Heal Thyself!

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Just 13 percent of Americans think pharmaceutical companies are "generally honest and trustworthy," according to a recent survey. "Public confidence in drug companies has plunged harder and faster than for any other industry," putting them "on a par with tobacco, oil and [HMOs]." With medical journals not identifying drug study authors' "relevant conflicts of interest," Schering-Plough pleading guilty to defrauding Medicaid, Bristol-Myers Squibb settling charges of financial improprieties, and GlaxoSmithKline withholding information about its antidepressants' usefulness for adolescents, it's not too hard to understand the survey results.