For Health or Profit?

"Most of use routinely take some form of medication, whether to control fertility, cope with everyday aches and pains, or to treat chronic conditions. The industry that creates and sells these familiar products has immense scientific and commercial resources and operates globally. But what do we know of this industry in New Zealand, and just how well does it serve the public interest? ... As this book shows, the industry is not a disinterested partner for the clinician, struggling to make complex therapeutic decisions; pharmaceutical therapies are not devoid of social and moral coloring. A more sophisticated model of medicine, informed by the discourse of the policy sciences, is needed, in order to reflect more accurately the humanist impulse of medical practice."--Back cover.