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Originally Posted by Barty
I don't see this as a conspiracy mainly because the dead tree publishers just don't have that much money to throw around :-)
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I don't see it as a deliberate conspiracy, but it often seems there is bias, with broader conclusions than are warranted or really digging to find something negative to say about e-books.
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Now, drug studies -- those are really questionable. Most of them are funded by drug companies, because they're the one with money and vested interest. The studies with negative or neutral results are usually quietly shelved. Borderline results are massaged to make them look better than they are. Drug efficacy is often compared to that of a placebo rather than another drug. The people conducting the studies have financial conflict of interest galore. The FDA and other regulatory agencies are inadequately funded and get grief for not approving drugs fast enough and for letting unsafe drugs through.
You think your doctor prescribes you something after carefully reading research papers and meta analyses? More likely, they're hearing anecdotes from other doctors, getting sale pitches from reps who gladly take them out to dinner or a ball game (even lowly residents will get pitches from reps), or being nagged by their patients because they saw an ad on TV. (Ask your doctor if Zombitra right for you.) A good chunk of the drug market exists mainly to solve one problem: expiring drug patents. It's kind of amazing that with so much monkey business going on we have drugs that actually work.
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There may be conflicts of interest in the pharmaceutical industry, but unlike the alt-med concoctions, at least they are tested.