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Dear BSI Community,
This week we pick up with Dr. Malcolm Kendrick’s series on research manipulation. In
Part 1 he described how diseases are defined, and parameters are manipulated to widen the market of those ‘needing’ treatment. In
Part 2 he explains how drug companies use surrogate end-points to expedite their clinical studies and justify their treatments for use on those that may not need it.
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RESEARCH MANIPULATION PART 2
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SURROGATE END-POINTS
By Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
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While most people think they are prescribed a treatment to cure or prevent an actual disease, the drugs are frequently only designed to reduce a symptom. They may do nothing to prevent the underlying problem. As an example, coronary heart disease (CHD) is
a real disease that can cause heart attacks and death. High cholesterol levels have been associated with coronary heart disease (CHD), so the though is that reducing cholesterol levels will reduce heart attacks and death. In this case, reducing heart attacks
and deaths would be the clinical end-point, while reducing cholesterol levels is a surrogate end-point.
By only having to prove that treatments effect a surrogate end-point pharmaceutical companies are able to reduce time and expenses on research, boosting their profits. But what if the surrogate end-point is only corollary, not causal of the underlying disease?
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BOOK OF THE WEEK:
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DOCTORING DATA: HOW TO SORT OUT MEDICAL ADVICE FROM MEDICAL NONSENSE
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This week’s author, Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, has written several books, all which we’d recommend. Doctoring data looks at statistical tricks used in medical research to inflate
the efficacy of treatments while presenting minimal risks.
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“He reveals the tricks that are played to make minute risk look enormous. How the drug trials are hyped, the data manipulated, the endless games that are played to scare
us into doing what, in many cases, makes the most money.”
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Copyright (C) 2023 The Broken Science Initiative.
Our mailing address is:
3218 Lakeside Village Prescott, AZ 86301
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