The Big Pharma Scandal: the Drugs Don't Work.

The biggest scandal the pharmaceutical drug companies are covering up is not the expense of their drugs, nor even their side effects. The worst scandal is that the drugs don't work - and Big Pharma knows it, says Ben Goldacre.

Reboxetine is a drug I have prescribed. Other drugs had done nothing for my patient, so we wanted to try something new. I'd read the trial data before I wrote the prescription, and found only well-designed, fair tests, with overwhelmingly positive results. Reboxetine was better than a placebo, and as good as any other antidepressant in head-to-head comparisons. It's approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (the MHRA), which governs all drugs in the UK. Millions of doses are prescribed every year, around the world. Reboxetine was clearly a safe and effective treatment. The patient and I discussed the evidence briefly, and agreed it was the right treatment to try next. I signed a prescription. Read more