{"id":35977,"date":"2013-05-03T14:00:51","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T18:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=35977"},"modified":"2013-05-03T12:38:56","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T16:38:56","slug":"only-weakest-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/03\/only-weakest-links\/","title":{"rendered":"only weakest links…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A commenter<\/a> recently asked "who is your audience?" He was apparently bumfuzzled by my choice of topics [Emil Kraepelin’s politics: all ears…<\/a>, an open question…<\/a>]. It’s a good question, but I don’t know the answer [and I’m still cogitating about Kraepelin]. I’m old now, so I guess I write about what I’m thinking about. But I take his point, and will try not to ‘start in the middle" so much. <\/em><\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n

This one is easy to introduce. There’s something of a conflict brewing between two people I like – Ben Goldacre<\/font><\/strong> and David Healy<\/font><\/strong>. Goldacre is an epidemiologist associated with the Cochrane Group who is well versed in the way PHARMA has regularly manipulated clinical trial data the their advantage, and he has developed a presentation style that gets his point across effectively. He started the AllTrials campaign to get the subject level data from all clinical trials published. His strategy is to right the wrongs that have plagued us all – distorted, manipulated clinical trials used for marketing.<\/p>\n

While many of us are excited about this project, There are some worrisome aspects along the way. For example. GSK signed on with much fanfare, but want to set up an independent panel to decide who gets the data. The same with Roche. And we’re not hearing the "Hell No!"<\/font><\/strong> we want to hear coming from the AllTrial people. And they keep talking about "Study Reports." We don’t want metabolized data. We want the real thing – raw patient level data. But these are political times and watching Dr. Goldacre in the hearing [Ben vs. Roche…<\/a>], I was encouraged that he’s not going to be pushed around for long.<\/p>\n

Dr. Healy comes to the table from a different vantage, more like a soldier with a history in combat. He has been a pioneer in vetting these industry clinical trials for well over a decade – having lost a posh job for saying that SSRIs could cause akathisia – an aggressive agitation with violent thoughts and actions [suicide, homicide]. He has been an active voice in court cases – settlements against PHARMA. And there have been times when he was the only voice when a chorus was needed. He could hardly be seen as opposing the kind of reform advocated by Dr. Goldacre and others. His points are not easy to summarize, but I’ll have a shot:<\/div>\n