Anesthesiologist Faked Data in 21 Studies to Help Sell Billions of Dollars Worth of Potentially Dangerous Drugs
March 15th, 2009Do you get it yet?
Via: Scientific American:
Over the past 12 years, anesthesiologist Scott Reuben revolutionized the way physicians provide pain relief to patients undergoing orthopedic surgery for everything from torn ligaments to worn-out hips. Now, the profession is in shambles after an investigation revealed that at least 21 of Reuben’s papers were pure fiction, and that the pain drugs he touted in them may have slowed postoperative healing.
“We are talking about millions of patients worldwide, where postoperative pain management has been affected by the research findings of Dr. Reuben,” says Steven Shafer, editor in chief of the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia, which published 10 of Reuben’s fraudulent papers.
Paul White, another editor at the journal, estimates that Reuben’s studies led to the sale of billions of dollars worth of the potentially dangerous drugs known as COX2 inhibitors, Pfizer’s Celebrex (celecoxib) and Merck’s Vioxx (rofecoxib), for applications whose therapeutic benefits are now in question. Reuben was a member of Pfizer’s speaker’s bureau and received five independent research grants from the company. The editors do not believe patients were significantly harmed by the short-term use of these COX2 inhibitors for pain management but they say it’s possible the therapy may have prolonged recovery periods.
Unfortunately, stories like this are seen as “anomalies” — or worse, as proof that nobody gets away with such things (“See?! He was caught!”)) — by lovers of the industrial establishment, if my brother is any yardstick. He and his wife live in New Jersey, arguable the most (literally) toxic state in the US; their two natural-born children are both autistic (one severely, one mildly; their other child, the oldest, was adopted); my sister-in-law is a “DES daughter”, and as a result could only have children through the most unnatural, high-tech, chemical-laden methods known to “Science”. You’d think all this would make them at least question the industrialized world they live in; but instead, because their local school system is among the best in the nation at catering to autistic children (gee, why’s that?), they are some of the staunchest defenders I know of all things artificial and industrialized — drunk with gratitude for all the “support” they receive. To me that’s the scariest part: these multi-generation victims of perverted, greed-infested “Science” aren’t outraged by it, rather they embrace it with all their heart and soul and mind. I doubt they will ever “get it”. And they are legion.
@Anothernut – look for the GAPS diet re autistic children. Kind of amazing, and very much in tune with the teachings of Weston Price.
Uh, the editors of Scientific American have their heads up their asses if they don’t 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.
That 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 cholestrol 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 cholestrol drugs are a joke. None one is laughing at the joke but the drug companies.
Thanks, Eileen, will do.