Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Medical Controversy: Take Two and Call Me in the Morning

You tend to hear a great deal about how big Pharma manages to get new medicines into widespread use. Targeting doctors with ads and incentives or with detailed studies and suggestions on why a new pill should be used. There's also the time and effort to convince the public to use the new wonder drug to make their lives better. Pills and other treatments are big business.

A completely modern way of doing business right?

Well... maybe it's not modern at all.

Physicians, Fads, and Pharmaceuticals: A History of Aspirin by Anne A.J. Andermann from the McGill Journal of Medicine shows us that none of this is new. In fact it all sounds too familiar.

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