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Buy Alison Bass´ books at your local independent bookseller (booksense.com) or online from Amazon.com
Books
Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and A Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial
"This is the riveting story of how one of the world's largest drug companies and a few university researchers on its payroll suppressed evidence that a top-selling antidepressant might actually be dangerous..." -Dr. Marcia Angell
Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and A Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial tells the true story of a groundbreaking court case and the personal drama that surrounded the making and unmasking of a bestselling drug. It chronicles the lives of two women - a prosecutor and a whistleblower - who exposed the pattern of deception in the research and marketing of Paxil, an antidepressant prescribed to millions of children and adults.
First, a courageous administrator uncovers evidence that researchers at the prestigious Ivy League university where she works may have misrepresented data in a key study of Paxil. What's more, the researchers may have minimized the suicide risks in adolescents taking the drug.
Next, a gutsy lawyer in the New York State Attorney General's office discovers that GlaxoSmithKline, Paxil's manufacturer, suppressed findings that their drug was no more effective than a sugar pill in children and adolescents, and she and her colleagues file an unprecedented lawsuit against the drug company for misleading physicians and patients - in essence, for committing consumer fraud.
With meticulous research, Alison Bass lays bare the unhealthy ties between the medical establishment, big pharma and the FDA - conflicts of interest that place vulnerable children and adults at risk. GlaxoSmithKline, as it turns out, was not the only drug maker to deceive the American public about the safety and effectiveness of their products. Medical researchers and their corporate sponsors knew as far back as the '90s that Paxil and other antidepressants, known as selective serotonin release inhibitors (SSRIs), were dangerous and no more effective in treating depression among children than a sugar pill. But they did not publish these negative findings - a glaring omission that the nation's premier public health agency did nothing to prevent.
Side Effects captures the anything-goes decade of drug development, as drugs like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft became blockbuster drugs and pharmaceutical companies went to sometimes shocking lengths to reap profits. The same pattern of duplicity was repeated with other best-selling drugs like Vioxx and Zetia. But as a result of the lawsuit brought by the New York State attorney general's office, it is now more difficult for pharmaceutical companies to deceive consumers about the safety and effectiveness of new drugs, and there are greater safeguards on the sale and testing of medications.
Side Effects is the story of how a prosecutor and a whistleblower took on the powerful pharmaceutical industry - and won.
Reviews
Alison Bass, a former medicine, science, and technology reporter at The Boston Globe,
has put on trial in her book far more than just a bestselling antidepressant — she has
used the case of Paxil to expose the unsavory and self-serving relationships among members
of the pharmaceutical industry, psychiatrists, and members of the FDA. And she does it in
a book that has the brio of a crime thriller... Bass's riveting and well-researched account
of these disturbing ties should be widely read by members of the medical profession, many of
whom continue to believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that they are immune to the
influence of drug companies.
-New England Journal of Medicine
Full review
It's hard not to cheer for the little guy in Side Effects, the true story of underdogs who stand up to powerful drug companies and their questionable ethics. It's also a story that needs to be told — one that explains the potential defects of a drug-approval process that's far too susceptible to political influence and lobbying clout...Side Effects is an interesting account of the drug-approval process and its shortcomings. It's also a tale of rare victory for the little guy that will leave readers cheering. -Associated Press
Bass executes such a revealing expose on the shadowy world of medical research and the pharmaceutical industry that it proves important stories, like timeless truths, need repeating. Side Effects tells a shocking story about the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and the landmark lawsuit against its blockbuster drug Paxil, once the world’s bestselling antidepressant. Bass, a Pulitzer Prize nominee for investigative journalism, constructs a connect-the-dots legal drama written in a news reporter’s style of precise prose. -Pop Matters
Expanding on her reporting for the Boston Globe, Bass focuses on psychiatrist Martin Teicher, who as early as 1988 noticed that the antidepressant Prozac seemed paradoxically to cause suicidal thoughts in his patients, and the nearly blind Rose Firestein, a lawyer in the New York State attorney generals office who was investigating the inappropriate marketing and use of Paxil for unapproved purposes. Bass describes the dogged battle to show that company researchers had deliberately suppressed the results of trials with negative outcomes...This story of determined do-gooders is inspiring. -Publisher's Weekly
Science journalist Bass begins her account with the horrifying saga of a painfully shy teenager whose Paxil prescription prompted sleeplessness, agitation, episodes of self-cutting and a suicide attempt. Introduced in the 1980s and '90s, new psychoactive drugs like Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft helped many depressed patients, the author emphasizes, but reports of troubling side effects were not welcomed by the manufacturers of these wildly profitable medications...A substantive examination of an important issue. -Kirkus
This is the riveting story of how one of the world's largest drug
companies and a few university researchers on its payroll suppressed evidence
that a top-selling antidepressant might actually be dangerous in adolescents.
It's also the very human story of how two courageous and persistent women
made sure the world learned about it. Reads like a good novel, with lessons
that go well beyond this case.
-Dr. Marcia Angell, the author of
The Truth about the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do
About It and former editor-in-chief of New England Journal of
Medicine.
A richly detailed account of the disgraceful self-serving ties between
drug companies and the psychiatric profession, as told through
stories about the heroes, villains and victims in this drama. An engrossing
read and a valuable contribution to public understanding of the need for
reform.
-Dr. Arnold S. Relman, Professor Emeritus
of Medicine and of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School and former editor,
New England Journal of Medicine.
"Side Effects is a serious indictment of the pharmaceutical industry,
clinical researchers, and government regulators, told in captivating prose.
It makes you worry about the authenticity of the evidence that doctors use
from day to day."
-Dr. Jerome Kassirer, Distinguished
Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, former editor of
New England Journal of Medicine, and author of On the Take:
How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business can Endanger your Health.
Excerpts
Press Kit
- Side Effects Press Release (.pdf file)
- Side Effects Talking Points (.pdf file)
- Side Effects Fact Sheet (.pdf file)
- Alison Bass C.V. (.pdf file)
Buy the Book
Buy Alison Bass´ books at your local independent bookseller (booksense.com) or online from Amazon.com.
Mailing List
Email Alison to join the mailing list.
Publisher Info
Christina Gates, Publicist
Algonquin Books
Phone: 919-967-0108
christinag@algonquin.com
http://www.algonquin.com/
