sentence in her first paragraph. So I will let Dr. Angell's own words answer you.THE TRUTH ABOUT DRUG COMPANIES
by Marcia Angell, M.D.
Chapter Six, first two paragraphs, pp. 94-95
How do we know prescription drugs are any good? You might answer that doctors wouldn't use them if they weren't. Doctors, you might say, know what works by experience and so do their patients. But experience can be highly misleading. The assumption that a drug works if a patient gets better does not allow for natural variations in the illness, for the placebo effect (the tendency of both doctors and patients to imagine a drug is working), for all the other times when the drug might fail, or for the possibility that another drug might have worked better. That is why clinical trials are required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Only by testing drugs in large numbers of people under rigorously controlled conditions can we really know what works and how well it works. "
"Okay, you might say, I'll buy that. Still, we know drugs work because otherwise the FDA would not approve them. After all, drug companies can't bring new drugs to market until they have carried out clinical trials to show they're safe and effective. But that raises another problem. Can we believe those trials? After all, that crucial last stage of research and development is usually sponsored by the company that makes the drug, even if the early research was done elsewhere. is there some way companies can rig clinical trials to make their drugs look better than they are? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Trials can be rigged in a dozen ways, and it happens all the time."
If you want to buy the book, go to http://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Drug-Companies-Deceive/dp/0375760946/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214517434&sr=8-1
You can get used copies for only a little over five dollars. This was a New York Times bestseller.
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