Too Impressed by their own Cleverness?

This is a rather belated review of the book Tarnished Gold: The Sickness of Evidence-based Medicine, by Steve Hickey and Hilary Roberts. It was published in 2011, and my attention was drawn to it when I was asked to comment on its claims, from the viewpoint of an experienced clinical research specialist. Otherwise, I don’t think I would have heard of it, as it hasn’t made any impact in my professional field. In the event, it took me very little time to see why that is the case. The review may appear to meander back and forth between concepts, but that’s because it follows the book, which does the same. So apologies for the repetition.

The Burzynski Soap Opera

Burzynski’s Export Drive

The saga of Dr Stanislaw Burzynski and his antineoplastons (ANPs) is in danger of turning into a soap opera. Well actually it probably already has, as it has gone on for decades with no real plot and no end in sight. Many bloggers have been as puzzled as I as to why the US regulator, the FDA, allows this to continue. Admittedly, from time to time the FDA takes some sort of action, but it is never decisive – he is always allowed to carry on charging desperate patients vast sums to receive an unproven drug.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,500 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 13 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

From Bad Pharma to Worse

In the process of writing a more substantial article for CRFocus (journal of the Institute of Clinical Research), I asked the president of the Association for the British Pharmaceutical Industry for his perspective on the ABPI’s media statement in response to Dr Ben Goldacre’s `Bad Pharma’. This is just a quick post to report how that went. Here is the full text of his reply:

Is Pharma all Bad?

As many readers will know (do I have many readers?) most of my working life has been spent with Big Pharma. I make no apology for that. It suits me, as it’s science based, with a mission to benefit humanity – at a profit. So imagine my grief that a book such as Ben Goldacre’s latest should be necessary. I haven’t read Bad Pharma yet, but knowing Ben as I do, I have no doubt that there’s more than a kernel of truth to it. Indeed I know that to be the case.

Is the FDA Protecting Burzynski?

And if so, why? Last night is had a phone call with Elisabeth Lee, Regulatory Counsel, Division of Information Disclosure Policy at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Charity begins……where?

I’m not sure where it begins, but I’m more than a little concerned at where it seems to be going. I’m sure you all know about the deeply embarrassing (for its patron) closure of the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, a charity which openly campaigned for alternative medical `treatments’ (charities are not supposed to campaign). At the time I wondered why the Charity Commission didn’t investigate it a long time before the debacle, as `significant financial loss’ is a cause for investigation.