I’ve had an article on the cost of fast food waiting in the wings for several weeks, which keeps getting delayed in its publication because other topics keep coming up that take precedence – this week, again, that article will be delayed.
The topic taking precedence this week is an article published in the New York Review of Books that was written by Dr. Marcia Angell, the former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Angell has been a critic of the pharmaceutical industry throughout much of her career, and her article is partly a review of three books on the pharmaceutical industry, partly a editorial from a physician who’s gotten fed up with how the pharmaceutical industry’s drive to increase profits has invented false diseases, pushed ineffective drugs, and debased the way medicine is practiced in the United States. The article is a few years old at this point, but recent events, like this one or this one, make it as timely as ever.
Even in these short Monday articles, I often write extensively, but Dr. Angell’s article is better-sourced, better-written, and more comprehensive than anything I could hope to write. I suppose I ought to put in my obligatory statement that, even though I’m a naturopathic physician, I’m not against pharmaceutical drugs, I’m against their misuse, but I would hope that regular readers of this blog should know that by now.
Read on and enjoy – there are no easy solution to the problems raised by Dr. Angell, but the conversation is a crucial one.
