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Bad Pharma

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Bad Pharma

By: Ben Goldacre
Narrated by: Jot Davies
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Goldacre uncovers a shockingly corrupt industry in a passionate and accessible manner. His genuine and thorough research brings to light some revelatory tales of the Pharmaceutical industry and investigates the motives behind our treatments.

Following the bestselling Bad Science, which mercilessly exposed the evils of bogus, pseudo-scientific remedies, Ben Goldacre puts the global pharmaceutical industry under the microscope

The $600 billion pharmaceutical industry spends more on marketing than it does on research and development. It distorts and suppresses the results of clinical trials if they are unfavourable. New diseases are invented in order to swell profits.
Doctors are kept in the dark about which drugs are the best for their patients. Patients’ pressure groups are covertly sponsored by pill manufacturers.
Authoritative-looking journals can be nothing more than disguised advertising brochures. Papers, supposedly by respected academics, are in fact ghostwritten by drugs companies.

The offences are countless and the consequences are felt by us all. What we trust to cure us may be utterly ineffectual or actually harmful.©2012 Ben Goldacre (P)2012 W F Howes Ltd Biological Sciences Physics Science Scary Witty Thought-Provoking Health Care Medicine
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As someone who has worked in the clinical trials and now works in academia, there were times when the points made by Dr Goldacre were uncomfortable. My initial response was to write off these points as misleading, or not representative of the truth. Immediately following this I realised this kind of defensive behaviour is EXACTLY the kind of thing that he's talking about, and it is a fundamental part of why we have failed to address issues in the Pharmaceutical industry.

Having previously read Bad Science, I found Bad Pharma was a step away from an almost comic (though necessary) rant at the anti-science elements of society, toward a rage-inducing, all-encompassing deconstruction of everything that it wrong with Big Pharma. The best part of which is its simplicity.

This book was needed by society. Our personal and economic health depend on the best medications and reliable data. Lack of trust between the populace and Big Pharma only serves to push people toward the grips of AltMed and its brimming coffers.

Not the critical appraisal Pharma wanted

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If you are sick and tired of getting riled up about politics, I recommend reading Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre. Get riled up about how the pharmaceutical industry has kept trial information secret from everyone, and in so doing means we have an utterly biased understanding of drugs. And many many other worse but more complicated things. It goes much deeper than I knew. Recommend.

(also, great narration and easy to follow)

Essential listening

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This is another excellent, accessible, brilliantly researched and eye-opening book by Ben Goldacre. I really enjoyed "Bad Science" and "Bad Pharma" has the same feel to it. Given my job is in the pharma field it was especially resonant with me.
Give it a go, it really is very good and doesn't require any scientific knowledge to understand (a rare trick for the author to achieve in this field). It might make you justifiably angry though.

Enlightening and eye-opening.

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I found this book very informative, very well written and read. Great tips at the end of each chapter to help combat this disgraceful practice of the pharmacological companies and research techniques. Working in health care myself this has been a definite eye opener.

Thank you so much!

Very interesting

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What did you like most about Bad Pharma?

The clear and no nonsense tackling of the subject matter makes Bad Pharma an easy to follow book that takes on some very complex ideas and issues. Ben's writing and the audio performance of it keeps the material fascinating and engaging throughout.

What other book might you compare Bad Pharma to, and why?

This book lifts the lid on an industry that spends a fortune on promoting an outward image of competence and trust worthiness and exposes some very real issues that go to the heart of many segments of the pharmaceutical industry.

In that respect I'd compare this to Felicity Lawrence's "Not on the Label" who does a similar job with the food industry.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

This isn't really a book of scene's so much as a progression through a narrative documentation of the problems with a system and the players within it. As such the whole book feels like a whole entity with no favourite scene to be taken out of context.

A clear & fascinating breakdown of complex issues.

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