ABSTRACT
This chapter notes the risks that are posed by pharmaceuticals on the market. Donald Light’s concept of risk proliferation syndrome is used to draw attention to the range of strategies that drug companies use to downplay the risk of side effects of drugs and promote their benefits. Strategies used by drug companies include the manipulation of clinical trials, the selected publication of trial data, the use of scientists and ghost writers to promote their products, and putting pressure on scientists who identify problems with drugs once they are on the market. Drug companies, then, do not adhere to the ideal norms of science, but would be classified by Robert Merton as undertaking unethical science. The environment fostered by drug marketing distorts communication about drugs. It is this distorted information that people, drug prescribers and drug users rely on when making decisions about how to conduct themselves in relation to drugs.
