The Haunting of Medical Journals: How Ghostwriting Sold “HRT”

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All,

 

I know this isn't about MSK, but it is about EBM

A. Simpson, DC DABCOMedical Director, Vice PresidentThe CHP Group6600 SW 105th Ave, Suite 115Beaverton, OR  97008503-619-2041 O503-367-0872 C503-644-0442 F

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000335

Summary Points

Some 1500 documents revealed in litigation provide unprecedented insights into how pharmaceutical companies promote drugs, including the use of vendors to produce ghostwritten manuscripts and place them into medical journals. Dozens of ghostwritten reviews and commentaries published in medical journals and supplements were used to promote unproven benefits and downplay harms of menopausal hormone therapy (HT), and to cast raloxifene and other competing therapies in a negative light. Specifically, the pharmaceutical company Wyeth used ghostwritten articles to mitigate the perceived risks of breast cancer associated with HT, to defend the unsupported cardiovascular “benefits” of HT, and to promote off-label, unproven uses of HT such as the prevention of dementia, Parkinson's disease, vision problems, and wrinkles. Given the growing evidence that ghostwriting has been used to promote HT and other highly promoted drugs, the medical profession must take steps to ensure that prescribers renounce participation in ghostwriting, and to ensure that unscrupulous relationships between industry and academia are avoided rather than courted.