Misinformation Deluge by Pharma Industry
Moneylife Digital Team 30 January 2018
General practitioners (GPs) and patients are being put at risk by health guidelines because of an ‘epidemic of misinformation’ generated by the pharma industry in collusion with the medical community, Dr Aseem Malhotra, a top cardiologist in London, has warned. He argued that this was the result of “biased scientific research and biased reporting in medical journals,” as well as commercial conflict of interest, defensive medicine and lack of training for doctors in how to interpret the research data. 
 
Dr Malhotra also said that “Regulators fail to prevent misconduct by industry, and that doctors, institutions and journals, with a responsibility to patients and scientific integrity, collude with industry for financial gain.”
 
He pointed out to the use of statins, as a case in point. According to him, there were huge doubts about the efficacy statins and their side-effects. He said that a recent independent evaluation found that the drugs were of no benefit—even for secondary prevention. But GPs are probably not aware of this or don’t advise patients of this. Dr Malhotra, a celebrity cardiologist of the UK, has very forcefully led a campaign against fast foods and sugar while arguing that we are served best with wholesome Mediterranean diet which had been shown to be the best for stable heart, “but nobody knows this.”
 
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