This report is emotionally difficult for me. You see, I have relatives who are knee deep in medical school. One, only 19, challenged my chosen field asking, Where is the evidence? The information pouring into her brain at least has published studies behind it. And another student, even closer to me, has sworn her oath to heal only with evidence-based medicine. Contrast that oath to my Hippocratic Oath, which says, Above all, do no harm.
So just what is the source of evidence-based medicine and published studies? Thousands of doctors prescribed millions of prescriptions for billions of dollars and billions of pills of hormone replacement therapy, especially Prempro. Prempro is a combination of a petrochemical synthetic progestin (in contrast to natural progesterone) and horse urine estrogen (Premarin).
The evidence? Articles favorable to the snake oil. The science? Articles written by the drugs maker Wyeth, which used medical ghostwriters to get the science published. What is a ghost writer? Its a doctor who writes about studies he did not conduct as if he were the actual researcher. In most cases, the drug company does the science and pays a doctor to write up the findings and put his name on it.
So whats wrong with medical ghostwriting like this? When the drug companies hire the doctor to write up the research, the doctor does not have firsthand experience with the science. So the drug company can tell him anything they want and the doctor cant refute it — he did not do the science.
The practice is so crooked, Congress is now looking into medical ghostwriting. At issue is its influence on the prescribing habits of doctors. Wyeth, the purveyor of Prempro and other ghostwriting frauds, is the same company that is pressing the FDA to ban bioidentical hormones.
Heres Wyeths problem: Researchers have proven conclusively that Prempro raises your risk of getting breast cancer. They have very little science to support continuing use of their product. There was little science to even begin using it years ago when they promoted it so heavily.
So how do they protect their market share? By seeing to it that lying manuscripts are published under the names of famous doctors who want to get more famous. This educates the physicians who, in the name of evidence-based medicine, pump you full of these potions. That is exactly what led to the hormone replacement therapy scandal. Such is the way of medicine in the modern era.
So the next time your doctor tells you theres no science behind alternative medicine, ask him if hes heard about medical ghostwriting. Then tell him that about 70% of all studies favorable to a Pharma potion were funded by Big Pharma. And all studies funded by Big Pharma that are negative are burned at the stake and the ashes swept under the rug. They hide the tragedies of chemical drugs until thousands are openly killed, as in the case of Vioxx. There is little science to medicine these days. There is mostly scandal.
Ref: New York Times, December 12, 2008.