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Aug 5, 2009 06:20 PM | 29
Pens and clipboards are so 1997. Attractive sales reps are so 2001. They might both still be commonplace, but pharmaceutical companies have also been sinking cash into a more obscured vehicle of persuasion: peer-reviewed medical journals.
One drug company—Wyeth, maker of the hormone therapy drugs Premarin and Prempro—paid for substantial ghostwriting of 26 medical research papers published in major scientific journals between 1998 and 2005, according to The New York Times. And these writers weren’t just polishing prose. They shaped the articles from start to finish.
Since the dangers of hormone-replacement drugs began to surface in 2002, thousands of women have sued Wyeth. And according to court documents that have surfaced in ensuing legal battles, the drug company would often hire a medical communications company (for something to the tune of $25,000) to generate an outline for an article, enlist a doctor to sign on and then finalize the draft (with the physician's approval). Neither the fees nor the communications company would be noted in the published article. And because the product of these partnerships was often a review article—weighing various treatment options—no original experiments were required and conclusions could be company-friendly, but they could have wide influence on medical practitioners who read the journals.
Although the published articles passed peer review, many insist that the ethics behind them still render them unacceptable. "The filter is missing when the reader does not know that the germ of an article came from the manufacturer," James Szaller, a lawyer involved in some of the hormone therapy lawsuits, told the Times.
Some suspect that Wyeth might just be the tip of the iceberg. "It's almost like steroids and baseball," Joseph Ross, an assistant professor of geriatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, told the Times. "You don’t know who was using and who wasn’t; you don’t know which articles are tainted and which aren’t."
Wyeth notes that it now discloses when it has put money toward an article or employed editorial assistance from outside firms. And some journals, including JAMA The Journal of the American Medical Association, according to the Times, are taking a closer look at the role authors have in conceiving and writing papers they consider.
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29 Comments
Add CommentDuh! The foxes (drug companies) are looking after the henhouse! They are in business to make money and they make money by selling drugs NOT by selling cures. Any medication that can be legitimately prescribed for a perceived long-term benefit - for example those that reduce the risk of (fill in your own blank) - is a cash cow to be promoted and extended by any means possible. Peer-reviewed journals, 'free' training and seminars, sponsored conventions, etc are all just tools in the armoury. Caveat emptor.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis does not come as a paralyzing surprise.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMoney is at the root of all conflicts of interest. The ability to keep things secret feeds the 8 ton elephant in the room — from campaign financing and lawmakers who fight bills to disclose hospital acquired infection rates to Big Pharma. It's all the same ball of wax. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who stake their worldview, their sanity even, on this idea that everyone plays fair. Are you kidding? Market advantages are not gained via honesty. That's why even those who don't want to have single-source manufacturing overseas outside of the watchful eye of the FDA or FTC are forced to go along or go out of business. Hence, there are jobs for Ph.Ds and ivy league graduates and burger flippers, with the middle evisceration evidence to that fact. When this Great Recession turns into the Great Inflation and multi-generational households are again the norm, that's the point when all the chickens will have come home to roost. Why? Because corruption always hits us in the pocketbooks first. There is nothing negative we experience that doesn't have its roots in dishonesty and/or ignorance. It's the law of human nature. We must hope for the best and plan and write our legislation for the worst. Give drug companies or politicians or anyone else with Big Money at stake the opportunity to "bend the rules" and they can and will, often lacking the imagination to understand where the Pandora's Box ends.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a physician who has written a few book chapters and original papers. I'm ashamed of any peer of mine who would accept a ghost written article as their own. When I was in training 30 years ago I looked up to the academic doctors as role models. Now, almost all academics are paid by drug companies, etc. I refuse to attend "educational" seminars put on by sponsoring companies because I don't believe the "data" they give to me. Shame on the new pimps of academia. Where have my heroes gone??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI hate the pharmas as much as anybody but their money does drive a lot of things forward. Just talk to anybody who wants to do research into non-drugs related medicine such as how diet can reduce prostate cancer. They can't get any funding because there is no money to be made from just telling people to eat healthily , a pill on the other hand can be worth billions, especially when people always want a quick fix, unless you are prepared to change the whole capitalist system then all yo0u can do is be vigilant and make damn sure that there is legislation to stop this cheating.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is unambiguously unethical. Any physician (or scientist) who "authored" these articles should lose their license to practice and be banned from receiving federal funding. This is fraud pure and simple.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is unambiguously unethical. Any physician (or scientist) who "authored" these articles should lose their license to practice and be banned from receiving federal funding. This is fraud pure and simple.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've had interaction with these "writing companies". They churn out paper by the ton. The amount of paper is primary. Drown them with data and words! Curiously, although I have a PH. D. in pharmacology these writing machine companies would have nothing to do with me because I have actually written legitimate basic science research papers and that is the last thing they would want, objectivity and substantive ideas. The most interesting thing is that they usually hire English majors who are very adept at imitating a scientific writing style replete with fancy phrases which they have in their word processors ready to go.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThen the companies, usually headed by entrepreneurs better at business than science, would have it checked by nurses who worked relatively cheap but who do not have substantive knowledge of basic science underlying these subjects.
It also shows how peer review is problematic.
Wow. Nothing like rehashing old news. You must have a stack of New York Times newspaper a mile high. Now tell us about how the Republican Party may lose the the presedential election and what that may mean for stem cell research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow. Nothing like rehashing old news. You must have a stack of New York Times newspaper a mile high on your desk. Now tells us about how the Republican Party is going to lose the presentdential election and what that will mean for stem cell research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGee... next thing you know SA will be telling us that the drug companies don't pay for research into medications for diseases that don't comprise a large enough market to justify the expense.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is al lot like NASA hiring climate scientists based on a belief in global warming, then those climate scientists churning out paper after paper supporting the global warming hypothesis. More alarmism begets more money to study the "problem".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat else would you expect from the GREEDY thieves
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat else would you expect from GREEDY thieves
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSuch dirty practice has been around for decades -- faked reports, faked medicines.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo get quick money and instant profit, people would do every ugly thing under the sun. In this world of mad materialistic consumerism, who does not want to be wealthy? What else would the fraudulence not do?
Whenever I read anything, (usually a news article), the more subjective the choice or words or the style of writing is, the more unbelievable and fake the information appears to me. The overuse of emotion and pretending to be someone who has vast knowledge or experience can make it seem too obvious. The use of expletives at all would automatically make it an advertisement one way or another.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe fact that they hire English majors to do the writing is expected. The art of persuasion is much more important than relevant information. I am only a secondary school student, but my English teacher can very easily analyze any bit of writing and show us how it works to achieve its purpose, and that rubbed off on us (students). This just means that peer reviewing should be done not only by scientists, but also those who specialize in English(working together) in order to catch what my teacher calls "author flattering"(when we were supposed to be writing an essay analyzing the rhetoric of a passage in literature and how it's used as well as its effect on the audience, but instead, we pointlessly complimented on the author's writing, which was not what was asked to be done). In this case, the "author" would be those pharmaceutical companies.
Whenever I read anything, (usually a news article), the more subjective the choice or words or the style of writing is, the more unbelievable and fake the information appears to me. The overuse of emotion and pretending to be someone who has vast knowledge or experience can make it seem too obvious. The use of expletives at all would automatically make it an advertisement one way or another.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe fact that they hire English majors to do the writing is expected. The art of persuasion is much more important than relevant information. I am only a secondary school student, but my English teacher can very easily analyze any bit of writing and show us how it works to achieve its purpose, and that rubbed off on us (students). This just means that peer reviewing should be done not only by scientists, but also those who specialize in English(working together) in order to catch what my teacher calls "author flattering"(when we were supposed to be writing an essay analyzing the rhetoric of a passage in literature and how it's used as well as its effect on the audience, but instead, we pointlessly complimented on the author's writing, which was not what was asked to be done). In this case, the "author" would be those pharmaceutical companies.
sorry, sciam should have an "anti-spam" feature that prevents multiple copies of the same comment when we accidentally click "submit" twice.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour article says it all. I believe the same holds true for negative reports against herbs and other alternative therapies. Can we really trust the AMA, the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies with our health? They can use a weak brew of an herb and prove that it doesn't work, does that make it so? Who is to say? They won't listen to the people who actually work with herbs and KNOW their efficacy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey have done numerous studies of the herb Common Club Moss (Lycopodium clavatum), the latest Federally funded study on aging and the herb was at the University of North Carolina. The herb contains huperzine A, huperzine B, and the enzyme Prolylendopedtidase (PEP), which have a definite effect on memory. Huperzine A and B prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter in the brain having to do with recognition, reasoning and memory. They know it works, but they are not interested in promoting an herb that they cannot patent and control. They are trying to find out how to isolate the active ingredients so that they can make a drug to patent. You remember the Yew tree and cancer? Same story. There are many such stories.
Common club moss is the only thing (herb or otherwise) that I know of that can "cure" cirrhosis of the liver when it is taken as a tea, 1 teaspoon to one cup of hot water twice a day. Again, all we can give are "anecdotal" stories of people who were told by their doctors that they only had a month to live because there was nothing "medicine" could do for them. They somehow learned about common club moss tea, started using it and 13 years later are looking for more of it for a friend. No real studies have ever been done on it because the big money is not there, so why doesn't the government invest some money to have the studies done? Aren't they interested in "preventive health care" to help reduce health insurance and other medical costs? I thought we were in a "health care crisis" and "must" past a draconian federal health care insurance plan to "save us".
Still on common club moss. In its dry gound-up form and placed in a cloth sack or pillow, it is able to INSTANTANEOUSLY begin to relieve any muscle cramp or spasm anywhere in any muscle of the body whether its a voluntary or involuntary muscle. It is placed over the cramp like you would a heating pad or ice bag, but it requires NO heating, cooling, or any other preparation. In seconds menstrual cramps, baby colic, Charley Horse, foot cramps, etc dissipate with no lingering soreness or pain. It lasts for years of continuous use.
I've got more. Why are we so vulnerable to every new virus or bacteria that comes along? Without a strong immune system we have to depend on the drugs and vaccines pumped out by Big Pharma with the blessings of the FDA and AMA. Why not look at the cause?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIodine is a key component in building a healthy immune system. It is one of four haloides, the others being chlorine, flourine and bromine and they block the receptors for iodine in the thyroid, gonads, breasts, etc. The little iodine we get is unavailable. Chloine is used in water purification but it breaks down into known carcinogens. Chlorine Dioxide is much more effective and breaks down into salt and water. Believe it or not, the FDA has actually approved the use of Chlorine Dioxide for water purifiction.
In 1971 I did research for a speech I gave in my Speech Class. I used readily available news sources such as Time, US News and Word Report, Life, etc. They introduced flourine into the water system during the Watts riots in Los Angeles to quell the riots. Flourine has a pacifying effect, it makes you docile, apathetic and responsive to authority.
Prior to 1952 the incidence of breast cancer was minimal. They used iodine as a dough conditioner in bread so the population received an ample supply. After 1952 they replaced iodine with bromine as the dough conditioner.
The problem with osteoporosis, brittle bones and weak teeth is not an absence or lack of calcium. It is a lack of magnesium chloride because calcium cannot be utilized without it. If there is not enough of it the body leaches calcium out of the bones and teeth. Magnesium chloride is also important in maintaining a suptle and healthy heart and cardiovascular system. Heart disease, arteriosclerosis, dental caries, diabetes and a host of other ailments have their roots here.
Mercury is one of the deadliest substances known to man. It is found in thymerosol, the preservative in vaccines and in silver-mercury amalgams. Anyone beginning to see some connections here? Let me give you a hint. One of Obama's health advisers has openly promoted the introduction of and use of birth control substances in our water to reduce the population. This is symptomatic of a greater problem. The Federal Reserve Bank is a private corporation owned by the international bankers. They have debauched the monetary system and that is the root cause of the high cost of healthcare, homes and everything else. The Fed is in the Executive Branch a major shift of power from the Legislative Branch.
Hey Carlton 22 - you forgot about the Tri-lateral Commission.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBig Pharma cheating!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCount *me* shocked! Shocked, I tell you.
Soccerdad thanks for bringing that up. The Tri-Lateral Commission, yes but there are more: Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderbergers, Acorn, CCI, SEIU, Community Developement International, Skull and Bones, 322, the Order, the Group, the Illuminati, Novatec Society (the New Illuminati), there are hundreds of them. They are like barrels in the ocean for a whaler. The whale wears itself out attacking all of the barrels. Its a shell game. George Washington knew them as the Jacobins. They have from the inception of the United States sought to destroy America. They tried to destroy America in 3 wars, The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War when they backed the South. Not being succesful by direct warfare, they began waging a war from within by seeking to destroy the economy in order to destroy our Constitutional Republic. When George Washington drove them underground, they formed secret societies on University Campuses and began promoting their members into positions of power in every area of life, government, science, economics, religion, business, media, health and medicine, education, labor unions, even in gangs and the mafia. Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt began a Progressive Movement to change the fundamental structure and meaning of the Constitution. They began to Socialize the governments role in America.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Federal Reserve Act of 1913 shifted power from the Legislative Branch to the Executive Branch by transferring the power to print and coin money and regulate the value thereof. The Federal Reserve Bank is a private corporation owned by the international bankers and is under the Treasury Dept which is part of the Executive Branch. Federal Reserve "Notes" are a certificate of Debt (a note is a debt instrument, like when you sign a note with a private seller to buy your house). The Internal Revenue Service was created shortly after to collect money to pay the debt to the Federal Reserve.
They want to weaken the will and resolve of the American People so that they will gladly surrender their freedoms for peace, security, a social net welfare-healthcare system, etc. One way of doing that is to weaken our immune systems and by constantly introducing new viruses and diseases. They don't just magically appear, they are created.
They create stress and offer relief, but the relief only masks the symptoms and you end up with a far greater problem, in the body that equates with damage to vital organs such as the heart, liver, kidneys, etc (look at Viox).
Sorry, but I need to continue this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho are "They"? This is what they do not want you to know and do everything to keep it secret, using ridicule, denial, character assassination, intimidation, etc., and they are not above murder.
I know who I Am and I know who "They" are.
God created Cosmic Beings, Elohim, Archangels, Angels, elemental beings in preparation for the Creation of the souls of his Christs (plural) his Sons and Daughters who were destined to hold High Offices in his creation as Co-creators with him. Formed in Spirit they were to continue to develope and gain mastery in the physical and then return to Spirit in the ritual of the Ascension. Archangel Lucifer refused to be subservient to these Christs of God and rebelled. He took all of the angels under him with him when he was cast into the "Physical" domain which actually consists of four planes of Fire (etheric, memory), Air (mind, mental), Water (emotion, desire), and the Earth (physical). In the etheric plane we have organs just as we do in the physical plane. They are called chakras (wheels), whirling vortices of energy that act like step-down transformers to receive Light (nourishment) from Gods heart to our own heart. We do not live by bread alone. Within our Heart of hearts, the Secret Chamber of the Heart Chakra, burns an Unfed Flame of Gods own Fire. This is the portal to the Kingdom of Heaven and access point to our Higher Mind our Christ Mind (which we are intended to develope and become) and to the Heart of God.
Lucifer and his angels had great power when they were first cast into the earth. They had the power of creation. and could manipulate genetics. Lucifer created a race of beings to counter Gods creation of his Christs. Jesus called them the "tares" among the wheat (the Christs) and both he and John rebuked them on sight. The tares do not have a soul or a heart flame. They do not have total free will and are subservient to the fallen angels. They are like ants in an ant hill, totally subservient and obedient to their queen. They have no conscience, no remorse and seek power for powers sake and do anything to get it. They are of the earth earthy having never known spirit. They deny God because they have never known him. They are pre-programmed with contempt to seek dominance over God's Christs in the earth. They "caused" the Fall which had the effect of densifying our bodies to the point of being "cavemen". We did not evolve from the animal kingdom.
Some of the fallen angels recanted and were restored to God.
One more reason I don't buy medicines, support hospitals or take any other part in this countrys corrupt health care system. I ask nothing, I give nothing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd ridicule all ya want. My way has worked for generations, your way is bankrupting the nation.
Wow, nice amalgam of late western mythology, Carlton. The day you research the bibliography, you're REALLY gonna get fired up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe history is available. Consider looking into it.
If we did not evolve from the animal kingdom, then how come we are IN the animal kingdom? Unless you assume that this "we" belong to the Kingdoms Plantae or Fungi.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAmandine:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe (the Christs of God) are not IN the animal kingdom we are AMONG the animal kingdom. The "tares" created by Lucifer are more closely related to the animal kingdom as they were similarly created. Animals do not have an individual soul but have a group soul or "oversoul". That is one reason they gather in herds, flocks and schools and act almost as one. The word "animal" equates to "ani" "mal" or "animated" "evil" and "evil" equates to "e" "veil" or "energy" "veil". So animals are creations of the misqulified energy or energy "veiled by" or "densified by" misqualifying the Pure Light of God. Jesus asked that if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness", and if the salt has lost its savor with what will it be salted? This is a reference to the fact that while we are in the process of gaining mastery in co-creating with God, it is possible that some of that energy we receive from God will be used incorrectly. Every angry word or thought, criticism, condemnation, judgement, wrong desire, etc misqualifies the Light. It densifies and darkens and cannot return to God in a figure eight flow 8 from above to below and back again. Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it is transformed, and it can amalgamate with like energy and can take on a life of its own. It densifies the atoms by slowing down the spin of the electron with a molasses like substance on the "astral" (water body, desire, emotional) level. In our bodies it manifests as mental density (brain fog or density), various maladies and deformations, diseases, etc. This is based on the "law of karma" the cycling back of energy to its source. It is a teaching mechanism that can take many embodiments to work itself out through pain and suffering.
God has provided an accelerated method of transmuting or "balancing" the karma of misqualified energy. By engaging the fire of our hearts from the Unfed Flame we can "invoke" by the power of the Spoken Word (Sword), God's Violet Fire, a Universal Spiritual Solvent. A mantra using the name of God given to moses, "I AM THAT I AM", invokes that Violet Flame from God's heart : "I am a being of Violet Fire, I am the purity God desires." We were created by God's Light and Sound Wave when God spoke the fiat "Let there be Light" and there was light. By the same means, we as co-creators with God, can un-create or "free" the misqualifed energy so it can cycle back to God as it was intended. The Violet Flame penetrates the atom and transmutes, frees and accelerates the spin of the electron.
Where is the peer review process in all of this? The data in a results section of a scientific article is just a set of numbers. It's the job of the reviewers to decide whether or not the data support the claims and statements made in the discussion and conclusions sections of the article. Determining whether or not the data in these papers is fraudulent is the real issue. If the data is true it shouldnt matter who the author is. This is why the abstract review process is blinded at many scientific meetings. It is the job of the peer reviewers to guard against biased and unsupported conclusions. Even if the article makes it into publication with questionable conclusions it is also the job of the medical professional to read it critically and decide for themselves if the data support the conclusions. If they don't feel qualified to make that determination then maybe they should find a different field in which to practice...I wouldn't want them treating me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you think the conclusions are bad then blame the reviewers. If the data is falsified prosecute all those associated with perpetrating the fraud.
I would rather have reliable data from a ghostwriter than falsified data from the lead author (google Dr. Kuklo).