Does the pharmaceutical industry turn a blind eye to side effects?

Hint: Yes.

Another extract from Find It, File It, Flog It: Pharma's Crippling Addiction and How to Cure it, by Hedley Rees.

“Does the industry turn a blind eye to side effects?

An article in the UK Telegraph by Laura Donnelly and Edward Malnick, titled Doctors refusing to prescribe statins, reported on the United Kingdom’s National Health Service’s advice that there should be widespread use of statins:

The advice has divided experts, with prominent doctors accusing NICE’s (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) experts of being too close to the Pharmaceutical industry.

Debate has raged for some time over the risks and benefits of taking a statin every day. The proponents of statins argue that lower cholesterol levels serve to reduce the overall risk of heart problems in the over 55’s population, whereas the opponents do not accept patients should be exposed to the potential side effects unless there is a properly diagnosed need.

One general practitioner describes the side effects as “horr…