Superb portrait of Modern Medicine, September 19, 2010

As a person who has written about the pharmaceutical industry for years, been a pharmaceutical executive and both a critic and supporter of the industry, I highly recommend this book for its unique perspective on the practice of medicine, the drug business, and the many people (both good and bad) involved. Dr. Carl Elliott has done an excellent job of using his own background in medicine (his father was a physician), his research in philosophy and his own perspective as an MD and professor of bio-ethics, to give a very balanced overview of the many problems besieging the modern pharmaceutical industry. Please don’t let all these credentials make you believe this is yet another pedantic study of medicine. The writing is superb and compelling, the stories both often funny, sad and touching and the narrative clear and straight forward. Best of all, while the book maintains a high level of scholarship, it never loses its human touch. As an example of why anyone who has taken a drug should read this book, is Dr. Elliott’s examination of the types of facilities and the kinds of people on whom drugs are frequently tested. (It is shocking, but true that drugs released to millions of people are often tested on a limited number of people who are not at all representative of the population as a whole.) Dr. Elliott also does a superb job of helping the reader navigate through what has become a vast, medical-industrial complex: including government regulators, universities, physician groups, medical journals and “continuing medical education” that is sponsored by drug companies. The reader will ask after reading this book just what the difference between marketing and science really is? As someone who has worked in the industry, I found it refreshing that this book does not take “cheap shots,” but portrays the many ambiguities involved in medical decision making. (Elliott gives several hilarious but true portraits of drug reps who have an uncanny ability to make themselves likable even when they are peddling snake oil.) There is also a tragic portrait of a mother whose son dies in a botched drug trial, for which no one takes responsibility. The book paints full portraits of the “high and mighty” involved in medicine and makes human even some people who have committed some of the worst conceivable breaches of ethics. In sum, well written, easily understood, amusing and appalling — and very finely researched.

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Straight talk about real life ethics, September 17, 2010

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Irene M. Piekarski “booky” (Seattle, WA USA) – See all my reviews

  

I was in medical school in the 60s and saw pharmaceutical research expand and devolve from an NIH–academic project to a business run by large drug companies for profit. This whole idea that a public service should be treated like a commodity is new and not without ethical problems, especially for physicians and those who look to physicians for advice.

Dr. Elliott is a well-known psychiatrist/bioethicist who writes in a conversational tone of the difficult, shocking dilemmas we all face when buying or evaluating medications. He has 7 chapters covering drug reps, clinical drug research, me-too drug development, FDA evaluations, and the ethical challenges even bioethicists face when asked to consult for industry. Nothing new here, but wonderfully and accurately portrayed without hysteria.

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Having just finished this book, I’m better informed and and more depressed., October 31, 2010

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JEANNETTE (GREENVILLE, SC, United States) – See all my reviews

  

I’m an oncologist who likes to think that oncology studies are better controlled and more fastidious than other studies. But as I read this book, I wondered whether I was deluding myself about that. More and more of our studies are pushed by pharm. companies and fewer by nationally run cooperative groups. Also, I was disconcerted and somewhat nauseated to think I may be writing prescriptions that don’t do what they’re advertised to do. I’ve always had a healthy skeptism for drug reps – or at least I thought I did – and put up with them so that my staff could get lunch. No more. I will not give them any more of my time.

This is a book that all doctors should read, which won’t happen of course. It’s an eye opener, quite dismaying. I’m grateful to the author for writing it. We (I) need books like this to maintain a critical eye.

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Needs the hand of a good editor, March 27, 2010

Very early into the first chapter it became clear to me that the subject matter is very interesting but it needs a good literary editor to fix dubious sentence structures and incorrect word use.

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Beware-I suppose you get what you pay for with the free book, March 5, 2010

The free e-book only includes the introduction and first chapter of the book. While I agree you get what you pay for I wish Amazon would say that in effect they are offering a sample instead of the full book as the description implies.

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BE AWARE – this is just a 1 chapter review, March 5, 2010

Beware. Even though the title for this does not indicate it this is just one chapter of the book. If a book is just a sample then it should state it is just a sample. The way this was presented (ie save .99) you would think it is the full book. So if you think you are getting a full book for free YOU ARE NOT. Please authors be real with your descriptions. I would have written a much better review if I have been fully aware that this was not a full book

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