There are several studies indicating more positive results in RCTs comparing new drugs or implants when the research is performed by the company who manufactures the product. What is your opinion and is this a problem?
Like the politician, whose every utterance and sigh and yawn and wink and nod and pass and dance-step and bed-partner or other bodily (the brain or mind anyway goes into a deep freeze till the spotlight plays on), proclivities is suspect for the next 200 years or more, money soils and spoils all that it touches or professes to touch or even if it SIMPLY wafts across the room, the healthcare, the hospital, the institution, the country, the continent or the World. It is like living; to live, one (animal and plant, both) must breathe, eat/generate food, reproduce, and excrete. Similarly, Industry-sponsored studies are tainted from the word GO. Let water be discovered beyond Earth, let the Industry colonize beyond the Earth, and see how devastatingly ill will be the effects of Space Exploration and Discovery upon the Universe/Universes. Human race has an innate self-destructive instinct for grasping till it can grasp no more or hold no more. I have no notion or hope or expectation or belief or belief-in-belief that Stephen Hawking's quasi-religious hope and hype of a beyond-Earth homo sapien civilization will EVER emerge (not only not in the next one hundred years), but if this non-Einstienian Pandora becomes a reality, the Industry will ensure that only Black Holes will remain OR SURVIVE. WHERE NOTHING CAN SURVIVE, THE INDUSTRY CAN THRIVE. The entire North American Continent was grasped and swallowed up by the HIGHLY-CIVILIZED ANTI-ABORTIONIST SECRETIVELY-SECULAR cultured WHITES (can we call them "colourless", as they call all other races OR NON-CITIZENS, "coloured" OR "ÁLIENS" OR "BLACKS" or even "HEATHENS"?) reducing an entire race of SCATTERED /DISORGANIZED/LOOSELY-ORGANIZED/DIVIDED by choice-of-colour-of-the head-adorning feather(s), clothes-like-items, trinkets, customs, and burial and hunting grounds, dialects passed off as tongues/languages, CROOKED WITCH-DOCTORS AND TOTEM-POLES, PAPERLESS AND THEREFORE ENTIRELY DISPOSSESSED (at the very beginning, long before CUSTER'S LAST STAND (1876) at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, like LOLITA was declared dead during childbirth in the foreword even before the tragic oh-not-so-pornographic SELF-DEFENSIVE Nabokov narrative started--ARGUABLY), native "red Indians" to reservations, alcohol, and oblivion BY FORCE, CHARADE, THE GUN AND THE GUILE AND THE GALL. The WHITES formed a gradually gelling Industry to wipe-off the tragedy and to conquer the land, as did the East India Company for Her Majesty in the "original" Indian Peninsula (in the garb of teaching the GENTLEMANLY game of cricket to the clue-less MALE natives) NOT LEAD TO FREEDOM BY A MANDELA (or the Nelson of a UN Resolution) BUT BY A PEACENIK BY SHEER DINT OF TIME AND HISTORY AND HIROSHIMA-LIKE JALIANWALA-BAGH MURDEROUS GENOCIDAL MILITARY-COMMANDED ATTACK led by a red-necked poker-faced Briton reeking of a superior culture and clipped British accent. THE INDUSTRY IS ALL ABOUT ORGANIZATION AND POWER; POWER CAN AND WILL KILL FOR ITS BOTTOM-LINES IN CURRENCY OR CONTRACTS OR ITS EQUIVALENTS. THE SCOPE OF THE INDUSTRY'S PERNICIOUS ACTIVITIES IS UNIMAGINABLY MACRO. LIKE THE MAFIA, THEY ALSO EASILY OUTWIT OR FOB-OFF THE LAW, THE FDA, THE FBI, THE FERTILE BRAINS OF THE MEDICAL SPECIALISTS WHO WORK FOR THEM AT THEIR BEHEST OR IN THEIR FAVOUR.
NOBEL LAUREATE ALEXIS CARREL IN HIS SANE AND INSPIRING STERLING BOOK (not my description--A STIMULATING AND ORIGINAL BOOK --Professor Julian Huxley), hugely successful in USA and UK and translated into several European Languages) "MAN, THE UNKNOWN" (1959) DECRIED AND DESCRIBED IN DEPTH with rarely encountered unusually terse and turgid prose THE HUGE TORRENTIAL AND UNCONTROLLABLE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LOSS OF MONEYS ANNUALLY ALLOTTED BY THE GOVERNMENTS OF "ADVANCED" COUNTRIES FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH BY WAY OF GRANTS. AND THEN, GETTING A GRANT, ITSELF, BECAME A SCIENCE. AND THE RESEARCH MAFIA WAS THEN FORMED. NOW, PHARMACEUTICALS AND DEVICES DETERMINE SCIENCE, NOT THE REVERSE. AT THE EDGE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, PARTICULARLY MEDICAL RESEARCH, THERE IS NEVER ONE VERSION OF THE TRUTH. MEDICAL PERIODICALS DO NOT PUBLISH TRUTH; THEY PUBLISH A STATISTICALLY VALID OR ACCEPTABLE PRESENTATION OF DATA AND PERMIT ANY AMOUNT OF HEDGING TERMS LIKE MAY, MIGHT, SHOULD, COULD, SEEMS, POSSIBLE, PROBABLE, PUTATIVE, PRESUMPTIVE, PROPOSED...ONCE THE MATHEMATICAL REQUIREMENT FOR STATISTICAL VALIDITY HAS BEEN MET. "HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS" IS A MUST READ FOR THOSE SEEKING THE TRUTH AND NOT NECESSARILY PUBLICATIONS. THE INDUSTRY HAS MASTERED THE ART OF STATISTICS BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE; THUS, IT CAN SPEW FORTH LIES WITH THE GREATEST FREQUENCY AND EFFICACY. IT CAN ADVOCATE LAWS IN ITS FAVOUR--SUCH AS THE PATENT LAW. CAPITALISM, AND ITS DOWNSIDE SIDEKICK, BANKRUPTCY, COME AT A HEAVY HEAVY PRICE, A PRICE THAT HUMANKIND IS FINDING THAT IT CANNOT AFFORD.
For want of a better vocabulary and permitted layout, I quote straight from Carrel's book: "Obviously science follows no plan. IT DEVELOPS AT RANDOM...DEPENDING ON FORTUITOUS CONDITIONS, SUCH AS THE BIRTH OF MEN OF GENIUS, THE FORM OF THEIR MIND, THE DIRECTION TAKEN BY THEIR CURIOSITY. IT IS NOT AT ALL ACTUATED BY A DESIRE TO IMPROVE THE STATE OF HUMAN BEINGS...MEN OF SCIENCE DO NOT KNOW WHERE THEY ARE GOING. THEY ARE GUIDED BY CHANCE, BY SUBTLE REASONING, BY A SORT OF CLAIRVOYANCE. EACH OF THEM IS A WORLD APART, GOVERNED BY HIS OWN LAWS. (FORGIVE THE SHE/HE SEXISM, BY CURRENT STANDARDS). FROM TIME TO TIME, THINGS OBSCURE TO OTHERS, BECOME CLEAR TO HIM. NEITHER LABORATORIES, NOR APPARATUS, NOR ORGANIZATION CAN GIVE TO SCIENTISTS THE SURROUNDINGS INDISPENSABLE TO THEIR SUCCESS. ..ISLANDS OF SOLITUDE, ...MEDITATION,...CONSTRUCT OF VAST INTELLIGIBLE SYNTHESES (EXACTLY THE REVERSE OF DISPARATE OR RANDOM DATA COLLECTIONS AND JUSTIFICATION OF ELIMINATION OF BIAS BY MATHEMATICS),...MODERN LIFE IS OPPOSED TO THE LIFE OF THE MIND...MEN (EXCUSE) OF SCIENCE HAVE TO BE MERE UNITS OF A HERD..."
ONE OF THE QUALITIES TO ALLOW THE CLAIRVOYANCE TO DESCEND TO THE TRUTH SEEKER IS ELIMINATION OF GENDER IN SEEKING GRACE; THE OTHER IS AN EXPANDING EMPATHY, A SENSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND COURAGE FOR FEELING OUTRAGE, A WILLINGNESS TO QUESTION WHAT HAS PASSED FOR MILLENNIA AS KNOWLEDGE, THE ABILITY TO BEGIN THE INTROSPECTION & INSURRECTION (THAT IS AN ART, AND LIKE ANY ART, HAS ITS OWN LAWS (GUPTA, 2009).
MEDICINE IS NOT DEMOCRATIC. EVERY MAJOR DISCOVERY PROVES THAT THE HERD WAS WRONG ALL ALONG...AND SO MOST OF THE SO- CALLED CAREFULLY VETTED GRANTS JUST GO DOWN THE DRAIN.
I OPPOSED EXTRINSIC MAGNESIUM SUPPLEMENTAION IN ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION TOOTH-AND-NAIL (1996), AT A TIME WHEN MOST CARDIOLOGISTS HAD SOLD THE IDEA TO THEMSELVES--OF COURSE, WITH HAND-HOLDING BY THE INDUSTRY.
I will add a substantial amount of more opinion and advice as I make more time for your eloquent, searching, searing, and sincere-appearing question. IT TAKES ME QUITE A WHILE TO GET WARMED-UP. THERE ARE WAYS TO RIGHT WRONGS -- ALWAYS. ASK ROSA PARKS. THE QUESTION IS OF THE WILL --THE COLLECTIVE WILL OF THE DISCIPLINE, THE REFUSAL TO ACCEPT ARTICLES FOR PUBLICATION SPONSORED BY THE INDUSTRY UNLESS CERTAIN CONDITIONS ARE FULFILLED, EXPANSION OF THE LAW AND LEGALITY, CORRECTION OF SKEWED POLITICAL OVERTONES AND EXPECTATIONS OF THE PATIENTS THEMSELVES, THIRD-PARTY INTERVENTIONS, CRYSTALLISATION OF INFORMED CONSENT, REFUSAL TO FINE BILLIONS AND TO FORGIVE OR SETTLE, AND MUCH MORE...
ANDERSON, BHOPAL, ISOCYANATE, 9/11, ISIS, GUANTANAMO BAY, THE FIFTH AMENDMENT, INVASION OF IRAQ WITHOUT ANY BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS BEEN FOUND AND KNOWN NOT TO BE PRESENT THERE BEFORE THE INVASION, VIETNAM, INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN, SETTING UP OF MILITARY REGIMES AROUND THE WORLD AS CRONIES...WE PAY A PRICE FOR EACH ATROCITY. WE THINK WE GET AWAY WITH ALL THIS. RIDICULOUS!!!!
I HAVE NEARLY COMPLETED THE OVERARCHING DEFENSIBLE PREDICTABLE AND GENERALIZABLE THEORETICAL MATRIX OF MIGRAINE -- A DISEASE THAT AFFECTS ONE-FIFTH OF HUMANKIND -- TO THE TUNE OF 80-90% WITHOUT A CENT/PENCE OF GRANT MONEY. I WAS ASKED TO DISCLOSE WHAT I WOULD BE SEARCHING FOR IN EACH GRANT APPLICATION BY THE MIGRAINE TRUST, LONDON, UK. BOY, AM I GLAD I REFUSED TO DISCLOSE & DID IT MY WAY.
MARTIN, IS THIS ENOUGH, OR YOU WANT MORE?
I ATTACH MY OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE THAT WILL MAKE NEARLY EVERY DOCTOR/SCIENTIST/RESEARCHER IN THIS GENERATION AND MANY MORE GENERATIONS TO COME (? FOREVER) SQUIRM WITH SELF-LOATHING FOR FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE DECEIT, THE NARCISSISM, THE SELF-INTEREST, THE TENURE, THE FINANCIAL SECURITY, THE DENIAL OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM, THE COLLUSION, THE REFUSAL TO ACCEPT POPPERIAN LOGIC, TELEOLOGY, ECOLOGY, THE FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND THAT FOR SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY, EVEN SERENDIPITY (H. PYLORI), A RIGHT FRAME OF MIND IS INDISPENSABLE.
FOR PURE PHILOSOPHY, READ MY BOOK, "ADAPTIVE MECHANISMS IN MIGRAINE", NOVA SCIENCE, NEW YORK (2009). UNLESS YOU REALISE THAT THE HUMAN BODY IS A MARVELLOUSLY ADAPTIVE HIGH-TECH INSTANTANEOUSLY RESPONSIVE MACHINE THAT ENCOMPASSES THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE, YOU ARE STAYING RIGHT HERE ONLY. THE FOREWORD, THE EPILOGUE, AND THE CHAPTER ONE (WHAT AILS MIGRAINE RESEARCH?) WAS PURELY INSPIRATIONAL. I BELIEVE THAT I WAS THEN SEIZED BY ART, AS I HAVE BEEN SEIZED TODAY WHILE TRYING TO GIVE YOUR QUESTION A FAIRLY NON-PLEBIAN OR CASUAL REPLY, TO CARRY OUT ITS DICTATES FOR ALL AT LARGE.
THANKS FOR THE OPPORTUNITY. I HOPE THE COLOURS OF MY RESPONSE WILL BLEND INTO THE SCIENCE AND SENSIBILITY OF HUMANKIND.
READ THE ATTACHED ARTICLES TO SEE HOW FAR WRONG WE CAN GO WITH OR WITHOUT THE INDUSTRY, HOW FAR WE CAN BLUR THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG, AND WE CAN ALWAYS CONTINUE THIS CRUSADE AGAINST THERAPEUTIC MISADVENTURE BY THE INDUSTRY. IF YOU WISH TO JOIN ME IN A FULL-LENGTH ARTICLE ON THIS ASPECT, I SUGGEST DETAILED READING OF MY 140 ARTICLES/CRITIQUES, INVITED REVIEWS, EDITORIALS, LETTERS-TO-THE-EDITOR, CASE PRESENTATION, THE BOOK, AND UPCOMING MAJOR PAPER ON CORTICAL SPREADING DEPRESSION, EXPANDING ON THESE AND OTHER LINES NOT YET DISCUSSED HEREIN, AND MAKING A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO ALLOW ME TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE SAME WITH YOUR NAME AS THE CO-AUTHOR.
GOOD LUCK.
I HOPE YOU WILL FIND THAT JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE TO YOUR QUESTION.
I think the same type question also exists for studies sponsored by the government. Do researchers tend to cater to the demand of government officials who allocate money for the research? I suspect it is probably the case at least in China, especially with regard to social science research.
THE GOVERNMENT --OF ANY COLOUR, OR IMPOSITION, OR SELECTION -- IS THE MOST-ORGANISED, MOST-VILE, MOST-UNCONTROLLABLE, MOST-INIMICAL INDUSTRY. INDUSTRY IS POWER, AND, POWER IS READY TO EVEN KILL ANYTIME FOR ITS OWN INTERESTS.
IN CHINA-LIKE COUNTRIES / INDUSTRY, THE INDIVIDUAL IS NEVER IMPORTANT BUT THE SYSTEM / INDUSTRY IS THE PRIMARY, SECONDARY, AND TERTIARY CONCERN.
THE GOVERNMENT IS A LIVING ANIMAL AS IT IS COMPOSED OF LIVING PERSONS EACH WITH A SPIRITUALITY OR SOUL THAT IS FOUND IN ALL ANIMATE AND INANIMATE STRUCTURES SEEN UNDER OUR SUN; LAKES, MOUNTAINS, FIELDS, BUILDINGS, OCEANS AND MOUNTAINS ALL HAVE SOULS, INCLUDING ALL FORMS OF INDUSTRY. NOBODY CAN SEE THE GRAVITATIONAL FORCE BUT IT EXISTS, LIKE THE KNOWER OF THE FIELD OR THE POWER THAT GIVES-TAKES LIFE, HEALTH, INFIRMITY.
WHILE TIANAMEN IS NOT OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED BY CHINA, WHEN OBAMA TOOK OATH AS THE PRESIDENT OF AMERICA HIS FIRST VISION WAS TO TRY TO SHUT DOWN GUANTANAMO BAY IN CUBA -- AN INJUSTICE TO HUMANKIND. ACCEPTANCE AND TOLERANCE IS NOT THE SAME THING; TOLERANCE IS GRUDGING WHILE ACCEPTANCE IS BROAD-MINDEDNESS.
THE JAPANESE HAVE A GREAT SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY AND A CULTURE OF PLACID AND CALM ACCEPTANCE, THE GOVERNMENT-INDUSTRY IS ALWAYS READY TO RESIGN, NEVER TRIES TO DOMINATE ITS OWN PEOPLE OR THE PEOPLES OF OTHER COUNTRIES, HAS REFUSED THE NUCLEAR OPTION SINCE ITS HORRENDOUS LOSSES IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR. IN TERMS OF THE INDEX OF CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION, JAPAN AND CHINA ARE INDUSTRIES geographically approximate but POLES APART.
WHAT IS THE GREATEST DRAWBACK OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT -LIKE INDUSTRY?
IT IS THE SYSTEM OF VOTING, THE OPEN PROSTITUTION TO SEEK VOTES AND THEN TO FORM AN INDUSTRY OF LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE TO SUSTAIN THEIR OWN INTERESTS AS LONG-AS-IS-POSSIBLE -- JUST LIKE THE INDUSTRY.
FALSEHOOD FLIES, WHILE TRUTH COMES LIMPING MUCH LATER, IF AT ALL IN ALL INDUSTRIES.
NO GOVERNMENT / INDUSTRY CAN ACCEPT THE TRUTH. THE USA DOES NOT ACCEPT THAT IT CREATED THE LAND FOR ISRAEL WHILE JEWS RUN AMERICA OR THAT GUN CONTROL IS A MUST OR THAT ABORTION IS A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT.
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH IS NOT EVEN THE LAST IN THE PRIORITY OF A CHINA-LIKE COUNTRY SINCE THAT IS THE VERY BASIS OF THE USE OF RHETORIC TO SUPRESS THE COMMON PEOPLE.
PLEASE READ THE ATTACHED ARTICLE. THE EDITOR OF THE BMJ CORRECTED HIS ERRONEOUS POLICY AFTER MY ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED. THERE IS A MASSIVE CULTURAL AND CIVILIZATION GAP THAT CANNOT BE PAPERED OVER BY DATA FROM SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH. EVEN IF THERE IS NO ARM-TWISTING DURING THE RESEARCH, ABSENCE OF THE DATA THE POWER/INDUSTRY IS LOOKING FOR WILL SEND YOUR PUBLICATION INTO DEEP FREEZE AS MIGHT YOUR FUTURE.
I THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THIS OPPORTUNITY TO RESPOND.
I HOPE I HAVE EXTENDED YOUR VISION OF WHAT CONSTITUTES INDUSTRY. INDUSTRY CAN BE PRIVATE OR GOVERNMENTAL. NO PRIVATE INDUSTRY IS FREE FROM GOVERNMENTAL INTERVENTION.
INDUSTRY IS AN ORGANISATION OF PEOPLE AND STRUCTURES AND COMPONENTS, JUST LIKE THE BILLIONS OF CELLS IN OUR BODY THAT WORK FOR A COMMON CAUSE FOR ONE ORGAN; THIS COMMON CAUSE IS NEVER FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COMMON POPULATION OR ALL THE ORGANS OF OUR BODY.
MY REGARDS.
I MAY ADD MUCH MORE TO THIS RESPONSE AT A LATER PERIOD.
CHINA IS A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY -- JUST LIKE MOST OTHER COUNTRIES. PEARL S. BUCK WROTE "THE GOOD EARTH" SO LONG AGO ABOUT A DIFFERENT KINDER GENTLER CHINA. THERE IS NOW A VICIOUSNESS ABOUT CHINESE MANAGEMENT / INDUSTRY AT ALL LEVELS, A KILLER-SENSE THAT GETS YOU PRACTICALLY A HUGE HAUL OF GOLD AND SILVER MEDALS AT THE OLYMPICS IN SWIMMING AND HIGH-PLATFORM DIVING, TABLE-TENNIS, AND BADMINTON.
MY ADVICE IS NOT TO COMPROMISE BUT TO ACCEPT THE LIMITS OF THE STATE YOU LIVE IN. OFTEN, VERY OFTEN, THAT IS NOT AN EASY CHOICE OR NOT A CHOICE AT ALL.
CHINA-LIKE COUNTRIES PRACTICE INDOCTRINATION TO AN EXTREME DEGREE; FOR SUCH COUNTRIES SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH HAS NO MEANING; ALL SUCH DATA ARE DISTORTED WHILE THE MEDIA / FOURTH ESTATE IS CLOSELY MONITORED AND IS HEAVILY CENSORED WITH HEAVY PUNISHMENTS METED OUT AT MINOR OR FLIMSY REASONS TO SERVE AS EXAMPLES.
CHINA-LIKE COUNTRIES WITH HEGEMONISTIC TENDENCIES TO DOMINATE THE WORLD AND BEYOND, IF POSSIBLE, ACTUALLY USE SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH DATA IN REVERSE. SELF-PRESERVATION AND DOMINATION REMAIN PERPETUAL KEY MOTIVES.
THE U.S.A. USUALLY HAS PLAN A OR B. CHINA-LIKE COUNTRIES MAKE PLANS A TO Z, FOREVER HUNTING FOR AVENUES TO EXPAND TERRITORY, ENLARGE CONTRACTS AND CLAMP DOWN ON THE MILITARISTICALLY WEAK NATIONS IN PHYSICAL PROXIMITY.
IN ALL THESE CONTEXTS, SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH BECOMES IRRELEVANT, UNFORTUNATELY.
THE INTELLECTUAL IS A SIGN OF WEAKNESS AND DANGER FOR THE PEASANT AT THE TOP OF THE HIERARCHY.
TRY TO GET AND READ A COPY OF 1984--GEORGE ORWELL. ALSO READ "ANIMAL FARM" BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
SEE THE MOVIE "DR. ZHIVAGO" BY DAVID LEAN TO UNDERSTAND YOUR PREDICAMENT AND YOUR PLACEMENT.