A Doctor’s Dilemma: When Crucial New-Drug Data Is Hidden

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/21/drugs-industry-scandal-ben-goldacre

This recent article from the guardian uncovers the truth behind the trials for drug testing, and new evidence supports the idea that many drugs that are released to the general public in the United Kingdom do not actually do what they are meant to do. Researchers and scientists support the supposed success of their drugs by providing false information. Their false claims are then interpreted to be true and then the medicine is produced in mass quantities for people to use. 

The first of these drugs that was busted was reboxetine, an antidepressant drug. A trial was done with 254 patients, comparing the effectiveness of reboxetine with a placebo. There was virtually no difference between them, except for one random success story (which was later used as evidence by scientists to be effective and allowed them to release it to the market). After that, reboxetine was compared to other antidepressant drugs on the market. This time, 507 patients were tested in three trials. The results of those studies found that those similar dugs were just as ineffective as reboxetine. 

This is a major issue because the patients taking the medication and the doctors relying on the statistics are actually getting poor information. The information that we absolutely rely on to be true on a day to day basis is provided by health care regulators, but if these drugs aren't doing what they were allegedly supposed do then how can we rely on the effectiveness of other drugs that we use?