Drug Company Used Ghostwriters to Write Work Bylined by Academics, Documents Show

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Drug Company Used Ghostwriters to Write Work Bylined by Academics, Documents Show
December 2, 2010, 11:07AM

by Marian Wang, ProPublica

According to newly released documents from GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceutical company often paid ghostwriters to pen medical studies, editorials and even a textbook that listed physicians as the authors.

The documents -- some of which date back to late 1990s -- were recently unsealed in litigation over a GlaxoSmithKline product. We saw them after they were attached to a letter released this week by a nonprofit watchdog group urging the National Institutes of Health to crack down on ghostwriting in medical academia. The documents and the letter by Project on Government Oversight together outline several examples of how a major drug company contributed to the funding, writing and approval of material published in medical journals and elsewhere.

The textbook, published in 1999, listed two physician co-authors who at the time were chairs of the psychiatry departments at the medical schools of Stanford University and Emory University, the New York Times reported this week in a piece that focused only on the textbook. According to the Times, it's the first instance where a book has been criticized for the same issues with ghostwriting and drug industry influence that have plagued medical journals.

Read more: http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/drug-company-used-ghostwriters-to-write-work-bylined-by-academics-documents-show.php

[monmouth]

1. Seriously, who can we trust these days? The world has gone insane...n/t

[sarcasmo]

13. We sure can't trust the drug companies, banks or politicians.

[mike_c]

2. speechless....

:wtf:

[EFerrari]

3. It looks like nobody cares when this is found out.

Because they have to know it will be.

[KT2000]

4. Well - corporations hire physicians

to plant editorials, articles, and books that promote their spin on things.
If you believe that people who are chemically sensitive are actually having psychological problems or are malingerers, then you got those opinions from corporate funded propaganda. They pay well to keep chemical sensitivity off the books. So far they have been successful.

[KoKo]

5. This has been going on for a long while. It's been tightened up recently...but damage is done...

And does anyone wonder why Deficit Commission wants to go after "Tort Reform?" All those lawyers finding out things about how their patients were given false info that affected their Health Care?

CRIMINAL!

[underpants]

6. Many times posted here on DU but watch "Happiness Machines" and see how you are manipulated

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dA89CBBOC0

[Lionel Mandrake]

7. Plagiarism by students will not be tolerated

at least in some schools.

But this is different. This is plagiarism by faculty. In this case, not only are the former chairs of the psychiatry departments at the medical schools of Stanford University and Emory University claiming credit for a book they didn't write; they are helping GlaxoSmithKline perpetrate fraud.

If students can be expelled for plagiarism, what should happen to professors who plagiarize?

[lovuian]

9. lets face Academia in America has been corrupted

therefore
Not to be trusted

[Lionel Mandrake]

17. Having experience in both places,

I trust schools more than I trust corporations. In schools, plagiarism is at least an issue. In corporations, it is one of the perks of management.

There are two ways an organization can try to rebuild trust: either hire a PR firm to design new slogans, or clean up it's act. I know which choice a corporation would make. For a university, I'm not so sure.

[NBachers]

19. In a more honorable time, the disgrace and shame would've led them to do the honorable thing

but we're living in a time when shame and honor are quaint old notions.

Enslavement to greed and perversion of truth are badges to be worn with pride as the slimeballs kick their way to the front of the line.

"Cashing in your chips" ain't what it used to be.

[hunter]

8. Big Pharm needs to be reined in, maybe even nationalized.

Some of the industry's top executives ought to be in prison.

They kill and maim and steal money from everyone.

Medicines are heavily advertised because they are profitable, not because they are safe, effective, and appropriate.

[Eddie Haskell]

10. Another example - statins

I was on Lipitor. When I began to have pain in my shoulders, I stopped taking it. From what I've read, roughly 50% of the people on statins complain of muscle pain, and eventually stop taking the drug. But the literature says only 5-8% can't tolerate the drug. That's based on a test used to determine tolerance.

Interestingly, 90% of statin users complain that their physician refuses to give credence to their complaints and it turns out the test used to determine how well your body tolerates the drug is meaningless. Tissue studies prove that nearly 100% of those who pass the test still have muscle damage.

[Lionel Mandrake]

21. Where did you get those statistics?

50% of the people on statins complain of muscle pain, and eventually stop taking the drug?

90% of statin users complain that their physician refuses to give credence to their complaints?

... nearly 100% of those who pass the test still have muscle damage?

Could you, perhaps, provide a link or a reference to support these statements?

[jtuck004]

11. Ghostwriters. Making out on both sides

Though if I were a student I would check the school's faculty to see if any are availing themselves
of this service. With the evidence in hand, in class, they could make the case that there is no
need to write their own.

DU discussion 'bout shadow writers here

[BrklynLiberal]

12. Sadly..I am not the least bit shocked...

[NobleCynic]

14. Anyone who signed off on their name being used

should be blacklisted from academia. Permanently. No grants, no papers, nothing. As to the drugs they signed off on, I say give the pharmaceutical company shareholders a few options; profit all net profit from said drugs until a proper study is done. If the drug passes muster, they can resume profiting from that point forward. If it doesn't they must immediately forfeit all gross profits related to the drugs. The other option is government seizing of all intellectual properties.

As to the executives, falsifying results in medicine is fundamentally equivalent to manslaughter in my eyes, I would strongly approve of jail sentences handed out to the appropriate executives if so much a single death can be attributed to said drugs.

[saras]

20. You're too sensible

I entirely agree.

I also think we need an effective way to permanently blacklist corporate criminals from ever having a job again where they're responsible for either other employees or more money than there is in a 7-11 till.

But in general, a 'no-profit-for-crime' principle is desperately needed to rein in corporate crime.

[lunasun]

15. Adverse Drug Reactions kill far more people annually than all illegal drug use combined

[siligut]

16. I am so not surprised

According to the Times, it's the first instance where a book has been criticized for the same issues with ghostwriting and drug industry influence that have plagued medical journals.

They mean the first instance that has come out in the media. Ho Hum, some patsy will take the fall.

[sellitman]

18. Betcha these Climate warming deniers are all ghost writers paid for by big oil too.

Bastards one and all!