Mais pessoas deveriam ler este livro, essencial para um civilização hedonista e hipocondríaca

Dr. Angell is angry at the big pharmaceutical companies, or at least was when she wrote this in 2004. As such, she perhaps overreaches at times during the course of this indictment against big pharma and the American way of dealing with prescription medicines. You come across the word "reportedly," meaning, "I haven't been able to confirm this, but other people say it's true." And, "I strongly suspect," meaning, "I have every reason to believe this is true, but I can't prove it, and it probably wouldn't stand up in court. (It's understandable that not all of her suspicions can be proven; the drug companies aren't exactly forthcoming.)
Still, there is enough substance here to make one wary of pharmaceutical companies (if one wasn't already). I strongly suspect that after reading this book you'll wonder whether to accept it at face value the next time your doctor prescribes a drug.
Because of that, the best part of the book is the "Afterword," in which Angell tells you what questions you should ask your doctor, and what questions you should ask politicians.
This book made me feel blessed to have the doctor that I have (and his office), because he's not quick to write out prescriptions for every complaint, and his office seems to strive to find the least expensive alternative for me when a prescription is necessary.
My doctor even once talked me out of a medicine I wanted him to prescribe. Yes, I admit it. I'd seen it advertised on TV.

Opinionated, self-righteous polemic. I guess it's one side of the story.

It's so true and sadly, even in 2020, the situations only get worse....

Eye-opening and compelling reading. I'd have given this book five stars, except for three things: (1) I'd like to read an updated edition, since this was written nearly a decade ago, (2) Angell's stubborn refusal to capitalize "Big Pharma" throughout the book, and (3) there's one assertion that the author makes that I just can't get behind.

I acknowledge that I'm not a doctor, but as an educated medical consumer, I don't buy the idea that individual differences are meaningless and there's no use for new, different "me-too" drugs. Why, then, are race and sex differences in a drug's performance noted in the prescribing information? Personal anecdata: the first two antidepressants I tried didn't work for me at all, and one made me worse; the third worked like a charm. If individual differences didn't matter at all, wouldn't the first medication have helped me?

My doubt on that one point pervaded my reading of this book, but I still found it to be worthwhile reading.

I'm about halfway through it and it's informative. However, her rhetoric is so inflammatory and critical that it makes me doubt her credibility and political agenda. She is clearly biased against pharmaceutical companies.

Angell states that many for-profit drug companies are receiving federal research funding of some sort. Her view is that if taxpayers fund the research then private companies should not be able to profit from the resulting drugs which come to market. Her argument is that many people cannot afford the drugs that big pharma makes and therefore it is not fair that the U.S. subsidizes research with public funds.

She fails to address the argument that the economic benefits the United States derives from such research subsidies could possibly outweigh the harm done by people unable to afford the resulting drugs. She also left me wanting more analysis as to whether Medicare/Medicaid will subsidize prescription purchases for these consumers who she claims cannot afford such drugs.

Also, she claims that the FDA is not intrusive enough in their requirements for new drugs to go to market. I was under the impression that most other countries acknowledge approval by the U.S. FDA as sort of the gold standard.

Just because I had questions unresolved doesn't mean this isn't a useful read. For example, I haven't been able to find much popular literature (i.e. books available on my Kindle or on iTunes) which discuss what she claims is rampant abuses of marketing efforts by drug companies. I don't necessarily believe that gift bags full of paperweights and water bottles from pharmaceutical companies can affect an intelligent conference attendee's ethics, but I think it's useful to understand the arguments and practices in the industry.

Hmm, what to say. My husband and I watched a documentary recently about the prescription drug industry in Canada. Marcia Angell was one of the experts they interviewed and I wanted to read more of her opinions. Of course, this book is very USA-centered because that is where Dr. Angell lives, works, and 'experiences' the prescription drug industry.

Anyway, the book if full of eye-opening information about the way the drug companies wriggle around a lot of laws, not only FDA types laws but the 'laws' of good scientific practice. The massive focus on marketing to physicians was a disturbing fact to read about but not really surprising when you think about it. Another fact that bothered me was that the drug companies, in the US, can use publicly funded research and still claim that their cost are so high because their R&D costs them so much. Pretty low. There's more, and it a worthwhile book to read if a person has an interest in the subject.

I also found this book a bit repetetive and I had the sense it might not be a completely balanced or objective story so I've asked my library to get me another book on this subject recommended by someone here on Goodreads.

One of the top 25 books of the 21st century.

I read it for my health law paper and it scared me to death. So if you're into reading about why prescription drug companies are crazy/scary/manipulative/dangerous gazillionaires, knock yourself out.

Clear and cogent explanation of pharmaceutical industry and the crucial roles that industry-friendly legislation has played in creating the billion-dollar behemoth. It was updated 9 years ago, but a new addition would be helpful.

I found this book fascinating, written by a very credible author who has had decades of experience with the industry. I have the entire book paperclipped to mark pages to refer to for later reference. This book is incredibly eye-opening, and in places, jaw dropping about how corrupt big pharma is and the lengths they go to to use the mass population as their guinea pigs. i would recommend this book to anyone concerned about what is going on in the medical field or with the pharmaceutical industry.

Very informative and well written; however, the information is somewhat out of date. I would love to see a revised and updated edition of this book.