Public’s distrust of medicines needs urgent action, says academy

Only a third of the public trust the evidence from medical research, a survey for the Academy of Medical Sciences has found—half as many as trust what their friends and family tell them about medicines.1

John Tooke, who chaired the committee that commissioned the survey, called the finding “startling.” Speaking at a press conference at the Science Media Centre in London on 19 June, he noted an urgent need to act now to give patients clearer, more useful information about medicines, saying that otherwise they would not reap the full benefits of new drugs coming to the …