Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science hilariously exposed the tricks that quacks and journalists use to distort science, becoming a 400,000 copy bestseller. Now, in Bad Pharma, he puts the $600bn global pharmaceutical industry under the microscope revealing a fascinating, terrifying mess. Doctors and patients need good scientific evidence to make informed decisions. But instead, he argues, companies run bad trials on their own drugs, which distort and exaggerate the benefits by design. When these trials produce unflattering results, the data is simply buried. All of this is perfectly legal. In fact, even government regulators withhold vitally important data from the people who need it most. Doctors and patient groups have stood by too, and failed to protect us he says. Instead, they take money and favours, in a world so fractured that medics and nurses are now educated by the drugs industry. Patients, he believes, are harmed in huge numbers. Bad Pharma has been described as ‘a work of brilliance’ by the Daily Telegraph, and the Economist said it ‘deserves to be widely read, because anyone who does read it cannot help feeling both uncomfortable and angry.’ Ben Goldacre talks about the book. This event will be followed by a book signing. Photo of Ben Goldacre (c) John King 2012.

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