Show 997: Big Pharma and Health Care
The People's Pharmacy
Joe and Terry Graedon
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2015
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. Peter Gøtzsche worked for the pharmaceutical industry years ago supervising clinical trials and working in regulatory affairs. But this industry insider has become the toughest of critics.
Dr. Gøtzsche is concerned about the impact that big pharma exerts on health care. Pharmaceutical firms are among the most profitable in the world. In the US alone, the bill for prescription drugs last year topped $350 billion.
How Does Big Pharma Affect Health Care?
How can drug regulatory agencies around the globe stay on top of this powerful industry? Or can’t they? Find out why Dr. Gøtzsche draws parallels between big pharma and organized crime. He also compares drug makers to the tobacco industry. What are the similarities and differences?
This Week’s Guest:
Peter Gøtzsche, MD, is professor of clinical research design and analysis at the University of Copenhagen. He co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration in 1993 and is currently director at the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen.
He is a specialist in internal medicine who worked in clinical trials and regulatory affairs in the pharmaceutical industry between 1975 and 1983. He is a member of several groups publishing guidelines for good reporting of research and has co-authored CONSORT for randomized trials (www.consort-statement.org), STROBE for observational studies (www.strobe-statement.org), PRISMA for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (www.prisma-statement.org), and SPIRIT for trial protocols (www.spirit-statement.org).
Dr. Gøtzsche’s book is Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare. His website is www.deadlymedicines.dk
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Joe Graydon. |
| 0:02.3 | I'm Terry Graydon. |
| 0:03.8 | Welcome to this podcast of the People's Pharmacy, where we bring you the stories behind the health headlines. |
| 0:10.2 | This podcast is brought to you by Redux Industries, makers of utterly smooth body cream. |
| 0:16.0 | 800-345-7339 on the web at utter cream.com. |
| 0:21.6 | Americans spend more than $350 billion a year on medications. |
| 0:36.0 | Some new drugs cost thousands a month. |
| 0:38.3 | Are we getting our money's worth? |
| 0:40.3 | This is the People's Pharmacy with Terry and Joe Graydon. |
| 0:48.1 | Are you tired of prescription drug commercials on television, |
| 0:58.4 | urging you to ask your doctor if drug X, Y, or Z is right for you? |
| 1:01.1 | Why do we take so many pills anyway? |
| 1:03.5 | Today we talk with Dr. Peter Gertcher. |
| 1:09.4 | He used to be a drug company insider, but now he's one of the strongest critics of the pharmaceutical industry. |
| 1:12.0 | He teaches clinical research design and directs the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen. Coming up on the People's Pharmacy, |
| 1:17.7 | find out if Big Pharma has corrupted health care. First, this news. |
| 1:36.6 | In the people's pharmacy health headlines, a new study suggests that appendicitis doesn't always need to be treated with surgery. |
| 1:39.6 | The research report is a bit confusing, but the results are fascinating. |
| 1:50.0 | Finnish investigators recruited 530 patients with acute uncomplicated appendicitis. Their condition was confirmed with CT imaging the gold standard for an appendicitis diagnosis. |
| 1:56.0 | These people were randomly assigned to undergo immediate appendectomy or to receive a broad-spectrum |
| 2:02.7 | antibiotic to knock out the infection underlying the inflammation. |
| 2:07.2 | The follow-up period lasted a year. |
... |
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