Dr. Bernard J. Carroll, an academic psychiatrist, died on September 10, 2018. His work demonstrated that the psychiatric drug literature had become so polluted as to be virtually meaningless, He called most drug trials “infomercials.” See his NY Times Obituary.
Over the years, I have observed in my specialty, dermatology, the same is true. The Biologics are being aggressively and venally marketed. The result is that Humira, with sales of $18.5 billion in 2017, is the top selling drug in the world thanks to AbbVie’s multi-pronged marketing strategy.
Where are the other Dr. Carrolls in medicine? Does dermatology have one? So many of our academic “stars” have been co-opted and feed at the trough of “industry.”