Nov 1, 2012

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs What is “Eminence-based Medicine”? It means relying on the opinion of a medical specialist or other prominent health official when it comes to health matters, rather than relying on a careful assessment of relevant research evidence. You might be asking, “Who am I to...

Oct 1, 2012

Aggressive approach may lead to bigger problems DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs For most people, taking drugs for high blood pressure seems like the right thing to do, but is it? That’s the question I’m asking as I look ever more closely at what the research says about the wisdom of feeding...

Aug 1, 2012

Watch out for the marketing spin DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs • Judy M., who lives in Victoria, sent me an email asking what I knew about a vaccine to prevent a truly nasty condition called shingles. Being the third such request I’d received in as many weeks, I figured it was time to take a closer look at...

Jul 1, 2012

What you don’t know can hurt you DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs • I’ve been following the cholesterol saga – both the marketing and the science of the dreaded “high cholesterol” – for more than 15 years and I have come to a single conclusion: people, and I mean all of us, including specialists,...

Jun 1, 2012

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people's briefing note on prescription drugs •   The Canadian Cancer Society recently came out with some very welcome news –Canada’s cancer death rate is dropping. One of the biggest contributing factors has been prevention. Simply put, fewer of us are dying of cancer than in the past. And if we do get it,...

May 1, 2012

“Don’t worry, be happy” slogan could harm your baby DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people's briefing note on prescription drugs • It’s springtime in Canada and with nature in full bloom, it’s timely to reflect on reproduction in all its forms. If you’re in the drug manufacturing business, your organization exists to...

Apr 1, 2012

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people's briefing note on prescription drugs • Why is more money going towards drug discovery research than drug safety research? Because that’s what the government of Canada is paying for. Today's fortune-tellers, horoscope writers and other modern soothsayers are very compelling figures. They are magnets for...

Mar 1, 2012

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people's briefing note on prescription drugs • Psst. Hey kid, try one of these. It’s really good stuff. Thus goes the standard pitch of the schoolyard pusher, selling the benefits of the product – so to speak – and expanding his market. What he seeks is a happy client who will hopefully come back for more....

Feb 8, 2012

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people's briefing note on perscription drugs • A few years ago, I was invited to be the guest on an Ottawa radio talk show, the topic being something I was well familiar with, a book I co-wrote called Selling Sickness. The book explores how the pharmaceutical industry influences regulators, physicians and patients in order...

The people's briefing note on prescription drugs DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels I was interviewing a hospital physician in Ontario and we were discussing a drug that had recently been approved in Canada to prevent strokes and its potential to cause excessive bleeding. I knew something was wrong with this new drug, but I didn’t know how wrong until I was...