For example, one of pharma’s best-kept secrets is that the peer reviewers charged with ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the clinical trial reports published in medical journals do not even have access to complete data and must rely on manufacturer-influenced summaries. John Abramson-one of the foremost experts on the drug industry’s deceptive tactics-combines patient stories with what he learned during many years of serving as an expert in national drug litigation to reveal the tangled web of financial interests at the heart of the dysfunction in our health-care system. At the heart of the problem is Big Pharma, which funds most clinical trials and therefore controls the research agenda, withholds the real data from those trials as corporate secrets, and shapes most of the information relied upon by health care professionals. The United States spends an excess $1.5 trillion annually on health care compared to other wealthy countries-yet the amount of time that Americans live in good health ranks a lowly 68th in the world. Educational and eye-opening, this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of the pharmaceutical companies' role in getting the American healthcare system to where it is today.The inside story of how Big Pharma’s relentless pursuit of ever-higher profits corrupts medical knowledge-misleading doctors, misdirecting American health care, and harming our health. The proposed solutions in the book may fall short of what readers hope to find, but for such a deep-rooted issue, it would be difficult to believe there is a magic bullet that could fix it all. The author details how Big Pharma influences clinical trials, medical journals, and conferences to the detriment of doctors and patients.

Sickening brings to life the stories of those who had suffered medically due to the hijacking of information sources doctors use in the eternal chase for profit gains at the expense of the average person. The contemporary crises of soaring health care costs in America and the dropping life expectancy of our citizens have many explanations, but Harvard Medical School lecturer and pharmaceutical researcher John Abramson makes a compelling argument as to why pharmaceutical companies have played a large role in both present-day issues faced by our nation.

Sickening by john abramson