This is a reposting from August [a little light reading…]. Today, Ed Silverman of Pharmalot has an interview with Marc Rodwin, the Safra Fellow who put this collection together [see Pharma Corruption Hurts Patient Care & Medical Knowledge: Rodwin Explains]. It’s a good interview and a heady collection, but well worth the investment…
hat tip to Ben Goldacre on Twitter 
One can see some of the objective damage from illegal industry activity, as far as corrupting medical knowlege goes, when analyizing the FDAs adverse events reporting database.
“Serious Adverse Drug Events Reported to the Food and Drug Administration, 1998-2005”
Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(16):1752-1759. doi:10.1001/archinte.167.16.1752.
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http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=486856
“This study shows that substantially growing numbers of patients are experiencing serious injuries from drug therapy, although the exact magnitude of the population increase cannot be estimated from these data. ”
If you look though table 4, you’ll notice Clonazpine at # 3, risperdone is # 9, and Olanzapine is #13 in the top 15 drugs that have caused adverse events resulting in death.
The leading drug causing adverse event deaths was oxycodone. The leading drug causing non-fatal serious harm or disability were Estrogens (birth control) – now available over the counter. Somehow insulin is #2 on that list, though it makes sense not to think millions of people can personally inject themselves with insulin 3 times a day without ever eventually making a mistake.