Ben Goldacre's Blog, page 8

Questions in Parliament, and a briefing note on missing trials: updated.

This morning at 11:30, Dr Sarah Wollaston MP will ask questions in parliament about the ongoing scandal of missing trial data. This is widely recognised as a problem by academics and doctors, but governments, regulators, and journalists have neglected the problem, while industry simply denies it. Watch the questions live here or watch it later here. [...]

Great article in Trials, on why regulators should stop withholding trial info from doctors and patients

One thing in Bad Pharma has shocked readers more than anything else: the way that vitally important information about trials is withheld from doctors and patients, not just by drug companies, but also by government bodies such NICE and the European Medicines Agency (the body that approves and regulates medicines for the UK). As we [...]

I did this talk at TEDglobal last year. It’s quite… fast.

I did this talk at TEDglobal last year. It’s just hit a million views, and I realised I’ve never posted it online here. Hope you like it! www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_battli...

GSK have promised to share all trial data: should we trust them?

Briefly: today, several people have asked for my response to this story in the Guardian, celebrating GSK’s promise for more transparency on their trial data.It is always good to hear a drug company making promises, and I hope that GSK will stick by the commitments they have made today. But we should judge drug companies by [...]

The ABPI claims that all the problems in my book are “historical”. This claim is simply untrue.

My book Bad Pharma documents serious ongoing problems in the pharmaceutical industry. In particular, I show how vitally important information from clinical trials is still being withheld from doctors and patients, right now, today; and that patients experience avoidable suffering and death as a consequence. There is no nicer way to express that reality, and [...]

I did a new talk at TED, on drug companies and hidden data.

I did a new talk at TED about drug companies hiding the results of clinical trials, it went up today. This is a huge, ongoing problem, and it results in patients suffering and dying unnecessarily. So I’m really pleased that TED were able to give the story a platform. Video after the click:    That said, [...]

I did a new talk at TED about drug companies and hidden data.

I did a new talk at TED about drug companies hiding the results of clinical trials, it went up today. This is a huge, ongoing problem, and it results in patients suffering and dying unnecessarily. So I’m really pleased that TED were able to give the story a platform. Video after the click:    That said, [...]

Here’s the foreword to my new book.

My new book Bad Pharma is out today. It describes how drug companies harm patients, around the world, by distorting evidence on an industrial scale. More  than that, it shows how doctors, academics, and regulators have all failed to fix these problems. Bad practices have been perpetuated, because the public have not understood the true [...]

Holy cow I just touched my new book!

it is a thing of beauty and power. My advice is to buy one right now, before they all get seized and pulped. In paperback here: amzn.to/N1QJTD And Kindle here: amzn.to/Uhr0p4 Woo!  

Holy crap I just touched my new book!

I just touched my new book, it is a thing of beauty and power. My advice is to buy one right now, before they all get seized and pulped. In paperback here: amzn.to/N1QJTD And Kindle here: amzn.to/Uhr0p4 Woo!