Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients

I am an infectious disease physician. 'Bad Pharma' is a book about the failure of implementing evidence based clinical medicine, the factors contributing to it and the fake fixes. This is an eye opener, useful for all MDs whether involved in clinical trials, receiving pharma reps or going on conference trips with pharma and other “jollies”. (we all say that we are not influenced…) Also interesting is the conflict of interest that Journals have in publishing clinical trials.

A brilliant, witty, shocking and important look at the failures involved in our medicines, not just of the companies themselves but also of regulators, academics who literally hire out their names and reputations and others.

It isn't at all difficult to follow, you need no specialist knowledge, it isn't dry or dull and it talks about things that affect us all.

It is a book that matters and one that will help you make informed decisions about your own health.

Hopefully it will galvanize enough change that in the future we will know if the medicines we take and buy as a society actually do what they claim to.

If I could only recommend one book I have read, it would honestly be this one.

Essential to anybody remotely related to the medical field. A thought provoking piece for everyone else. A riveting listen - the reader really takes in the author's persona and many many topics that makes one stop and question what so many take for granted in and about the medical field.

At the end, the reader interviews the author! Fantastic exchange, also funny moments as the listener till that point associates the voice of the reader to that of the author.

No

Realisation how large the problem is that is set out by the author

This is a little heavy on the science and medical terms. Even as a doctor, I had to concentrate on a few parts to make sure I didn't lose track. Someone less familiar with the medical world might want to have the book at hand for reference (the print has a glossary, references etc).

really enjoyed Ben's other books but this is just hard going and to in-depth. love the way information is presented and so clearly laid out

This brilliantly written yet terrifying book on the world of scientific drugs trials - needs to be read by all. How we are deceived by pharmaceutical companies and how doctors go about prescribing dugs on this biased information is scary and needs to be addressed immediately by all involved. A must read for everyone especially those in the world of scientific research.

This is a must listen/purchase book. If you loved Bad Science and or ever will need modern medicine then you need to listen to this book.



Brilliant 5*

More pure gold from Ben Goldacre... his last book 'Bad Science' was a great book, and this one doesn't disappoint... though it is quite a disturbing expose of our broken healthcare system. Very well researched and written, and read by a competent and easy-on-the-ears narrator. I wasn't entirely surprised at the level of corruption in the healthcare industry as revealed in these pages, though I wasn't aware just how many players were implicated. Issues that unfortunately involve most of us, but concern very few of us.

I finished listening to this today, having hesitated at first because it was at the edge of my interests, but I am glad I did.

I had assumed my doctor knew what they were doing when prescribing my medication in the past, but the output of this book is that they probably didn’t, because they couldn’t have.

This should be required reading for all doctors.

Ben Goldacre really does have an extraordinary talent.
I've just finished binge listening to this and I'm still reeling slightly from the sheer volume of information which is distilled and conveyed with complete clarity to someone like myself, with no scientific or medical experience, in such a way that is entirely comprehensible.
The author apologises at one point for being too technical but I don't think there is an unnecessary paragraph in this book and I didn't find anything difficult to follow or in any way tedious. It's possible I'm more technically minded than I thought but more likely that Goldacre is just such a good writer.
I'm writing these words in 2017 and I see that this book was first published in 2012. I'd like to think there has been some kind of revolution in it's wake but I fear I will be disappointed.

Important research does not make for a good listen. This style of investigative journalism is not designed for an audible experience.

The constant use of ' I'll be referring to later' is fine in a book but pointless and frustrating in audible

I wouldn't have commissioned it for Audible