Pros and cons of the drug industry…

Some people rabidly defend the drug companies, others are passionately against them.  When you have a chronic illness and you’re looking for answers, you’ve at times felt betrayed by the big companies, or saved by the big companies.

Marcia Angell doesn’t seem to be one to take the middle ground.  Angell worked with the New England Journal of Medicine for 20 years.  Actually, she was editor-in-chief when she left in 2000.  She listened over and over while drug companies tried to defend their products.

Now Angell has written a book – The Truth About the Drug Companies : How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It.  How can we avoid getting caught in a marketing trap that can do us more harm than good?

One of Angell’s biggest concerns is how the big companies get around the law in the USA – the law that says they can’t market drugs for things that the FDA hasn’t approved them for.

“Off label” drugs have been life savers for migraineurs at times (see this article on off labels).  But when can the research be trusted?  When can the FDA be trusted?  Is there a way we can make helpful drugs more available while at the same time safer?  These should be questions we’re all asking.

It’s one opinion, but it’s a reminder to be cautious before we buy into everything we hear.  Some of us have had to learn that lesson the hard way.