Book review: Deadly Monopolies

I just finished reading  medical ethicist Harriet Washington's latest book Deadly Monopolies, a look into the world of the pharmaceutical industry.

Back in the good ol' days, universities and hospitals were the breeding grounds for new medicines. Researchers collaborated in order to find ways to fight common disease. Most new discoveries weren't patented because the research dollars came from the federal government.

That all changed in 1980 with the Bayh-Dole Act that allowed corporations, universities and hospitals to patent their discoveries even if the funding to conduct the research came from US taxpayers. At that moment, medical research ceased to be a race to find the cure and became, instead, a race to lock in profits. When that is factored in along with a newfound ability to patent genes, cell lines and other biological material, big pharmaceutical companies stood to make vast fortunes.

Along the way the concept of "informed consent" was cast aside as it was a hindrance to labs, hospitals and drug companies testing their wares on the public. So much for ethical considerations - we have money to print.

In the United States, hospitals across the country subjected patients to trials involving artificial blood. No one asked these patients if they wanted to participate in the study - if they happened to be taken to the right emergency room in the right city, they received the artificial blood.

The attempt may have been noble - as may have been the trials involving substitutes for saline solution for patients who suffered a traumatic injury in the field - but the method was not. The people who received the artificial blood were never consulted to determine if they minded being guinea pigs. They were never informed of the possible risks involved in pumping the artificial blood into their bodies.

In Africa the drug companies conducted trials of drugs to fight the scourge of AIDS. But there was a catch. In trying to determine how effective the new drugs were in fighting AIDS, the control group in the trial was given a placebo. That's right - some in the study were condemned to die while others received a chance to live.

In this country a test conducted under that dynamic would never be allowed. In order to test the effectiveness of a new treatment, the control group needs to receive the currently accepted standard of care. This gives researchers the ability to compare the effectiveness of the varied treatments. Under no circumstances should a person be allowed to die because he's been given a placebo.

Researchers argued that the trials were ethical because the current accepted standard of care in Africa for AIDS was no treatment at all. And, of course, none of the test subjects were ever told they might be given a placebo rather that the real drug.

If you're not irritated enough at the high cost of health care and prescription medications, after you read Deadly Monopolies, you will be.