Drug Studies Suppressed by Drug Company, Faked by Doctor

Many of us are predisposed towards a mistrust of drug companies. The fact is, they make billions of dollars every year, and it seems like most would do anything for a buck. Recent news that AstraZeneca allegedly suppressed negative information about Seroquel, an anti-psychotic drug, is not helping the tarnished image that the pharmaceutical industry has earned.

A Washington Post article published recently outlines the study, known as “Study 15,” and reported that AstraZeneca had suppressed the study’s negative results, and at the same time promoted more positive results from other studies with less stringent protocols.

Also reported by the Washington Post: The shocking fact that one employee of AstraZeneca praised a colleague’s “smoke and mirrors job” in reference to the suppression of the negative results. Those suppressed results include a possible link between Seroquel and the development of diabetes. In addition, the study showed that Seroquel was no better than other anti-psychotic drugs at preventing psychotic relapses.

Who To Trust With Your Health And Prescription Drugs

Sometimes, it’s hard to know who to trust. And unfortunately, some doctors can’t be trusted when it comes to clinical trials either.

Dr. Scott Reuben, an anesthesiologist currently on leave from Springfield’s Baystate Medical Center in Massachusetts, has been accused of faking data in clinical trials for a staggering twelve years. According to the accusations, Dr. Reuben is responsible for faked data in no less than 21 published medical papers.

• According to news released by the Baystate Medical Center, a routine hospital review carried out in 2008 revealed that some of the doctor’s research had not been approved by the hospital’s review board.
• An investigation into the issue found that Reuben had made up some or all of the data in 21 papers published over the last twelve years.
• The data involves several drugs, including Celebrex, Lyrica, and Effexor, and Reuben attests to their effectiveness as painkillers in the published studies.

On the basis of the studies, Reuben had received numerous research grants from several sources, including drug company Pfizer, which makes and markets Celebrex.

As if the monetary rewards weren’t bad enough, the doctor has become widely respected in the field of anesthesiology on the basis of his fraudulent research, and many doctors have been basing their own use of pain relievers on Reuben’s results.

And even worse for patients, some of the drugs Reuben “studied” have been shown to delay bone healing – but Reuben’s work didn’t show up any of those problems. It’s now likely that many of the clinical trials Reuben published will be redone to ensure that accurate results are achieved.

photo credit: HA! Designs – Artbyheather

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Health & Politics, Prescription Drugs, Research & Breakthroughs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.