Much planning and setup is needed to convince the world medical treatments are effective, or even necessary in the first place. Though obvious for many diseases, blurring the line between diseases and symptoms allows pharmaceutical companies to sell more drugs that simply effect symptoms, and do nothing to treat the underlying disease. Redefining accepted thresholds between healthy and sick can also have a huge effect on the number of people afflicted by a disease, thus widening the market for those ‘needing’ treatment.

Disease definitions and quantifications are typically controlled by medical associations, like the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, etc. The controlling members of these groups frequently receive funding from pharmaceutical companies, muddying the interests of patients with the interests of the drug producers.

Identifying and highlighting fraud and manipulation is at the heart of our mission at BSI, as we shed light on the truth. Dr. Malcolm Kendrick is an expert at identifying these problems within clinical research, which he helps explains in this series.