"Side Effects reads like a John Grisham thriller, but it teaches you everything you need to know about how some drug companies have used their marketing and legal muscle to lie about science...."- The Carlat Psychiatry Blog
"Bass' narrative bristles with data without fraying into tedium. And she underlines the gravity of hiding patients' injuries. Side Effects is long-form journalism at its best...."-The Washington Post
"The book Side Effects grapples with the controversy over drugs used to treat depression, with a focus on Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft... Bass' book humanizes the controversy in a way that makes the statistical arguments come alive. Because of her research and storytelling skills, a book exists that is both a public-policy primer and a compelling account of how seeming miracle cures are sometimes death sentences...."-USA Today
"You'll never swallow another pill, watch another earnest TV doctor discuss side effects or decipher another magazine ad the same way after reading Side Effects...This is a tale of David and Goliath, made all the more powerful because prescription drugs affect each one of us and we're no longer sure we can trust the government and Big Pharma to do right by us...."-The Grand Rapids Press
"In her new book Alison Bass obeys the most important rule of investigative journalism: She
follows the money wherever it leads. In Side Effects, her examination of mammoth
pharmaceutical companies and their pursuit of profits at any cost, she exposes the dark web
of researchers, doctors, and regulators feeding at the Big Pharma trough and undermining
public health in the process. It took the New York attorney general's office to
compel GlaxoSmithKline to publicly disclose Paxil's link to suicidal thoughts. Bass provides a dramatic
account of this lawsuit...."-
The Boston Globe
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.
With meticulous research, Alison Bass lays out the insidious connections
between pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (the maker of Paxil), a top Ivy
League research institution, and the government agency designed to protect the
public - relationships that would ultimately compromise the health and
safety of vulnerable children.
Why this story is so important:
- Paxil was the best-selling antidepressant in the world in 2002,
with sales of $3.3 billion worldwide.
- Pediatric prescriptions for Paxil soared in the U.S. even though
there was no hard evidence the drug performed any better than sugar pills
in treating depression in children and adolescents.
- The authors of an influential Paxil trial in adolescents
misrepresented data in order to minimize the suicide-related risks of the
antidepressant, allowing GSK to mislead physicians and consumers about the
safety and efficacy of Paxil.
- The New York Attorney General's case was the very first lawsuit
filed against the pharmaceutical industry for consumer fraud and paved the
way for other states to rein in the excesses of pharmaceutical companies.
- The settlement against GSK created an environment in which other drugs,
including Vioxx, whose safety had not been properly disclosed, were pulled
from the market; it also called for the public posting of all drug studies
and additional black box warnings on certain medications, something that
the pharmaceutical industry had fought against for years.
Side Effects introduces us to a fabulous cast of characters: a feisty district attorney in the mold of Erin Brockevitch who takes on big pharma and wins; a courageous whistleblower whose own child suffers from mental illness; a controversial medical researcher being paid by the drug companies whose products he's testing; and of course the victims - those whose suffering was intensified by greed, negligence, and deception within the medical establishment.
Side Effects captures the anything - goes decade of drug development, as drugs like Prozac, Paxil and Vioxx became blockbuster drugs and pharmaceutical companies went to sometimes shocking lengths to reap profits. In telling the dramatic saga of the New York AG's lawsuit against one drug company, this book lays bare the longstanding complicity between medical researchers and the pharmaceutical industry - a collusion that places vulnerable children and adults at risk every single day.