Doctored

Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's

De: Charles Piller

Narrado por: Lyle Blaker

“Demonstrates how some of the most accomplished and elite scientific gatekeepers may have lied, cheated, squandered trust and endangered lives.”—The Wall Street Journal

For fans 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 Nobel Prize-rumored 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, this “seminal account of deceit that will long be remembered” (Katherine Eban, author of Bottle of Lies and Vanity Fair special correspondent) 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.

©2025 Charles Piller (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Misconduct is the antithesis of science

I’m writing this 5star review because the only review is an idiotic 1star that to me doesn’t seem like it’s from someone who read the book. This isn’t a book about cutting edge Alzheimer’s research, it doesn’t give you a “view” on what the facts are behind Alzheimer’s, it just calls out rampant and horrifying misconduct. So maybe the amyloid hypothesis is perfectly correct, but the bulk of the science it’s currently built off is falsified and corrupt and worse than worthless, it’s active dishonesty via data manipulation and more which isn’t just bad science, it the antithesis of science. So the book really isn’t offering a perspective on the causes of Alzheimer’s etc. it’s just calling out the abominable conduct of a shocking number of big names in the field. Anyone acting like manipulating the data you draw conclusions from isn’t a big deal is not only not a scientist, they are an idiot. Sorry 1 star reviewer, I think you are maybe a bit dumb.

A one-sided view of the Alzheimer’s field

As an Alzheimer’s researcher I found this very biased and dismissive of the great strides that have been made in our field. Misconduct must always be called out and addressed fully, and for that Mr Piller is to be credited. But beyond that, the book tells a semi-fictional story of our research field.