Big Pharma’s own research is often biased toward their own drug
Government and university medical research has been cut back in favor of Big Pharmas own research, but Big Pharma’s reports of their own research are highly suspect. A meta-analysis by the Cochrane institute demonstrates that when the same drug is evaluated in two studies—one sponsored by Big Pharma and one independently—though the results are similar, the conclusions drawn are completely different. The industry reports were less transparent, had few reservations about methodological limitations, and had more favorable conclusions than the independent studies. Spin is everything. Can doctors trust what Big Pharma says about its own drugs? The answer is unfortunately no, we can’t; industry studies harbor a 37 percent bias toward their own drug.
References
- Lustig, Robert. (2021). Metabolical Chapter 6. Because Big Pharma Was Their Teacher (p. 122). New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.