Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 448 pages
- Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux March 18, 2008
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0374228272
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0374228279
-
Book Dimensions:
9 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
- Weighs: 1.5 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Drug companies have institutionalized deception, said a former pharmaceutical executive at a 1990 Senate hearing. And former
New York Times reporter Petersen details these deceptions with information that will be startling even to those who closely follow the news on big pharma. Her subtitle, How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs, is most effectively illustrated in a chapter detailing Parke-Davis's aggressive marketing of the epilepsy drug Neurontin for everything, in blatant disregard of regulations against promoting drugs for uses not approved by the FDA. Such reporting, rather than style or analysis, is Petersen's strength. Much of what she recounts—such as the glut of copycat drugs like antacids, and marketers' lavish wining and dining of doctors—has been covered in books by others, like Marcia Angell. But Petersen fleshes out these issues and names prominent doctors who, she says, are on the take. She is particularly strong on the ghostwriting of medical journal articles by advertising agencies. She also covers less familiar matters, like the environmental impact of drug residues in water. There are quibbles; for instance, Petersen accepts without examination the bromide that most people take prescription drugs as a quick fix. But she ends with tough, sound suggestions for reforms to make the pharmaceutical industry honest and to protect consumers.
(Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Review
"Everyone talks about health care, but few ask why we're so sick to begin with. Melody Petersen's book goes a long way toward explaining that the people who came up with the 'cures' are actually the problem." —Bill Maher,
Real Time
"A devastating, often shocking, critique of a once proud industry that has been converted by corporate greed into a vast marketing machine that is often a menace to health. Petersen supports her indictment with an abundance of fascinating detail and human interest stories. An great contribution to the growing demand for better regulation of an industry that has grown way too powerful and heedless of the interests of its customers." —Marcia Angell, M. D., Senior Lecturer in Social Medicine,
Harvard Medical School and Arnold S. Relman, M. D., Prof. Emeritus of Medicine and of Social Medicine,
Harvard Medical School
Reader Reviews
After just finishing this book - as good a piece of investigative journalism as they come - I'm as shocked by the lack of reviews here as I am by seeing the ugly revelation of the "man behind the curtains" true face of Big Pharma. Petersen has chosen an enormous subject, the debased fall and ugly spectacle of medical scientists and researchers, the entire pharmaceutical industry, and yes, most if not all of our physicians failing in their duties to their patients in order to grab another hundred bucks or so in bribes. I was shocked, angry, enraged and finally repelled by what I read, in that order, but was also grateful to Petersen's compulsively easy-to-read style that allowed me to truly understand what I was reading. Between this expose, and Gary Taubes' clear and concise outline (in Good Calories, Bad Calories) of how the public has been mislead and lied to about cholesterol, our diets, heart disease and statins - I'm ready to throw 'the book' at the entire complex, hold Senate Hearings, throw people in jail, and start medicine from scratch. Which might not be such a bad idea, because after reading this book I encourage everyone to begin their next annual physical with the words: "And whose payroll are *you* on?" I recommend this book, and Taubes' book, as REQUIRED READING for anyone who is breathing at the moment - and would like to continue doing so.
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