[karsa]

One such case is of Barry Marshall and H.Pylori, he was awarded the nobel price in 2005 for discovering the cure to ulcers, (antibiotics) but he first discovered the cure in 1983 and after about 10 years of 'trying' to convince the medical community of which (Glaxo who was dominant in that market) was making 90% of their profits from Zantac (an anti acid treatment) - (known inside as the 'Zantac years'), they were accused of thwarting his discovery. Tired of the lack of interest, in about 1992 he did a live experiment on himself by swallowing a wapping dose of H.pylori and induced an ulcer, then proceeded to cure this with a course of antibiotics. He did this in the glare of the media and thereby changed the course of treatment worldwide for ulcers... How many would do that?

However, I agree with the point though that too many HNers often seem to be naive about the larger picture which I guess we could all be accused of in some way.

[rsheridan6]

Barry Marshall did not have to convince Glaxo Kline Smith. He had to convince other doctors and scientists. I don't believe that companies can often keep genies in bottles, but dogma and groupthink is another matter.

[karsa]

He was also ignored totally by all the main stream publications, it was later alleged they had close ties to Glaxo and the editors were fully aware of the significance the impact would have had on Glaxo.

http://www.orc.ru/~yur77/pylori.htm

[rsheridan6]

The article claims, without evidence, that Nature and Science didn't publish Marshall because of ties with Glaxo. Even if that's true, there are a lot of other journals out there. Are they ALL in Glaxos pocket?

I doubt it. But they're all reviewed by his peers, who made a living by giving endoscopies and prescriptions to patients every year or so.

[alextp]

Peer review is usually by scientist peers, and not professional peers. I doubt that most academic researchers in medicine were prescribing anything, really.

[rsheridan6]

MDs do research all the time. Some MDs are also phDs. Marshall himself was a doctor/researcher.

[JosefK]

This story seems to have at least the air of exaggeration around it. See http://www.csicop.org/si/show/bacteria_ulcers_and_ostracism_... for the history around the adoption of H. Pylori hypothesis.

[karsa]

There is nonsense in the above article:

"Perhaps more important was that the subject, who was none other than Marshall himself, failed to develop an ulcer. Note also that the disease resolved without treatment."

This story suggest that he didn't get an ulcer (but he did get all the first symptoms) and that he didn't treat it with (antibiotics) which he did and which eventually cured his own symptoms (and nearly cost him his marriage as his wife left him shortly after doing this).

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/E/8270/22025/189048.htm...

"As with many tales of dedicated discoverers, you marvel at the tolerance of the family. When Marshall conducted his experiment on himself, he and his wife Ariadne, a psychologist, had four children aged between 10 and 3. He didn't inform Ariadne, or any of his colleagues, about what he was doing, mainly because he knew they'd object.

“I'm a selfish so-and-so”

“A few days after taking the bacteria I began to feel this heavy fullness after eating, and then on day five the vomiting started. One of the reasons I didn't tell my wife about it was that she had whiplash from a car accident. There was a lot of chaos in the family and in the middle of this each morning I would wake before dawn and run to the toilet to vomit. I had bad breath and I looked terrible. You have to admit I'm a selfish so-and-so to even go ahead with the experiment.”

Ten days after drinking the bacteria, Marshall had an endoscopy and other tests to show that his previously bug-free stomach was thoroughly infected and that he was showing the same signs as his patients.

“At that point I couldn't restrain myself; I had to tell the wife. She was speechless.” He laughs. “But it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” She insisted that he took antibiotics to clear up the infection straight away, though Marshall wanted to continue until he had a full-blown ulcer."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/artic...

Also gastronome enteritis and related diseases was responsible for over 5k deaths (globally) -- a week -- during the period it was known but not accepted 1983 - 1997.

http://www.aips.net.au/97.html

"Marshall swallowed a culture of the bacterium. A week later, he began suffering acute symptoms of gastritis, and biopsies revealed that he had developed both infection with H. pylori and severe acute gastritis. Fortunately, the sequel was a successful case of "Physician, heal thyself"!

further:

"At this stage, bismuth subcitrate was commonly used to treat ulcers, although it was uncertain how the drug worked. Marshall surmised that it might kill the H. pylori bacteria, and he subsequently discovered that a combination of bismuth with antibiotics completely eradicated the bacteria. He then set out to test the hypothesis that elimination of H. pylori could result in a permanent cure of gastric ulcer."

"From 1985 to 1987, Warren and Marshall studied the use of antibiotics as treatment for ulcer. Their finding that 80% of patients were permanently cured of their ulcer if H. pylori were eradicated, proved a landmark in clinical gastroenterology practice. It resulted in a complete reassessment of ulcer treatment, and this therapy is now accepted as an essential part of the management of ulcer disease."