Hacker News Reader

Comment by oracuk | Hacker News Reader

Ben Goldacre was on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning discussing his book with a representative of the pharma industry.

Platitudinous and evasive answers from the industry rep while referring to Goldacre's 'extremist' views. He's hit a nerve and they don't appear to have a good rebuttal.

For those with iPlayer access you can here it again here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mw2d4

Edit: Ben Goldacre piece was at 08:34. Excerpt of just that section is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9754000/9754505....

View on HN

It's interesting that once upon a time, he was being called a shill for big Pharma, thanks to his anti-quackery (read: anti-homeopathy) stance.

Which is hilarious, because "big pharma" own the big "alternative" "medicine" companies too - it's a multi-billion dollar business, of course they want a slice of that pie!

I didn't know that. Is there something I can read that'll back it up?

I can't recommend any text on the subject more highly than "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre. It covers a lot more topics than just this, but it still covers the basics very well and I believe it has references for its claims (it has been a while since I read it and I don't have a copy to hand to check).

In the ePub version I have (from the iTunes store), there are a decent number of references in the back of the book, as well as some pointers to further reading.

I would assume they are also contained in the print version.

Yeah, I have a copy of the print version (not at hand though..) and I can confirm this.

The last few pages have a large number of references in them, and made me think for a few seconds that the book was longer than it actually was :)

Also confusing because of his work with CBT and other talking therapies, which help reduce the use of medication.

Also a good overview and introduction in the Graun a few days ago: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/21/drugs-industr...

Note that iPlayer for radio is available outside the UK as well.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com