Kosttilskuddsbransjen liker å late som om den er «den lille mann» som kjemper «det naturliges» kamp mot den farmasøytiske overmakten. I virkeligheten er det en megaindustri, og har neppe færre tvilsomme aktører enn andre store bransjer: The food supplement market, comprising products like vitamin pills and herbal supplements, is worth $50bn worldwide (against $600bn for […]
Kosttilskuddsbransjen liker å late som om den er «den lille mann» som kjemper «det naturliges» kamp mot den farmasøytiske overmakten.
I virkeligheten er det en megaindustri, og har neppe færre tvilsomme aktører enn andre store bransjer:
The food supplement market, comprising products like vitamin pills and herbal supplements, is worth $50bn worldwide (against $600bn for pharmaceuticals). It has lobbied angrily and successfully against safety regulation, and the vitamin industry is also legendary in the world of economics as the setting of the most outrageous price-fixing cartel ever documented: during the 1990s the main offenders pleaded guilty and had to pay $1.5bn, the largest criminal fine levied in legal history.
Dette kommenterer Ben Goldacre etter at Matthias Rath – mannen som selger vitaminer mot AIDS – trakk et injuriesøksmål mot Guardian og Goldacre denne uken. Han påpeker også at denne industrien i likhet med mye annet som ikke tåler kritisk søkelys godt, er tilbøyelige til å forsvare seg med trusler:
When I attempted simply to write that the Dore miracle cure for dyslexia had not cured three people, we received several legal warning letters, delaying the piece by a month. An academic who dared to criticise the evidence base for the programme received a threatening legal letter delivered by hand to her home address.
Gillian McKeith has made repeated legal threats against websites who have dared to discuss her work, and her lawyer husband has threatened an academic who suggested testing her ideas. She also has a legal case hanging over the Sun that has seen little movement in three years.
When chiropractors had their practices challenged in the New Zealand Medical Journal they simply sent a threatening legal letter («Let’s hear your evidence,» said the editorial in response, «not your legal muscle»). A herbal pill entrepreneur – and academic – had Professor David Colquhoun’s website removed from UCL servers after he dared to question her evidence. The Society of Homeopaths had a blogger silenced by threatening his web host.
I could go on.
Og det gjør han forsåvidt også. Les hele, og få for all del med utdrag av vitnemål i saken om Rath, Guardians lederartikkel om saken og Goldacres Bad Science-artikkel om samme.
Raths søksmål har en god stund stoppet fokuset på én som selger HIV/AIDS-fornektelse for å pushe egne varer. Goldacre lover at det tar en slutt nå. Måtte det være i stand til å bremse svindlerne også.