I remember researching about big pharma to some extent for a research paper, when there was a controversy surrounding diagnosing children with bipolar disorder and giving them powerful medications. The guy who wrote the main research paper and led the research project ended up getting caught in a huge conflict of interest case... and there are a lot of similar cases.

I know one nurse in particular was super psyched on getting me on this one antidepressant, I asked to be put back on a med I had been on previously and had worked for me, and she kept saying this new med was way better, and having done the research on it even a little it doesn't have any higher efficacy statistically then other ssri's, so it really felt to me like she was maybe getting a bonus for prescribing it to people....

I dont think docs are all conniving I think most mean well, I think some are pill pushers though for their own financial benefit, and I think big pharma is shady as hell... as shady as anything can be really.