British Indian cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra and specialist filmmaker Donal O’Neill's premiered their new film 'First! Do No Pharm' at Leicester Square in London this week to expose the unscrupulous behaviour of the global pharmaceutical industry through testimony from a host of industry experts.
Having previously altered the public's perspective on both wholesale statin usage and the dangers of high sugar consumption, Dr Malhotra now explores the current state of the broader health system and makes sensational revelations about the pharmaceutical industry.
He said: "This film is the most incendiary work I have ever completed. It is going to make a lot of profit-hungry people in the pharmaceutical industry unhappy.
"But it is going to save lives and that is all that matters. We have a pandemic of misinformed doctors and misinformed and unwittingly harmed patients. It is time to put an end to this once and for all."
Gurinder Chadha OBE, one of the UK's leading filmmakers, joined him on stage at the premiere.
She said: "Aseem is a very old friend of mine and I have watched his brave and often perilous journey confronting corruption and malpractice. He does this in defence of the Hippocratic Oath, which he took in defence of my health and millions like me who constantly are looking for the truth about healthcare.
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"He will not stop until we all understand his vital mission for our benefit."
Through personal storytelling and interviews of key experts around the world, including US-based Professor Jay Bhattacharya, Dr Peter Wilmshurst, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Professor Robert Lustig and former Editor in Chief of the ‘British Medical Journal’ (BMJ) Fiona Godlee, Dr Malhotra seeks to expose a worrying narrative and underlying malfeasance within the healthcare system. He offers policy-specific solutions to reverse the damage.
Sir Richard Thompson, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: "For too long doctors have had to make clinical decisions based on non-transparent data on the efficacy and side effects of drugs that are curated by the drug industry, whose basic motive is to put profits before patients. It can be compared with the Grenfell disaster.
"Therefore, invariably the safety and benefits of many important drugs, such as statins, are exaggerated, so that avoidable illness, and even deaths, occur from the side effects that have often been ignored or denied by the industry. It is time for a public inquiry to expose the murky practices of Big Pharma so that doctors can know that when they prescribe they are truly putting their patients first, rather than the financial interests of drug companies and their shareholders, and the scientists funded by them."
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While the prognosis for ethics in medicine looks grim, the documentary finishes with a remarkably uplifting visit to Mount Abu in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Dr Malhotra shares a powerful story of redemption for the practice of medicine with cardiologist peer Dr Satish Gupta, who has pioneered Yoga-based techniques to reverse heart problems in his patients.
*Info: ‘First! Do No Pharm’