What Ever Happened to 'An Apple a Day'?

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It works remarkably well." As a result of a case brought by Franklin, Warner-Lambert, which had been acquired by Pfizer (PFE), was found guilty of criminal charges in 2004 and paid a $430 million fine. But "perhaps the only thing that made the...case unique was that the companies had failed...to keep the documents and the fact of the fraud a secret," says Petersen.

The book is full of such eye-opening stories. Eli Lilly (LLY) repacked Prozac in a lavender-and-pink capsule and pushed the drug for what it calls "premenstrual dysphoric disorder." Novartis (NVS), concerned about declining Ritalin sales, apparently claimed that girls are vastly undertreated for attention deficit disorder because their symptoms go unrecognized. The main symptom, according to Novartis? Sitting quietly. Then there are the sad tales of people such as Peter Koppen, who spent his preteen years in a haze of pharmaceuticals prescribed by psychiatrists when what he really needed was a helping hand after his father's death when he was 7. "I was out of it all the time," Peter remembered. "I just needed someone to spend more time with me."

The book could have been more revealing had the executives and doctors whose speeches and memos Petersen quotes been given a chance to respond. But her conclusion is pretty convincing even so. "The industry has been transformed from one with the ability to do great good to one that is causing far too much needless harm."