In a controversial paper presented on Tuesday this week to the American Sociological Association (ASA), Professor Donald Light, a professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey, has said that cholesterol-lowering drugs, like statins, do not work. He goes on to accuse pharmaceutical companies of creating a climate in which the buyer of these medications knows much less than the seller and from that position the seller takes advantage.

He said: “Sometimes drug companies hide or downplay information about serious side-effects of new drugs and overstate the drugs’ benefits.
Then, they spend two to three times more on marketing than on research to persuade doctors to prescribe these new drugs.
Doctors may get misleading information and then misinform patients about the risks of a new drug. It’s really a two-tier market for lemons.”

Professor Light did not stop there and went on to claim that data from independent research suggests that fewer than five out of six new drugs produce new benefits which even then are few. And that other studies show that when patients report adverse reactions, and side effects, doctors rarely take them seriously.


The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry hit back by dismissing Professor Light’s accusations saying that his remarks were, “long on accusation and woefully short on hard evidence”.

A spokeswoman for the BPI said:

“Millions of people are alive today thanks to medicines. Medicines have transformed the management of conditions which previously caused death, impaired the quality of life or required hospitalisation.

“There is still great unmet medical need and the pharmaceutical industry is actively researching new cures to address these illnesses.”


I guess the jury is still out?