Course:LIBR559A/Spielmans2010

Citation

Spielmans, G. I., & Parry, P. I. (2010). From evidence-based medicine to marketing-based medicine: evidence from internal industry documents. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 7(1), 13-29.

Purpose of article

Illustrates that the data generated by drug companies is not neutral because its purpose is to market the drugs.

Main Argument(s) and supporting evidence

The term evidence-based medicine is often misleading because it instills a sense of trust in the consumer, who assumes that the data used to produce the evidence is neutrual. However, this article argues and shows that the data produced by drug companies is not neutral – the “[p]urpose of data is to support, directly or indirectly, marketing of [the] product” (14). Using the example of AstraZeneca’s antipsychotic drug quetiapine (market name Seroquel), Spielmans and Parry show that there is a difference between the data that is produced internally and the published evidence. Internal documents obviously show that the data did not support the intended results; one manager explicitly said about the drug two weeks before it was presented to the market: “The data don’t look good” (15). The bad results were never published, some of which showed alarming outcomes; instead the results were combed through and only supporting statements were used in marketing. Once the data is selected, firms are hired and academic authors are enticed to write academic papers to write seemingly neutral articles praising the drug. Using other case studies, the authors of this article show that such practices of data suppression and others such as ghost-writing are wide-spread.

Method(s) (e.g., case studies, interviews, thought piece, survey)

Case study, document analysis

Areas / Topics / Keywords

drugs, pharmaceuticals, marketing, data, evidence-based medicine.

Author’s understanding/definitions of key concepts

Ghost writing: when an academic author lends their name to a piece which is written for the sole purpose of promoting a certain medical treatment

Theoretical frameworks followed by the author(s)

None stated

Novel ideas introduced by this article

Evidence-based medicine is not neutral; the data, academic articles and leaders in the field can all be manipulated to support the initiative being marketed by pharmaceutical companies.

Pitfalls, blind spots, and weaknesses of this article

No critiques: the article contained good writing, solid evidence, great visuals.

Potential Contribution to the scholarship of Social Studies of Library and Information and to the practice of Librarianship

Even though it can be easy to trust data, academic articles and experts, they can all be manipulated by pharmaceutical companies to further their goals in selling drugs. It is important for libraries to inform patrons interested in health and health sciences that health science contains biases even when it appears not to.

Page Author: Caroline Mnizsak