Doctored
Fraud, Arrogance and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's
Published on 13. February 2025
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-1-83773-259-3 (ISBN)
Description
For readers of Empire of Pain and Dopesick, an arresting deep dive into how Alzheimer's disease treatment has been set back by corrupt researchers, negligent regulators, and the profit motives of Big Pharma.
Nearly seven million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease, a tragedy that is already projected to grow into a $1 trillion crisis by 2050. While families suffer and promises of pharmaceutical breakthroughs keep coming up short, investigative journalist Charles Piller's Doctored shows that we've quite likely been walking the wrong path to finding a cure all along - led astray by a cabal of self-interested researchers, government accomplices, and corporate greed.
Piller begins with a whistleblower - Vanderbilt professor Matthew Schrag - whose work exposed a massive scandal. Schrag found that a University of Minnesota lab led by a precocious young scientist and a renowned director delivered apparently falsified data at the heart of the leading hypothesis about the disease. Piller's revelations of Schrag's findings stunned the field and the public.
From there, based on years of investigative reporting, Doctored exposes a vast network of deceit and its players, all the way up to the FDA. Piller uncovers evidence that hundreds of important Alzheimer's research papers are based on false data. In the process, he reveals how even against a flood of money and influence, a determined cadre of scientific renegades have fought back to challenge the field's institutional powers in service to science and the tens of thousands of patients who have been drawn into trials to test dubious drugs. It is a shocking tale with huge ramifications not only for Alzheimer's disease, but for scientific research, funding, and oversight at large.
Nearly seven million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease, a tragedy that is already projected to grow into a $1 trillion crisis by 2050. While families suffer and promises of pharmaceutical breakthroughs keep coming up short, investigative journalist Charles Piller's Doctored shows that we've quite likely been walking the wrong path to finding a cure all along - led astray by a cabal of self-interested researchers, government accomplices, and corporate greed.
Piller begins with a whistleblower - Vanderbilt professor Matthew Schrag - whose work exposed a massive scandal. Schrag found that a University of Minnesota lab led by a precocious young scientist and a renowned director delivered apparently falsified data at the heart of the leading hypothesis about the disease. Piller's revelations of Schrag's findings stunned the field and the public.
From there, based on years of investigative reporting, Doctored exposes a vast network of deceit and its players, all the way up to the FDA. Piller uncovers evidence that hundreds of important Alzheimer's research papers are based on false data. In the process, he reveals how even against a flood of money and influence, a determined cadre of scientific renegades have fought back to challenge the field's institutional powers in service to science and the tens of thousands of patients who have been drawn into trials to test dubious drugs. It is a shocking tale with huge ramifications not only for Alzheimer's disease, but for scientific research, funding, and oversight at large.
Reviews / Votes
A gripping story of medical groupthink and warped incentives. * The Economist * Rigorous and sobering ... Piller specialises in investigative stories. It's safe to say that if you're a researcher engaged in dubious practices, his is one of the last voices you would want to hear on the other end of the phone. * The Times * Demonstrates how some of the most accomplished and elite scientific gatekeepers may have lied, cheated, squandered trust and endangered lives ... [a] dramatic and damning investigation of scientific transgression * The Wall Street Journal * Doctored is clearly the result of brilliant and dogged journalism ... the scandal at the book's heart is one that more people should know about. * The Guardian * A compelling account of the unravelling of scientific fraud * The Spectator * A troubling look at the corruption of Big Science. * Publishers Weekly * A dark, cautionary tale of the way frauds, cheats, and hustlers have undermined research into Alzheimer's Disease. * Science Magazine * A fast-paced ride through a web of scientific misconduct in Alzheimer's research that has wasted billions of dollars and misled the public. * Holden Thorp, Editor-in-Chief, Science * A riveting must-read master class in science journalism. For those of us who want to 'trust the science,' Doctored is the necessary reminder that trust has to be earned. * Gary Taubes, bestselling author of Rethinking Diabetes, The Case Against Sugar, and Good Calories, Bad Calories * Doctored masterfully unfolds an epic tale of astounding fraud, scientific egos run amok, and steely heroism in the pursuit of truth, creating both a page turner and a seminal account of deceit that will long be remembered alongside Theranos and Enron as a scandal for the ages. * Katherine Eban, Author, Bottle of Lies, Special Correspondent, Vanity Fair * Doctored meticulously reveals a world of scientific fraud, its unsuspecting victims, and the sleuths and other heroes working to fix it. This should be required reading for aspiring scientists, policymakers, and anyone who will one day be touched by a devastating disease - which is all of us. * Ivan Oransky, MD, Distinguished Journalist in Residence, New York University and co-founder of Retraction Watch * A beautifully told, shocking story of the destructive effects that individual ambition and dishonesty have had on the entire field of Alzheimer's research. Through diligent and intelligent journalism, Piller has done an enormous service in detailing both the extent of fraudulent Alzheimer's research and the troubling inability of the research community to deal with Science fabricators and their contamination of widely-held beliefs. * Professor Rob Howard, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry, University College London * Piller's clear-eyed forensic journalism combines with a story of subterfuge and deceit that reads like the best of crime fiction. Doctored is disturbing and timely. * Jacqueline Yallop, author of Into the Dark * Doctored is a riveting, deeply researched journalistic investigation. Piller leaves you glued to the page as you discover how hubris, greed and negligence collide in the quest of a cure for Alzheimers. It's the story of a courageous whisteblower, Matthew Schrag, who risks everything by exposing the truth, and the institutions - universities, regulators, academic journals - who fail to uphold academic integrity. A shocking tale about medicine, and the amyloid hypothesis in particular, this investigation is a must-read for researchers, students, policymakers, and everybody who wants to truly understand how science is made and unmade. * Marina Gerner, award-winning journalist and author of The Vagina Business * Vividly captures the risks borne by whistleblowers ... a sweeping indictment of the status quo. * The Atlantic *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Duxford
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
Weight
506 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83773-259-3 (9781837732593)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Charles Piller is an investigative journalist for Science magazine and his work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Sacramento Bee, and more. Piller has been honoured with many national journalism awards, and is the author of Gene Wars and The Fail-Safe Society. He has reported on public health, biological warfare, infectious disease outbreaks, and other topics from the United States, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central America. Follow him on X @CPiller.