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Bad Pharma
- How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
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Publisher's summary
Medicine is broken. We like to imagine that it's based on evidence and the results of fair tests. In reality, those tests are often profoundly flawed. We like to imagine that doctors are familiar with the research literature surrounding a drug, when in reality much of the research is hidden from them by drug companies. We like to imagine that doctors are impartially educated, when in reality much of their education is funded by industry. We like to imagine that regulators let only effective drugs onto the market, when in reality they approve hopeless drugs, with data on side effects casually withheld from doctors and patients.
All these problems have been protected from public scrutiny because they're too complex to capture in a sound bite. But Dr. Ben Goldacre shows that the true scale of this murderous disaster fully reveals itself only when the details are untangled. He believes we should all be able to understand precisely how data manipulation works and how research misconduct on a global scale affects us. In his own words, "the tricks and distortions documented in these pages are beautiful, intricate, and fascinating in their details." With Goldacre's characteristic flair and a forensic attention to detail, Bad Pharma reveals a shockingly broken system and calls for something to be done. This is the pharmaceutical industry as it has never been seen before.
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From an award-winning Fortune reporter, an explosive narrative investigation of the generic drug boom that reveals the life-threatening dangers posed by globalization - The Jungle for pharmaceuticals.
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overbearing self-righteous indignation
- By VB on 01-13-20
By: Katherine Eban
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The Billion Dollar Molecule
- One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug
- By: Barry Werth
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Join journalist Barry Werth as he pulls back the curtain on Vertex, a start-up pharmaceutical company, and witness firsthand the intense drama being played out in the pioneering and hugely profitable field of drug research. Founded by Joshua Boger, a dynamic Harvard- and Merck-trained scientific whiz kid, Vertex is dedicated to designing - atom by atom - both a new life-saving immunosuppressant drug and a drug to combat the virus that causes AIDS.
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Book is interesting but narrator is not
- By Alexa on 05-05-23
By: Barry Werth
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Ten Drugs
- How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Thomas Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book.
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Engrossing to physicians & lay persons alike
- By C. White on 03-08-19
By: Thomas Hager
What listeners say about Bad Pharma
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- zerodynamics
- 03-01-13
A must read for health professionals
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
yes
What other book might you compare Bad Pharma to and why?
Anatomy of an Epidemic. Both provide invaluable information about pharmaceuticals, both are scrupulously researched
Which character – as performed by Jonathan Cowley – was your favorite?
Like most people, I assumed that the process by which prescriptions meds were approved met the highest of scientific standards. I am a researcher by training and I understand that while meeting such standards is difficult, it isn't optional. Goldacre's review of the process is a bit dramatic in tone, but his facts are verifiable and his case is quite credible. As a psychologist, this information is particularly valuable to me. Most of my clients take some kind of medication, and all assume that these meds are proven safe and effective. The more I know about the efficacy and safety of medications, the better able I am to work with my clients and their doctors (many of whom ALSO assume all meds are safe and effective, compliments of the FDA)
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10 people found this helpful
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- Sam Motes
- 01-06-14
Bad ethics one pill at a time
A scary look at our broken medical system that is driven by profits by pharmaceutical companies rather them patient care. Only trials supporting the desired outcome by the company get polished and the negative ones are buried which leads doctors who try to do the right thing for their patience prescribing treatments on faulty data that leads to wasted money on treatments and unwarranted pain, suffering, and death of patients. Pharma reps provide biased training and perks including posh seminar troops I. Desired locals with luxury food and drinks tainting doctor's decisions. Not only a wake up call about our broken medical system but a cautionary story of bad strategic decisions being made based on biased data spoon feed by self interested unscrupulous stakeholders desiring a certain direction that can plaque any industry.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 07-17-23
Detailed explanation of manipulation
Great "A-Z" explanation of the methods used to manipulate medicine to provide the basis for "drugs" to be the favored answer. The author is very thorough in describing the methods used to control and manipulate the medical narrative. The general public is taught to "ask your doctor" and the doctors are in turn manipulated to believe that the "evidenced based" information they are being fed (pun intended) is legit.
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- SmartBean
- 04-02-16
eye opening
Shocking story of dishonest behavior in the drug industry, with the complicity of the medical profession and regulators.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Fun boy
- 02-23-15
Crucial information; outstanding narration
Full of vital information for Healthcare professionals and patients. Narration conveyed the sense of urgency and call to action required for a book like this. Brilliantly done!
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1 person found this helpful
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- dellstudio
- 06-28-13
Read this book before you prescribe again
What did you love best about Bad Pharma?
The author pulls down the curtain of deception that has been held before our eyes by the drug makers. Here in one volume, the author tells the whole story of what they are really up to. There is no step in the process of bringing a drug to market that has not been corrupted. Step by step, the author systematically and thoroughly goes through all of the ways drug development and sales are adversely impacted by the drug industry.Very early in the book, I came realize that, because the medical literature is so corrupted, physicians (such as myself) do not have a true understand about the medicines we prescribe. We don't know if medicines are effective and we don't know if the cause more harm than good. Decades of research are called into question by the author. His conclusions are persuasive and kind of depressing. Much of what we think we know about the medicines on the market today is based on incomplete set of data leaving patients and their doctors in the dark about what this stuff is good for. The ray of hope here is that the author provides concrete recommendations to correct the problems he has discovered. After each major section of the book, he lists what he would do to fix this broken system. Example, to prevent publication bias. All drug studies should be registered and should be published. negative studies provide just as much data positive studies.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Bad Pharma?
The author exposes the problems of drug research that does not get published if the findings show the drug fails to work or produces adverse events.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
This book may make you depressed at first but then you get angry
Any additional comments?
This book should be a included in the core curriculum at every medical school in the world. Every doctor in training should know what the drug makers are up to and that they need to be put on guard. Every doctor who is already in practice should read it too. I have already suggested it no many colleagues.
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9 people found this helpful
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- public name
- 04-15-22
eye opening!
in light of the quick rush to use EUA for covid, it appears all the ground work was already laid. incredibly enlightening!
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-18-24
Just Follow the Money
Thank you for opening my eyes to everything going on with Big Pharma. The problems are so much bigger than I could have imagined.
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- Daniel
- 01-15-19
Must read for doctors and policy makers
Much of what is synthesized here a physician would already know but there will be some new stuff for most readers to consider. This is not a new book but very few of the issues contained in it have been addressed, this is still very pressing.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Joshua
- 08-18-21
Should be required reading for med students
Maybe one of the most important chronicles of regulatory and academic capture by late stage capitalism and its corrupting influence on science. Dr Goldacre goes at length to observe and describe the descent into for profit medical scientism which destroys science for generations to come.
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1 person found this helpful