From Fiona Macdonald at ScienceAlert:
A Chinese government investigation has revealed that more than 80 percent of the data used in clinical trials of new pharmaceutical drugs have been “fabricated”.
The report uncovered fraudulent behaviour at almost every level, and showed that some pharmaceutical companies had hidden or deleted records of potentially adverse side effects, and tampered with data that didn’t meet their desired outcomes.More.
Odd way of putting things:
As damning as this problem is for China’s scientists, they aren’t the only ones that are under more and more pressure to publish positive and “groundbreaking” results in order to keep their jobs.
A study published earlier this month revealed that the enormous pressure on academics is acting like a form of natural selection, and evolving science into something “shoddy and unreliable”.
We thought we were the only people who knew that natural selection, left to itself, simply degrades life forms and their output. Funny how, when not tasked with defending Darwinism, people feel free to just admit that…
Note: Also, keep up to date with Retraction Watch
See also: Natural selection as negative principle only
and
Peer review “unscientific”: Tough words from editor of Nature
Follow UD News at Twitter!