This Just In: Consumer Reports are a bunch of closet hipsters

From the publishers of Consumer Reports (yes, the staid, vanilla comparator of all things consumer-ish) comes this spectacular send up of drug company commercials. It's purpose is to draw attention to the fact that drug companies aren't required to make the results of clinical trials public. New legislation is being introduced (the Fair Access to Clinical Trials Act) to fix this.

Clearly there are recent events *cough*Vioxx*cough that make this seem like a good idea, but I have to wonder what kinds of liability this is to drug companies. Sure, BadCo may no longer be able to cover up the fact that their new drug gave 56% of the trial patients purple hair on their eyeballs, but how does it affect GoodCo? If a drug isn't released to the public, does the company still have to release the results of clinical studies? I'm in favor of disclosure, but I guess I'll have to read the act to find out.

[Via Boing Boing]