Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients, Ben Goldacre : book review - izindaba

For a new medicine or vaccine to make a meaningful contribution to the prevention and/or treatment of disease, it has to clear a number of hurdles: consistent evidence of efficacy, in the population to be treated; safety, insofar as the benefit of the medicine should justify the risk of possible adverse events; and quality, demonstrated by laboratory studies. All this, it is generally assumed, derives from studies conducted ethically, objectively and honestly by clinical and pharmaceutical scientists.