NEJM editor: “No longer possible to believe much of clinical research published”.

[Guest guest]

http://ethicalnag.org/2009/11/09/nejm-editor/

NEJM editor: “No longer possible to believe much of clinical research

published”.

" No one knows the total amount provided by drug companies to

physicians, but I estimate from the annual reports of the top 9

U.S.-based drug companies that it comes to tens of billions of dollars a

year in North America alone. By such means, the pharmaceutical industry

has gained enormous control over how doctors evaluate and use its own

products. Its extensive ties to physicians, particularly senior faculty

at prestigious medical schools, affect the results of research, the way

medicine is practiced, and even the definition of what constitutes a

disease.:

And

"

Not surprisingly, drug manufacturers of bisphosphonates are fighting back

ferociously against this emerging (independent) research. A

Merck-funded review paper published in the NEJM on March 24,

2010 concludes:

“The occurrence of fracture of the subtrochantericor diaphyseal femur

was very rare, even among women who had been treated with bisphosphonates

for as long as 10 years.”

Sounds promising for Big Pharma. But if you look very, very closely,

the article’s fine print confesses:

“The study was underpowered for definitive conclusions.”

You might justifiably ask yourself why a medical journal would stoop

to publishing a meaningless scientific paper that the paper’s own authors

admit lacks any conclusion. Even more troubling than a journal article

that was itself bought and paid for by Merck, is the conflict of

interest disclosure list at the bottom of this NEJM

article. It reads like a Who’s Who of Big Pharma.

Of the 12 study authors listed in the NEJM article, at least

three are full-time employees of Merck or Novartis. Each one of

the other nine admit owning equity interests in or receiving cash, travel

expenses, or “consulting and lecture fees” from companies including

Merck, Novartis, Amgen, Roche Nycomed, Procter & Gamble, AstraZeneca,

GlaxoKline, Medtronics, Nastech, Nestle, Fonterra Brands, OnoPharma,

Osteologix, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Sanofi-Aventis, Tethys, Unilever,Unipath,

Inverness Medical, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, OSIProsidion, or

Takeda.

"

Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

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http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/ Homeopathy

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