Bad Pharma

Listeners to this audiobook will likely feel betrayed by pharmaceutical companies--who manipulate test results so only favorable tests are made public--and by government regulators--who rubber-stamp these specious findings and fail to properly monitor or investigate. The result is that consumers and doctors are misled. For example, the author, a physician, describes how he has prescribed medicines, unaware of the shoddy testing of them as well as their undisclosed side effects and contraindications. Although the book's content is absorbing, some of the material--particularly the statistical information--may not be ideal for the audiobook format. The author is a popular lecturer and Internet blogger, and narrator Jonathan Cowley channels his emphatic tone and English accent. (Cowley also narrated Goldacre's previous book.) The high-density onslaught of information will prove convincing for some while others may find the insistent tone fatiguing. R.W.S. (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine