TIME TO DISCIPLINE RESEARCHERS
WHO WITHHOLD RESULTS!
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For two years, Schering-Plough, the maker of the popular cholesterol drug Vytorin, sat on the results of a clinical trial showing the drug provided no benefit in improving artery health. During that time the drug was heavily marketed to consumers in TV ads. The situation came to light in 2008 after a congressional investigation was launched. In 2003, a clinical trial of Multaq, a drug that treated irregular heart beat, was stopped because more patients who were getting the drug were dying than those who were getting a placebo. However, the study was not published until five years later. In 2007, an independent analysis of the diabetes drug Avandia found that the drug increased heart attacks and cardiovascular deaths. From a recent issue of Medpage Today
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According to a recent study published in the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ), huge numbers of medical studies — even government funded (taxpayer funded) studies — are being suppressed (these are so common in the medical field they are known as “INVISIBLE & ABANDONED“). But why? Why would anyone want to suppress medical research? As is always the case, follow the money. Among other things, this piece of research said that two and a half years after the completion of studies funded by the NIH (National Institutes of Health), one third of them remain unpublished. Why this is going on will sicken you but not surprise you.
When studies for medical devices or drugs show (or are going to show) that their products are dangerous or ineffective (like the CHOLESTEROL DRUGS or DIABETIC DRUGS in the example from the top of the page), the research is frequently either stopped in midstream or never published. What does this do? It skews the results and makes them look like they are much better than they are. There are literally thousands upon thousands of disgusting examples of this. Like I said, it’s all about the money.
