Many orthopedic surgeons, however, were slow to adopt COX2 inhibitors due to animal studies that showed short-term use might hinder bone healing. Then, in 2004, Vioxx and Bextra were pulled from the market because of their link to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, leaving Pfizer's Celebrex as the only COX2 inhibitor available. Celebrex sales plunged 40 percent after a study that same year suggesting that it, too, posed a heart attack risk. Despite this, Reuben continued to present "findings" in research funded by Pfizer that trumpeted Celebrex's alleged benefits and downplayed its potential negative side effects.
He apparently hoped to erase doubts by persuading orthopedic surgeons to co-author papers with him based on his bogus data. In 2005 he and Evan Ekman, an orthopedic surgeon at Southern Orthopaedic Sports Medicine in Columbia, S.C., published a study on the use of Celebrex to control pain in back surgery patients. "The short-term administration of celecoxib," they wrote in the paper published in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, "results in no significant deleterious effect on bone or ligament healing or cardiovascular outcomes."
Three years later, Reuben's career would begin to unravel as Ekman began to suspect foul play. In addition to collaborating with Reuben on the now-retracted Celebrex study, Ekman agreed to review a Reuben manuscript on surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee. But when he asked the anesthesiologist for the name of the orthopedic surgeon on the study, Reuben ceased communication with him.
Then, last year, Ekman was invited by Pfizer to give a talk. While there, he was handed a version of the very manuscript Reuben had asked him to review, which had subsequently been published in Anesthesia & Analgesia. To his surprise, and horror, he was listed as a co-author: Reuben had forged his signature on the submission form, Ekman says.
By then, Editor in Chief Shafer had already put several Reuben manuscripts on hold after learning that Baystate had initiated a probe into the validity of his research. The investigation later identified 21 articles based on patient data that had been partially or completely doctored. Although Pfizer funded Reuben's research between 2002 and 2007, Baystate has no records of those payments and says that the research funds could have been paid directly to Reuben. Such an arrangement would be "highly unusual," Shafer notes. "It's just a little frustrating," Baystate spokesperson Jane Albert says. "I don't know how many dollars went to Dr. Reuben or his group."
Pfizer spokesperson Sally Beatty insists the grants were properly disbursed to Baystate in accordance with Pfizer policy. "Pfizer is not familiar with the records retention policies of Baystate Medical Center," she says, "However, independent investigator-initiated research grant agreements were executed between Pfizer and Baystate Medical Center." Beatty was unable to provide information on the dollar amount of the grants, but editor White says they typically range between $10,000 to $100,000.
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Add CommentFame and fortune what wont we do to achieve it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf this charge is true, this man could have, may have killed people. He should never be allowed to practice medicine or do research. He should spend a long time in jail. We have seen a lot of this kind of fraudulent research in the past few years. We need to wake up and put a stop to it. This is dangerous to too many people.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are a lot of psychopaths in medicine. There are a lot of violent doctors in medicine. There is a lot of patient abuse in medicine. There is a lot of retaliation of whistleblowers in medicine. But everyone gets paid...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is the deal? Does it just seem this way of late or has greed always been this rampant in the United States? Were is the oversight of not only the financial institions but now the medical profession? Doesn't anyone question anyhting anymore? These are all rhethorical questions, mainly because no one in these fields has the answers or the cajones to ask these question to get the answers. Deplorable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is utter nonsense. Is there no oversight anywhere? Obviously not in the financial sector. But my god ,21 faked studies,,published no less! Where was the peer review? Is greed this rampant witin our society?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe hospital, Baystate should give every penny back that it took for the research and they should refund every payment made for every dose of drug that was taken because of the research. The lawyers who went after the Vioxx makers should find that hospital at fault too. Just think of all the patients over all the years that had a drug based upon that research around the world. the people who run his hospital probably benfited and publicized him
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOkay, let's get the obvious out of the way. George W. Bush is a failed businessman who bullied his way to the top of the U.S. political heap by odious means, using his daddy's and thieving granddaddy's money. And Christians, like other people who are not reality-based, do irrational things. What does this have to do with a research system with built-in bias, where big money buys the findings it wants? The cure for that is better peer review, not sputtering about politicians or religious idiots. When research lacks peer review, blame the journal editors who publish it and then adjust the publication standards. That is what will correct at least some of the money-induced bias.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKudos to whoever wrote the hed on this one. :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Subtle" pressure by the drug manufacturers? I doubt it. I notice this guy got funding for 21 studies over twelve years. I would bet that those who pointed out the faults of these drugs got nowhere near that much. That is why this guy had so much influence: he got the finding and therefore presented results where the more honest researchers did not.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe way to stop this is criminal charges: not just for the guy who faked the research, but for the people who steered the funding to the one who said what they wanted.
To Craig83472, I think the angst of benmlee simply reflects the attitude of many: that waving the flag and cross has no place in science, but alas, they both have long been, continues to be and will continue to be, invoked to ignore necessary research, legitimize other research, and to provide a high moral ground which lubricates funding and the billions of dollars which results from it in the US.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIndeed, faith-based reality should not have a place in pure science, as you say, but I am certainly not the first, nor will I be the last, to note that there has been too little real science in much of American science.
In the 80s the entire AIDS industry in the US was predicated on immune response to certain drugs provided by doctors with ties to the companies pushing their products and it wasn't until 1991--almost a decade after AIDS was identified on some level--that there was any idea of what indeed, a normal immune response was, with adjustments for seasonal and demographic variables. And that 1991 paper--the last time I checked on this--there was a simple, cheap study which laid a modest bit of ground work in this area. (Which I rather doubt was picked up and continued.)
Rather than recognize AIDS as an opportunity to understand how our immune systems might work (e.g. cancers) and to gather data to improve its functioning, AIDS was instead used as a splendid opportunity to marginalize already marginalized groups. (And in due course, as in shock capitalism, a windfall for the pharmaceutical industry.)
Science is only as good as the society which produces it. And we, as Americans with a long, complex history of religious and cultural beliefs telling us what we can and can't say, (e.g., Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, whose members became the CDC) have much room for improvement. There needs to be national standards and a national goal of pure science--science where no one, nor any corporation benefits. And if this isn't achieved, US science will continue to slide against countries or cultural blocks, like the EU, where the system can indeed allow open and free peer review by individuals who can speak and work as scientist and have no fear of being punished for having unpopular views.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs if the painful frauds from the global finance and business sectors have not been hurtful enough, we now hear increasingly frequent malpractices from the esteemed and respectable world of science where human lives are often literally at stake.
What prices morality when fame and wealth take the prime precedence?
Such a sickening and rotten world, what has it degraded to?
(Tan Boon Tee)
Wow, another sad day for America. Unfortunately, this "subtle pressure" from pharmaceutical companies exists because these companies are the primary funds behind medical research. It's hard to be a research doctor with no funds, which is why there should be active legislature to keep doctors funded in an ethical manner from the government. As long as that government is not like the one under W., then I think we'll be alright. Here's hoping that all the people affected by this loser anesthesiologist are alright too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe entire concept of medicine and health care makes it highly corruptible. When someone gets sick they must trust a doctor to save them. The doctor knows that they prefer life to death and ease to pain. They tell them "give me money, or you'll suffer and die." The amount of money the doctor asks for is dependent upon the severity of the injury/illness and the patient's proximity to death.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile there are many who are in the profession to help people, the companies that back them are not trying to help, they're trying to make money. This means that the drug companies and the hospital management are going to set prices for medications and procedures based not on the value of the goods and services being provided, but on what people are willing to pay.
I'm never surprised when I hear about corruption in the medical industry. It's just the nature of the system.
only suprised we havent heard of more 'Madoffs':
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.plos.org/cms/node/424
This is a wonderful example of why we are doctors. We check the data and decide on the basis of training and experience what is the best thing to do. While there were a lot of physicians who used these drugs for post operative pain, many suspected that the studies showing that bone healing was delayed meant the risk was too high. I am sure many orthopedists like me did not use these medications in bone injuries for these very reasons. If we have a government system where everything is done by "guidelines" or "best practices," we will lose the protection of individual physicians' judgement. Think about this while clamoring for a
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisgovernment run health system. Peter Barry M.D. orthopedic surgeon
My father, in my opinion, was murdered by his physician. When I tried to report the crime, I was brushed off with "we're sorry that your father died but he was 93." He died 5 days after being given a bolus of KCl to raise his K above 2.8. I was present when the bolus was administered against his wish and against my wish as the person with power of attorney for his health care. He clutched his chest and fell back in his bed. He was tired and weak until his death. A bolus of KCl is used in the California gas chamber to arrest the heart after respiratory arrest is caused by the IV barbiturate mixture. The punishment for the physician was that his medical group stopped admitting patients to the hospital.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy father, in my opinion, was murdered by his physician. When I tried to report the crime, I was brushed off with "we're sorry that your father died but he was 93." He died 5 days after being given a bolus of KCl to raise his K above 2.8. I was present when the bolus was administered against his wish and against my wish as the person with power of attorney for his health care. He clutched his chest and fell back in his bed. He was tired and weak until his death. A bolus of KCl is used in the California gas chamber to arrest the heart after respiratory arrest is caused by the IV barbiturate mixture. The punishment for the physician was that his medical group stopped admitting patients to the hospital.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeer review looks at how well a study is designed, whether analyses and conclusions are appropriate, etc. However, reviewers assume honesty. That's just how science works. Only study replication can catch true dishonesty.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is an OUTRAGE. Delaying the healing effects after surgery, possibly cause further bone damage and tissue damage. One and above the already previously known side effects of increased heart attacks. To me this is another strike agains the big PHARMA comapnies trying to push more meds to FIX more problems, when in reality we have very little to no data to support the log-term effects of any of these meds. The reality is the 50% of these meds, work on 50% of the people 50% of the time. Yet we think they will FIX the problem, b/c the TV ad says it is the NEW BEST thing to cure. We all need to wake up and realize that there is noo MAGIC PILL to fix us. TRUE health come from wellness care and taking care of the body and promoting the body to heal NATURALLY!..NO MEDS! We need to seek out healthcare providers that treat the cause, and promote PROACTIVE healthcare, not retroactive(fix me when i am broken) healthcare. This is only going to be the tip of the big PHARMA companies going to get torn down. when the true studies start to surface in the next 5-20 yrs about the log-term effects of these miracle pills, the mass action lawsuits will cripple the industry. When some comapny eventualy says A caused B, it will cause a ripple effect and HUGE lawsuits will be the result. The we will need to step up and say, how do I need to heal and what can I do to help promote the healing process. ot just cover it will a bandade medication and say i will deal with it later.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is an OUTRAGE. Delaying the healing effects after surgery, possibly cause further bone damage and tissue damage. One and above the already previously known side effects of increased heart attacks. To me this is another strike agains the big PHARMA comapnies trying to push more meds to FIX more problems, when in reality we have very little to no data to support the log-term effects of any of these meds. The reality is the 50% of these meds, work on 50% of the people 50% of the time. Yet we think they will FIX the problem, b/c the TV ad says it is the NEW BEST thing to cure. We all need to wake up and realize that there is noo MAGIC PILL to fix us. TRUE health come from wellness care and taking care of the body and promoting the body to heal NATURALLY!..NO MEDS! We need to seek out healthcare providers that treat the cause, and promote PROACTIVE healthcare, not retroactive(fix me when i am broken) healthcare. This is only going to be the tip of the big PHARMA companies going to get torn down. when the true studies start to surface in the next 5-20 yrs about the log-term effects of these miracle pills, the mass action lawsuits will cripple the industry. When some comapny eventualy says A caused B, it will cause a ripple effect and HUGE lawsuits will be the result. The we will need to step up and say, how do I need to heal and what can I do to help promote the healing process. ot just cover it will a bandade medication and say i will deal with it later.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is an OUTRAGE. Delaying the healing effects after surgery, possibly cause further bone damage and tissue damage. One and above the already previously known side effects of increased heart attacks. To me this is another strike agains the big PHARMA comapnies trying to push more meds to FIX more problems, when in reality we have very little to no data to support the log-term effects of any of these meds. The reality is the 50% of these meds, work on 50% of the people 50% of the time. Yet we think they will FIX the problem, b/c the TV ad says it is the NEW BEST thing to cure. We all need to wake up and realize that there is noo MAGIC PILL to fix us. TRUE health come from wellness care and taking care of the body and promoting the body to heal NATURALLY!..NO MEDS! We need to seek out healthcare providers that treat the cause, and promote PROACTIVE healthcare, not retroactive(fix me when i am broken) healthcare. This is only going to be the tip of the big PHARMA companies going to get torn down. when the true studies start to surface in the next 5-20 yrs about the log-term effects of these miracle pills, the mass action lawsuits will cripple the industry. When some comapny eventualy says A caused B, it will cause a ripple effect and HUGE lawsuits will be the result. The we will need to step up and say, how do I need to heal and what can I do to help promote the healing process. ot just cover it will a bandade medication and say i will deal with it later.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFortunately or unfortunately, doctors are people, some good, some not so good. This is egregious, but by no means exceptional. There was the case of a pair some time ago who produce murine skin transplants, wherein black mouse skin appeared on white mice. All went well until an oversight on the part of one investigator ended their careers. Ink from some magic markers dissolves with water; the transplanted mouse lost its adopted skin color when the water tube leaked.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe the entire pain management/anesthesiology specialty is culpable in this mess. It wouldn't be too difficult to predict that nonopioid medications would be ineffective against postoperative pain. These physicians are intimate with big pharma "research." I propose a specialty-wide survey: How many anesthesiologists chose Lyrica and Celebrex for THEIR postoperative pain management? Hands, please? Right, I thought not....I'll be contacting my attorney tomorrow.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this" Is greed this rampant witin our society?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYES.
1. Of course you should blame it on George W...this started during the Clinton Administration.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this2. Why the slander towards Christians?
3. The election is over...get over it.
4. God bless you
A number of points should be made here:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. There must be others involved at Baystate to generate this kind of fraud. Reuben cannot have acted alone to produce this number of studies over more than a decade.
2. There is a problem with current medical journals that they tend not to want to publish negative results or publish confirmatory studies that repeat earlier designs.
3. There is a pressure in academia to "publish or perish" that causes some scientists (physicians or otherwise) to fabricate results to generate new exciting findings. Better oversight needs to be put in place and the costs of fraud needs to be substantial-prison, loss of license etc.
4. Society needs to invest more money to fund research independent of drug company influence through agencies like NIH, CIHR, MRC etc.
BTW Just for the record there are many studies other than Reuben's that support the use of COX2 and Pregabalin-like drugs for postoperative pain. If I was having orthopedic surgery there is no question that I would have these medications to reduce pain. I am also a physician who does research. My aim is to determine through rigorous methods the HONEST results of such interventions. I do not have any funding from drug companies. Reuben is a rare anomaly-much like Madoff. Believe it or not the vast majority of physicians want only one thing-the best care of their patients. To suggest otherwise is to insult the many honest and hard working physicians worldwide.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnimal experimentation is a fraud. Results are not reliable because there are significant differences between humans and non-humans. We can add that the results of animal experimentation are in various cases manipulated so that scientists 'prove' the drug being tested produces certain results.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe fact that such tests are non-conclusive is very useful for the pharmaceutical industry. There are scientific tests done today using human cells. The results in this case are conclusive but if people are cured they will be less profitable as they'll buy fewer medicines.
Good, we have a clever lawyer, Ingrid Martin of Dwyer and Collora, helping a clever doctor, Scott Reuben. The result is that the clever doctor "deeply regrets that this happened." Bullshit, my clever friends. It didn't HAPPEN. Someone DID it. Do you need a lesson about grammar? Getting hit by lightning is something happening. Running a fraud is doing something. Or do you both need a lesson about responsibility? The public, who used to patronize Ms Martin and Dr Reuben, is onto sleaze, and it's likely to make you both lightning rods for all the righteous indignation building up in this country. A lightning rod is a thing something HAPPENS to.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo here's a little lesson in responsibility for Ms Martin. If there's anything to regret (it seems you both agree on the truth of what's alleged), it's the fact that your sleazy client DEFRAUDED people in pain and their doctors. Evidently you think when someone is a FRAUD, the right response is to get some committee to GUIDE him to take steps so he stops being such a FRAUD with the result that UNNAMED BAD THINGS stop HAPPENING.
Get a life, Ms Martin. We don't need no stinking committee, no stinking guidance, no stinking steps. All we need is to make sure this FRAUD is disbarred and then put behind bars.
If the two of you are plotting the return of this FRAUD to a career of medical research or anesthesiology, in which he PROMISES never to let something like this HAPPEN again, we'd all appreciate a public warning ...
"looking forward for another jew to get caught" Excuse me?!? While I agree that it's good that he was caught, this has to do with medical ethics, not religion. Keep your anti-semetic BS to yourself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIts really sad to see such a thing happen. Most medical research starts as an independent enquiry into an oversight or inclination of a doctor. Restricting and closing down avenues of freedom may cut down the field a doctor may view his research with. e must find a way in which big drug companies are isolated from the prescribing doctor and more importantly find a linear stream of funding such that doctors are independent from manipulating their results to suit the giant pharma companies. This is a shameful episode and goes against all that we promise when we take the Hippocratic oath. Makes one think again about the sanctity of the medical professionals.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"This is egregious, but by no means exceptional." Indeed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen I was teaching organic chem lab at a private university, we kept our eyes peeled for a practice that had been reported at some major state schools: pre-med majors spiking each others' reagents with concentrated sulfuric acid. Every competitor you could stab in the back increased your chance of getting a med school slot.
I've also read articles and letters recently in the New York Times in which physicians defend the practice of hospital interns and residents working ludicrously long shifts. What was the reason for that again? Better medical care and personal interactions for patients by a person who's so tired they don't even know what day it is? Learning how to act intelligently in situations with extraordinary stresses? In other professions where people make life-and-death decisions, such as airline pilots and truck drivers, adequate rest is mandated by law. And when soldiers need to learn to deal with astonishing stresses, it's done in supervised situations like basic training or wilderness drops where errors in judgment have limited potential for damage to other people. When you apply the same logic to physicians, the excuses are stripped away, and this practice is revealed for what it is: cheap labor for hospitals, and a cruel form of hazing as an initiation into a private club.
I also read a recent article in which a pediatrician was complaining about Obama's push for computerized medical records. She was asserting that using a tablet or PDA instead of a piece of paper would make her less compassionate and personal toward her patients. Call me a cynic, but based on my experience with physicians over the years, it's also conceivable she would feel insulted or diminished if some piece of software popped up a dialog to say, "You want to give this person drug X, but they're also taking drug Y which has bad interactions, please confirm or cancel."
Doctors need to put their patients ahead of their egos, treat people as human beings instead of bags of symptoms, and have zero tolerance for malfeasance, both among those already in the profession and those who aspire to it. After that, I suspect this kind of corrupt fraud will become exceptional.
You're wrong on this one. A lot of the organization the Bush machine used was Christian Reconstruction is and/or Dominionist, like Hagee, Buchannan and others whose "faith" is descended from Calvinists. Deregulation is, for them, a tenet of faith: gog favors the wealthy as shown by the fact of their wealth; vice versa for the poor. Mountaintop removal, pollution of the environment (God's gonna fix it anyway) is all fine with them, and people hurt by their actions don't matter. They're not rich, so God has shown He doesn't care about them. These people are also, most of them, End-Timers, hoping, working and scamming for Armageddon, the End of the World. They figure they' all be "Raptured" into the air to be with Jesus (many of these people believe in the "Left Behind" book series as though it was part of the New Testament), and they'll get to go to Heaven without even having to die! Hagee especially has been working for the End Times in the Middle East, and has a lot of short-sighted Israelis on his side.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRadical Right cult Christianity has a great deal to do with this, I'm afraid. The family that owns Blackwater is also Dominionist. Like Rove and the rest of that group, they quote Empire-building dictators and philosophers like Machiavelli, Lenin, and Hitler as readily as they do the Bible. These are people they admire. They talk about the Warrior Jesus, and how He's going to kick ass the next time He shows up.
It's all tied into the deregulation, the trade agreements, anti-unionism, anti-OSHA and anti-civil rights people in the Bush administration. And no one seems to have noticed how many Bush Administration people Obama has appointed to his Cabinet and to other posts. There has been and will be little real change. Profits are the major mover in this country because it's owned and controlled by wealthy banking families and corporatists. They don't like regulation of any kind, and they've done an incredible job getting shut of it.
Ian
Uh, the editors of Scientific American have their heads up their asses if they dont believe patients were significantly harmed. What a crock of bullshit. With all the lawsuits re Viox and Celebrex killing people, I wonder how this guy kept himself under the rug for so long? Or this magazine can actually put this nonsensical opinion in print under their signature.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat Reuben got his research funding from a bunch of gonads who could give to good poops about who takes their medicines and what happens to them when they take it speaks for itself.
I think the USA and New Zealand (?) are the only two countries left on the planet that allow drug companies to air TV adds re drugs. I watch CBS Sunday Morning, and its a drug company cram in. Lipitor save my heart sang one guy today before I could put on the mute. Im still waiting for all of the poor souls who bought into the high cholesterol scares to be SHOCKED when they learn these life saving drugs are starving their bodies of the fat content they need in order to not only survive, but thrive in the human body. Lipitor and other cholesterol drugs are a joke. None one is laughing at the joke but the drug companies.
Uh, the editors of Scientific American have their heads up their as%$# if they don’t believe patients were significantly harmed. What a crock of bullshift. With all the lawsuits re Viox and Celebrex killing people, I wonder how this guy kept himself under the rug for so long? Or this magazine can actually put this nonsensical opinion in print under their signature.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat Reuben got his research funding from a bunch of gonads who could give to good poops about who takes “their medicines” and what happens to them when they take it speaks for itself.
I think the USA and New Zealand (?) are the only two countries left on the planet that allow drug companies to air TV adds re drugs. I watch CBS Sunday Morning, and its a drug company cram in. “Lipitor save my heart” sang one guy today before I could put on the mute. I’m still waiting for all of the poor souls who bought into the high cholesterol scares to be SHOCKED when they learn these “life saving drugs” are starving their bodies of the fat content they need in order to not only survive, but thrive in the human body. Lipitor and other cholesterol drugs are a joke. None one is laughing at the joke but the drug companies.
DrGreg, keep in mind that if Mr. Obama had his way, drug companies would have been held BLAMELESS in drug injury cases such what may come out of this. That little piece of legislation, hidden deep within the bogus stimulus bill, was forced out of the bill.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr. Greg, remember that Mr. Obama would have held these drug companies BLAMELESS if that little bit of legislation got through in his bogus stimulus bill.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI love his lawyer saying that "he is taking steps to ensure this never happens again". Thanks. I feel much safer now. While we're at it, can we have Charles Manson take steps to ensure that mass murders never occur again? This guy, by the way, probably contributed directly or indirectly to the deaths of many more people than Manson ever dreamed. Charlie would have been proud.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeriously though, I'm glad this has come to public attention on a mass scale. Those of us in the natural healing arts have known about this kind of abuse for a long time but most people have not been that receptive to our outcries. For years, medical "science" has called us unscientific. HA! We can now see exactly how scientific medicine really is! It's all made up!! Meanwhile, natural healing arts (chiropractic, massage, herbalism, Chinese medicine, homeopathy, etc) has accumulated thousands and thousands of success stories but are told that this is "anecdotal" and therefore not within the realm of "real science". HA!! Which would you rather have...10,000 success stories or 21 fictional studies backing your care??
I rest my case.
jennifersorkin:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy God, could you be any more ignorant? Who let the Nazi Monkey Satan Worshiper in the room?
Well, look at this! It disgusts me to no end.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou know, the FDA, Health Canada and other such organizations, including the scientific medical Community, should clean up their own acts before they criticise the Natural Health Industry, herbalists, and other alternative healers. Now, who is practicing quackery?
What about the other fields of mainstream medicine, where financial influence is just as rampant? It seems to me that many of the quacks are in mainstream medical research, and receiving big bucks from those who are profiting by billions of dollars on the health of the public, or should I say, on the medically over-drugged public....
All the best,
Laurie Lacey
http://www.naturalhealingtalk.com
This should be no suprise to anyone. The pharmacutical companies have had, are having and will continue to have their way with the FDA and the AMA because of the money involved. They're all paid off and the dirty secret is that we are killing ourselves with dangerous drugs and chemical laden foods. Who's watching the store? answer, No one. Reuben is the tip of the iceberg and a convenient fall guy. He deserves to do real time, which I doubt he ever will, but Pfiser and Merk will continue on their merry way foisting their poisons on unsuspecting and trusting (I don't know why anyone would trust these guys) patients whoes lives will be cut short do to their malfeasance.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis should come as no surprise. Big Pharma has had, is having and will continue to have it's way for one simple reason. Money. It's all about money and Reuben is just the tip of the iceberg. He deserves to do hard time, but I doubt he ever will, these types never do. He is just a conveient scape goat for the moment and will soon be forgotten while Pfizer and Merck continue on their merry way foisting their poisons on unsuspecting and, tragically, trusting patients who's live will be cut short do to their malfeasance. Who's watching the store? Answer: No One. The dirty secret is that everyone is paid off and nobody talks. Meanwhile they rake in billions by convincing the population that they can't live without their drugs. If it wasn't so serious, it would be funny.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor the past 40 years I have been a researcher and clinical podiatric orthopedist, looking for alternative protocols to eliminate chronic musculoskeletal pain without using drugs or surgery. Just recently I published a book that discusses the failure of drugs and surgery to eliminate chronic pain (see www.ForeverFreeFromChronicPain.com). Unfortunately, I believe what has come to light with Dr Reuben is not an isolated case.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProf/Dr Brian A Rothbart
Here is a direct link to AnesthesiologyNews.com to bypass it's login.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.anesthesiologynews.com/index.asp?ses=ogst§ion_id=3&show=dept&issue_id=494&article_id=12634
I will leave it up to the courts to assign responsibility for the negligence involved here. I believe both Pfizer and Reuben have a case to answer, but I expect that Reuben will bear the consequences. You can do a quick finger count, from previous comments, of the way the wind blows here, and I make my prediction accordingly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn my humble opinion, the amount of money that goes into drug development and testing is obscene. It speaks far more clearly of a powerful industry lobby than of health needs which could be addressed by preventative measures. Simple things, like clean water, clean air, food which is not full of antibiotics, additives and chemical sludges that have moved up the food chain. Not to mention a national health insurance scheme that assures heath care for all.
Instead, we are regularly bombarded on the news with info-mercials about the latest miracle cure for some rare disease. The need to gain and reward stockholders has a greater influence on what is offered for sale than the social needs of the populace.
Don't get me wrong. I am in no way excusing or explaining away the sad and contemptible behaviour of Dr Reubens. What I mean to do, is flag the systemic flaws in a highly entreprenurial system of product development, removed only in improved sophistication and much-elaborated social and scientific protocols from the developers and purveyors of snake oil, 100 years ago.
This, unfortunately, is just the tip of the iceberg emerging. The ranks of investigators who produce sham data that will please the drug companies that fund them are legion, both in human and veterinary medicine. I personally know of a prominent professor whose grad students were always assigned a first project testing drugs in animals. The raw data from these drug trials were submitted to the professor, never again seen by the student, then published by the professor as sole author in papers "that the drug companies liked." The prof became a rich man.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReuben, alas, is only one of many, many investigators who submit fraudulent data and results to please the drug makers who, in turn, fund them. I personally knew a late professor at a top-notch university who had each of his grad students complete a first drug trial on animals. The results of each trial were submitted to him, and the students never saw them until they appeared in a paper with the prof as sole author. These papers always pleased the drug maker, though the student who conducted the trial often didn't recognize the data. The students were afraid to speak out, the prof became rich.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is insane. I have an idea why don't you do major back surgery on this guy, and give him all these so called miracle drugs, let's see if Viox, Celebrex help him with the pain. I'm sure he is not going to want MORPHINE,da...get REAL DOC.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan we who took the drugs sue the bastards
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan we who took the drugs sue the bast**ds
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisso name him.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeer review of research articles cannot detect this kind of fraud. A peer reviewer can only examine whether the article AS WRITTEN is correct with regard to background, methods, interpretation of results, statistical analysis, etc. Peer reviewers are not privy to researchers lab.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHOW HAS THIS ISSUE EVEN BECOME A RELIGIOUS ONE! You guys are such idiots!!! You'll find any way of bashing religion, especially Christianity, any chance you get.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBOTTOMLINE: Pharmaceutical companies will do ANYTHING to sell their product. They're not in it for people's health. Its pfizer.com, NOT pfizer.org.
Our healthcare system is such a mess. We're such a drug-dependent country and ALL MD's are at the mercy of drugs cause that's all they know how to do: prescribe drugs!
That's why there's so many extremists out there that are against our medical system and healthcare system. It's because the citizens of America are so blinded by the fact that we're being raped by drug companies thinking its "for our own good", that sometimes extreme actions or ideologies have to be voiced in order to wake some of us up.
Stop contributing to the rapist. There are many natural, safe, and effective ways of treating health conditions other than drugs!
Once upon a time I had faith in the peer reviewed medical literature and then one day the hand painte spotted mouse appeared and my belief in the purity of scientific articles vanished. Over the years falcified data has been published in even the best reviewd and edited journals. Retractions have become all to common. This is not the fault of the reviewers orthe editors but of authors who are devoid of scruples and honor. It is impossible to understand how they fail to appreciate that science is selfcorrecting and that fradulent data can not be reproduced. The penalities for such misbehavior must be strengthened. Even highly ranked members of departments at prestigious instutions have been associated with such scandelous activities. At the very least the names of dishonest investigators should be widely published and they should not be permitted to have subsequent manuscripts considered for publication in journals whose trust they have violated.
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