Drug Maker Said to Pay Ghostwriters for Journal Articles

[deminks]

Source: New York Times

Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company, paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its female hormone replacement therapy Prempro, according to Congressional letters seeking more information about the company’s involvement in medical ghostwriting. At least one article was published even after a federal study found the drug raised the risk of breast cancer.

The letters, sent electronically Friday by Senator Charles E. Grassley, ask Wyeth and DesignWrite, a medical writing firm, to disclose payments related to the preparation of journal articles and the activities of doctors who were recruited to put their names on them for publication.

The letters are part of a continuing investigation by Mr. Grassley, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, into drug industry influence on doctors.

“Any attempt to manipulate the scientific literature, that can in turn mislead doctors to prescribe drugs that may not work and/or cause harm to their patients, is very troubling,” Mr. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, wrote Friday to Wyeth’s chairman and chief executive, Bernard J. Poussot.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/business/13wyeth.html?_r=1&hp

[Teaser]

1. Considering the trouble I'm having getting my papers out the door

maybe I need a ghost writer too.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. This Is News?

It's been going on for at least a decade, and everyone in the medical research biz knows it's done... it's a normal part of doing business.

[HopeHoops]

3. Yeah, like the "doctors" on the TV at the doctor's office aren't paid shills - riiigghhttt

[420inTN]

4. Big Tobacco's old paper wrtiers needed the work

Since Big Tobacco really isn't churning out the health studies anymore.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. It's been SOP for a long time for the drug companies to suppress bad results.

Look at the meta-analyses of antidepressant studies some time. One meta-analysis was done including the unpublished studies (which showed small or no treatment effects over placebo), with very interesting results.