Film-Living in the shadows of modern medicine

摘要

For people who consume more prescription drugs per capita than anyone in the world, Americans sure have a lot of complaints about Big Pharma. Some are on display in the new documentary Off Label, an absorbing and atmospheric, if one-sided, look at lives derailed by the misuse of prescription drugs across the USA.Film makers Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher intersperse the stories of eight individuals with concerns about the way drugs are developed and consumed. The protagonists' mostly negative interactions with medicine and the pharmaceutical industry run the gamut. Three earn meagre livings as itinerant research subjects and allege corruption and exploitation in clinical trials. Two were enrolled in research studies and suffered irreparable harm as a result.Two others complain they've been administered too many different drugs with too little counselling and oversight. Finally, a former pharmaceutical sales representative says that drug marketing is shady and coercive.