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Customers find the book informative and revealing. They describe it as an engaging read that provides useful insights into healthcare issues. Readers consider it affordable and well worth the money.
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The inside story of how Big Pharma’s relentless pursuit of ever-higher profits corrupts medical knowledge—misleading doctors, misdirecting American health care, and harming our health.
The United States spends an excess $1.5 trillion annually on health care compared to other wealthy countries—yet the amount of time that Americans live in good health ranks a lowly 68th in the world. At the heart of the problem is Big Pharma, which funds most clinical trials and therefore controls the research agenda, withholds the real data from those trials as corporate secrets, and shapes most of the information relied upon by health care professionals.
In this no-holds-barred exposé, Dr. John Abramson—one of the foremost experts on the drug industry’s deceptive tactics—combines patient stories with what he learned during many years of serving as an expert in national drug litigation to reveal the tangled web of financial interests at the heart of the dysfunction in our health-care system. For example, one of pharma’s best-kept secrets is that the peer reviewers charged with ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the clinical trial reports published in medical journals do not even have access to complete data and must rely on manufacturer-influenced summaries. Likewise for the experts who write the clinical practice guidelines that define our standards of care.
The result of years of research and privileged access to the inner workings of the U.S. medical-industrial complex, Sickening shines a light on the dark underbelly of American health care—and presents a path toward genuine reform.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
by Train to Skaville
Extraordinary, packed with information and important
This is a hard-hitting book that builds momentum as it goes (Iâm halfway through). The chapter on the history of clinical trials is masterful. Abramson has an unparalleled command of this material. At times it is too dense with information and becomes a little bumpy to read, but the details are important.I heard Abramson say on Liz Tuckerâs podcast (What Your GP Isnât Telling You) that the incursion of commercial forces into medicine is a crisis. He is absolutely correct, and this book lays out the evidence. Everyone in Congress should read it, as well as physicians and public health researchers. Inquiring people should read it to understand better what is behind the curtain in medical care.P.S. There are a few other good books in the same vein, but a unique strength of âSickeningâ is the attention to costs of drugs and health care for individuals. The author also helpfully links health care trends with historical changes since the 1980s.
by Hugster
Super important information. Makes me want to scream.
Easy to read. Well written. Made me angry, telling everyone I know.
by Al M
Great info with some caveats
The information in this book is generally great and of utmost importance for people to know. I do have some issues I thought relevant to express in this review.First, let me say the information contained within this book is excellent and well-presented. For people who were unaware of the suffocating, constrictive grasp Big Pharma has over the health care system in this country, this book will open your eyes to a dark world that will make your skin crawl and have you questioning everything you thought you knew about our most trustworthy health care professionals. For those who had some idea of that influence already, this book will show you the depths to which Big Pharma’s tentacles reach. It is enough to make you want to scream, but it is information that must be made known to as many people as possible before real change can begin.As I mentioned, I did take issue with several of Dr. Abramson’s positions in this book, which I will explore here for anyone interested.At the end of the book, Dr. Abramson mentions he worked on it for over 6 years. I certainly got the impression that he finished the bulk of it by Iate 2020 to mid 2021. The level of unwarranted praise he showers on the vaccine makers for their COVID vaccines (particularly in the Introduction, which is devoted almost entirely to stroking the vaccine companies) is, in my opinion, quite off-putting, especially given the internal documents now coming into the public eye which clearly show these vaccines were not anywhere near as “safe and effective” as the public was led to believe throughout the pandemic. Dr. Abramson also mentions the effectiveness of mask-wearing as a life-saving social measure, which is also infuriatingly and provably false, as studies have continued to show. I just don’t understand how Dr. Abramson could spend so long and put so much effort into a project documenting the wanton carelessness and blatant dishonesty that drugmakers have been proven to demonstrate when it comes to developing, marketing, and selling new drugs, yet at the same time praise those same companies for their efforts in rushing COVID vaccines to market, with apparently no inkling that those vaccines may have suffered from the very same lack of effectiveness, hyped-up marketing, and buried dangers of risk and rates of harm as the prescription drugs he details. I would love to see a second edition once the allegations of misrepresented results and the entirety of the research data from the vaccine trials has been brought to light with all new and relevant data on this subject included.It is also quite clear from the text that Dr. Abramson is quite left-leaning in his politics. While I don’t necessarily take issue with that fact, I do find it distasteful to make one’s political leanings so obvious in a work of nonfiction (though I wholeheartedly agree that Mitch McConnel is a slimy POS). I’m willing to give Dr. Abramson a pass here, as the issues he points out are largely political in nature, and I can understand his frustration.Lastly, I disagree with Dr. Abramson’s assessment on the role that “free market” capitalism has played on the cancerous growth of the pharmaceutical industry’s revenues and influence, though his arguments are quite compelling and completely understandable. He compares Milton Friedman’s notions of government’s role in a free market society with what we see today, apparently in an attempt to show how far “free market” capitalism has fallen, but in my opinion succeeds only in demonstrating that what we have today in the pharmaceutical industry (and others) can no longer be considered free market capitalism, particularly as described by Friedman.Overall, this is required reading in my opinion, and I am grateful to Dr. Abramson for his efforts in compiling this work and sharing his experiences in the effort to improve our society as a whole. There is no question we need health care reform from a fundamental level up, and Dr. Abramson shows us exactly why before offering his own suggestions on how. While herculean in scope now, if everyone in this country would read this book, I believe that reform would happen nearly overnight.
by Dennis Miller
Has Pharma Fooled Pharmacists?
Pharma has clearly succeeded in pulling the wool over the eyes of the public. Has Pharma succeeded in doing the same with pharmacists?John Abramson, M.D., has been one of my heroes since 2004 when his first book âOverdosed Americaâ was published. Unfortunately he is NOT the hero of a lot of pharmacists. As I explained in detail in my book âThe Shocking Truth About Pharmacy: A Pharmacist Reveals All the Disturbing Secrets,â a very large number of pharmacists do not like people who write books critical of Pharma.Pharmacy is different from a true science because we as pharmacists have a strong financial incentive to not question the dominant narrative in our profession–better living through chemistry. Criticizing pills is bad for business. A pharmacist who uses his position in chain drug stores as a platform to promote reform in the pharmaceutical industry is seriously jeopardizing his employment.In my opinion, very many chain store pharmacists view pharmacy more as a business than a science. I believe you are naive if you view pharmacists as akin to skeptical scientists who have no horse in the race. We make our living by selling pills, not by encouraging people to learn how to prevent illness.Iâm now retired but I worked in chain drug stores for my entire career. Chain store pharmacists feel subtle yet powerful pressure from our corporate bosses to be positive about the pills we dispense. Besides our financial interest in downplaying adverse effects of drugs, thereâs the psychological conflict (cognitive dissonance) resulting from trying to juggle the need to be positive about pills with our knowledge that many pills are a double-edge sword. Unfortunately the balance has tilted too far in the wrong direction because of a hugely powerful and corrupt pharmaceutical industry.Pharmacists seem to believe that the products we dispense are based on science when, in fact, most are based on marketing. Pharmacists are dispensing the products of an industry that routinely engages in lies, distortions, and magical thinking.Pharmacists increasingly play the role of legitimizing Big Pharmaâs products which are, in fact, quite often clouded by very serious concerns such as FDAâs becoming a captive of the drug industry, Big Pharmaâs immense clout over the US Congress, and Pharmaâs corrupt influence over drug research.The publicâs definition of âsafe and effectiveâ is clearly vastly different from the FDAâs definition. This leads to a reality in which commonly prescribed drugs are often linked to tumors and cancers in lab animals (read the Carcinogenesis and Mutagenesis section in the labeling). Black box warnings are too often added to the labeling years after the FDA approved a drug. Drugs are withdrawn from the market due to safety issues that were not discovered in clinical trials.The FDA is clearly not the watchdog that the public expects and hopes. The FDA represents a clear example of âregulatory capture.â Thatâs a situation in which an industry that is supposed to be regulated by a governmental entity ends up controlling the regulator. The governmental entity (FDA) which is supposed to guarantee the safety and effectiveness of drugs has in reality been captured by the pharmaceutical industry.Sixty-five percent of the FDAâs drug regulatory budget comes from Pharma through user fees. According to an official FDA publication (âFDA At A Glance,â U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Office of the Commissioner, Nov, 2020), âHuman drugs regulatory activities account for 33 percent of FDAâs budget; 65 percent of these activities are paid for by industry user fees.âThe public is not told that this leads to a situation where FDA employees might feel that they work for or are beholden to Pharma rather than the American people.In my opinion, this explains why the FDA approved the Alzheimerâs drug Aduhelm despite the fact that 10 of 11 advisory committee members voted that there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate the drug slowed cognitive decline. (The 11th panelist voted âuncertain.â) Three members of the panel resigned as a result.In my experience, pharmacists are often far less enthusiastic about pills in private conversations with close friends and family in comparison to discussions with pharmacy customers in the drug store.On the one hand, every day we see a drug circus on TV with Pharmaâs annoying, scary, exploitative, and misleading commercials. At the same time pharmacists dispense these pharmaceuticals as if theyâre entirely untainted by corrupt commercial interests and purely based on science. Pharmaceuticals are a ridiculous marketing circus on TV but somehow they immediately transform themselves into miraculous remedies in drug stores and doctorsâ offices.To what extent are pharmacists willing accomplices of Pharmaâs corrupt practices? And to what extent are they unwitting dupes of Pharma? Have pharmacists been willingly led down the garden path by a nice paycheck? Should pharmacists be shouting from the rooftops that there are many drugs we dispense every day that weâd never take ourselves or recommend for a close friend or family member?Pharmacy customers donât know about the settlements (sometimes in the hundreds of millions of dollars) by drug companies for lying and deceptive advertising. Pharmacists seem to act like every drug we dispense is as important and effective as insulin.Even the manufacturers of insulin, one of the true superstars in the pharmacy, have managed to cloud the halo surrounding this miraculous drug by price gouging. There are very few companies that manufacture insulin so it is ripe for price gouging.Should pharmacists have a duty to tell customers that a drug theyâre taking is currently the target of a class action lawsuit? Should pharmacists investigate and then tell customers what the yea/nay votes were from the FDA advisory panel that voted on approving the drug?Pharmaceuticals are depicted in magazine advertisements and in TV commercials as if they are all monumental breakthroughs like insulin and penicillin. These ads portray what looks like safe and easy pill solutions for every medical problem. Then everything suddenly becomes much more complicated when information is presented regarding potential adverse effects, warnings, precautions, contraindications, drug interactions, etc.Most pharmacists seem to be blissfully unaware of and uninterested in books that expose Pharmaâs lies, distortions, myths, exaggerations, etc. When pharmacists become aware of those books, they often react with hostility.One would think that popular pharmacy magazines like Drug Topics and Pharmacy Times would feel it is important to discuss momentous books like John Abramsonâs âSickening.â But the fact that these magazines receive most of their revenue from Pharma advertising means that pharmacists will likely not be aware of books critical of Americaâs pill circus.Pharmacists sit passively at in-person continuing education seminars funded by drug companies. Pharmacists donât ask whether the medical condition being discussed can be prevented by non-drug approaches such as dietary and lifestyle changes rather than by the sponsorâs drug. Indeed, most of the prescriptions pharmacists that fill are for preventable diseases of modern civilization. Thatâs one of the facts that Pharma most wants to keep hidden from you.Pharmacists donât seem to realize the role weâre playing in legitimizing Pharmaâs marketing circus. The public probably assumes pharmacists and physicians would blow the whistle if Pharma strayed too far from truth and reality. But, in my opinion, the fact that the prescribing and dispensing of pharmaceuticals facilitate a nice standard of living for health professionals guarantees that most of them will not bite the hand that feeds them.Pharma refuses to acknowledge how miraculous, wondrous and magical Homo sapiens is, or, for that matter, all living things and all life forms. Pharma will never admit that humans are part of the natural world. Pharma promotes the idea that the human body can be completely understood in terms of chemistry and that people, therefore, need chemical solutions for everything.We should all laugh at that self-serving and simplistic view of health. We should also laugh at modern medicineâs completely mechanistic and reductionist view of the human body. Modern medicine is, in reality, the monetization of the maladaptation of Homo sapiens in modern society.The activity of filling proscriptions is mind-numbingly boring and monotonous. It primarily consists of transferring pills from big bottles to little bottles. But the job is extremely stressful in dangerously understaffed chain drug stores because of the potential for making a serious mistake (such as dispensing the wrong drug, typing the wrong directions on the label, overlooking a serious drug interaction or contraindication, etc.), and thereby harming someone.For many chain store pharmacists, the only nice thing about their job is the salary. In my experience, pharmacistsâ top two concerns are their salary and having enough technician assistance on hand. Concerns about the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals are far down the list of pharmacistsâ concerns.Many pharmacists rationalize to themselves that the prestige of modern medicine proves that concerns about drug safety and effectiveness are exaggerated. Pharmacists seem to view their salary in comparison to that of, say, dietitians and nutritionists, as proof that pharmacy is a more important field than nutrition.Because capitalism rewards pharmacists more than dietitians, pharmacy must therefore be more important than nutrition and more valuable to society. But clearly capitalism wants profits far more than health. Our medical system is about profits, not health.I hope every pharmacist reads John Abramsonâs âSickening,â but I think that most pharmacists are simply not interested in a critique of the pill business, as long as the status quo provides a nice paycheck.It is extremely uncomfortable for pharmacists to entertain the possibility that very many of the drugs we dispense are not nearly as âsafe and effectiveâ as the FDA claims. Therefore thereâs not much hope that pharmacists will be critical of Pharma. âSickeningâ provides an extremely important perspective that most pharmacists are not eager to consider or talk about.Pharmacy would be a much more fulfilling profession if the importance of John Abramsonâs perspective were widely acknowledged and practiced. John Abramson is one of my heroes for speaking the truth. I wish he were also the hero of very many pharmacists. Pharmacy would then be a much more honest and gratifying profession.Dennis Miller, R.Ph., is the author of âThe Shocking Truth About Pharmacy: A Pharmacist Reveals All the Disturbing Secrets.â