summarises his take-home message as follows:
'There are legitimate criticisms of the ways in which drugs are developed and marketed by the pharmaceutical industry, from the withholding of negative results to the use of representatives to exaggerate the benefits of new drugs to doctors.
'The people who endorse the "Big Pharma" conspiracy theory will often promote the rejection of pharmaceutical drugs and their replacement with lifestyle modifications and dietary supplements, but the former is often inadequate to treat disease and the latter is almost always based on poor studies.
'Pharmaceuticals are useful but the drug industry needs more transparency and regulation, and initiatives like the AllTrials campaign have made progress on that front.'