Pharmageddon

Pharmageddon has arrived. The large pharmaceutical companies have hijacked healthcare and the results are threatening.

David Healy, an internationally respected psychiatrist, scientist, and author, whom the New York Times portrayed as “a self-effacing scholar” and “gadfly,” presents this riveting and terrifying story that affects us all.

1. Despite a growing elderly population, life expectancy in the US has already dropped compared to other advanced countries.

2. The global market for pharmaceuticals is $667 billion US but apart from cancer drugs, only a small percentage targets disease. The bestselling drugs are “lifestyle” or “risk management” drugs: antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs ($60 billion); cholesterol lowering statins ($34 billion), blood sugar lowering hypoglycemics ($24 billion), acid reflux drugs ($26 billion), and treatments for osteoporosis and sexual dysfunction.

3. The consequences are severe. Side effects range from discomfort to death. Newer generations of drugs under patent often are less effective than earlier versions. Diseases that once responded to these older drugs are now misdiagnosed, often leading to grave consequences. 

4. The financial burden is enormous. “This is where any ideas of universal health care will founder,” says Healy.

How did the drug companies capture our doctors and medical care? David Healy draws back the curtain to expose the secrets behind supposed protections such as Randomized Controlled Trials and Evidence Based Medicine. He also reveals the role of medical ghostwriters, and implicates US agencies like the FDA in allowing new drugs to be tested against a placebo rather than compared with existing similar drugs. And he demonstrates how statistics can be manipulated to hide unpleasant truths and inconvenient corpses.