Researchers and FBI

The one big question going through my mind lately is how reliable is the research being done today? Are the researchers above reproach? Are we being told the truth?

From all that has started to become public, apparently we are being lied to and researchers are not to be trusted. The big Pharmas slant the research to suit their corporate needs and not the needs of us the patients. Avandia is the drug I am talking about here. And finally the FDA is doing the right thing.

Fellow bloggers have written about other situations. Alan Shanley in his blog of February 26, 2010 titled his “Should Detectives, Not Just Academics Review Drug Research” graphically lays out the abuses of people involved in drug research and how studies are slanted to give results favorable to Big Pharma.

Now on October 5, 2010, Tom Ross points out another problem everyone should be aware of. He used an incident from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. Here a paid lecturer for Big Pharma misrepresents statin drugs. He states that anyone with diabetes and over the age of 40 should be put on statins. He said that statins are safe, effective, and that complaints about their side effects are false.

There are many more instances where money changed the results of studies and greed ruled over patient safety. Alan suggests that the FBI in the USA and comparable agencies in other countries should be responsible for following the money that changes hands and reviewing all documents for correctness before the FDA or comparable agencies in other countries even gets their hands on the information.

This will have to be put in federal legislation, but I am in favor of this if it will stop companies from withholding data, researchers from falsifying data and slanting research to fit corporate interests. How long are we as patients going to put up with being guinea pigs for the greed of Big Pharma. This has gone on unchecked for far too long.