New England Journal of Medicine

"I'll give you an example. This is the New England Journal of Medicine....Eighty-three percent of its revenues comes from drug advertising. What do you think this costs? Eighty-three percent of its revenues comes from drug advertising. In addition to that, the very highly touted drug called "Mevacore," lovastatin, is a drug that lowers cholesterol. Now, this is my opinion: The purpose of Mevacore is to allow Joe Six-Packs to eat his Twinkies and Ding Dongs and not worry about his cholesterol. You are not going to get very much about diet control in this journal because Mevacore doesn't want it. You know, Merck, Sharp, and Dohme doesn't like diet control because obviously diet control cuts their profits. So, this is simply a trade journal. That's what it's all about. It's a nice one. I like it. But it's not a credible journal. It's not really good science, but it's fun to read. Kind of like National Enquirer."--Dr Levin MD [1993 Interview with Dr. Alan Levin.] Modern Medicine and its Military Links