Drug companies’ tactics in spotlight

Book documents way of life now lost forever

Bad Pharma By Ben Goldacre (Fourth Estate, RRP $35) Reviewed by Jillian Allison-Aitken This latest book by British doctor and science writer Ben Goldacre takes an often uncomfortably close look at what is happening in the global pharmaceutical industry. I’m not anti-medication by any means – without the heart, blood pressure and diabetes drugs I swallow every day I have no doubt I wouldn’t be feeling anywhere near as well as I do these days – but there’s no way you can read this book without being left with a sense of unease.

Goldacre’s Bad Science column (published by British newspaper The Guardian since 2003) makes an art of unravelling the evidence behind misleading claims from journalists, the pharmaceutical industry, alternative therapists and government re- ports, and his bestselling book of the same name (published in 2008), exposed the good, the bad and the ugly (and sometimes just downright ridiculous) of pseudo-scientific remedies.

Bad Pharma puts the spotlight squarely on the $600 billion pharmaceutical industry and it is often quite scary reading.

That more money is spent on marketing these drugs than on research and development is a startling revelation but it is when the author gets into the tweaking and ‘‘massaging’’ of clinical results that it gets really scary.

Then there are the new diseases invented to boost profits, patients’ pressure groups being covertly sponsored by pill manufacturers and the research papers, supposedly by respected academics, that are ghost-written by drug companies.

This is equal parts fascinating and frightening. Rock on Rarotoka: Centre Island Revisited By Vaunda Maynard (nee Harris) Reviewed by Naida Mulligan Vaunda Maynard was lighthouse keeper’s daughter on Rarotoka/ Centre Island in Foveaux Strait for seven years in the 1940s to 1950s. This beautiful little book contains photographs and vignettes of her time there. Vaunda now lives in Leeston but a spot still burns in her heart for the deep south.

As well as being a vivid and interesting read, Vaunda’s book is important historically as it details a time and way of life now lost forever. Most lighthouses became automated and were demanned in the 1980s.

It is difficult to pick a favourite part of the book but what stands out is the love, laughter and companionship of Vaunda’s family life growing up. Her family enjoyed being together and this was just as well considering the isolation of their home and workplace.

For $20 you can purchase Rock on Rarotoka from the Bluff Maritime Museum, Te Hikoi Heritage Centre in Riverton or from our own Southland Museum. If you prefer to receive your book through the post for an extra $5 postage, you can contact Vaunda on 03 324 3272 or 027 341 7692 or her friendly manager debbrightwell@gmail.com.

I highly recommend that you read the book, wherever you obtain it from.

Vaunda has also written an account of her family life at Cape Campbell Lighthouse where her father was keeper from 1947 to 1950.