Doctor Warns: 80% of Medical Studies are Advertisements for Big Pharma

• Doctor Warns: 80% of Medical Studies are Advertisements for Big Pharma
  by Christina Sarich, Staff Writer, WakingTimes 
  In 2015 the editor of the Lancet study admitted that pharmaceutical marketing is supported by deceitful research. Now, a new report issued by a distinguished doctor provides more insight into how drug companies manipulate scientific research in order to advance corporate interests in the realms of health and medicine.
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  A meta-analysis is an overarching view of several previously conducted scientific studies which measures both qualitative and quantitative evidence to come to a conclusion about a premise proposed by a scientist – except when that study is paid for by the very companies whom conduct the ‘analysis’ in order to sway data in their interests.
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  Though the tool of meta-analysis is used in every branch of science, it has become an important device for doctors when trying to determine the best method of treating disease. They’ve become essential, in fact, because of the sheer onslaught of medical studies coming out every year.
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  The National Institutes of Health invests nearly $32.2 billion annually for medical research alone, giving grants to a myriad of institutions involving studies conducted by over 6,000 scientists.
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  A meta-analysis is a way for a doctor to wade through the excessive information available and come to a conclusion – something he used to just ask his fellow doctors in a field about. He now relegates that task to medical studies. There’s just one problem. A new report suggests that more than 80 percent of these studies are funded by corporate interests. It’s not science these doctors are reading, but a commercial in the form of scientific literature put together by and funded by drug makers.
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  These kinds of studies are “extremely important,” according to Dr. John Ioannidis, a professor of medicine health research and policy at Stanford University. He has conducted many of these types of studies throughout his career, and he says, “They’re trying to make some sense out of a very convoluted scientific and medical literature.”
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