The subject of medical ghostwriting is in the news again. On December 13, 2008, the NY Times reported on the continuing investigation by Senator Charles E. Grassley, a member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, into drug industry influence on medical doctors (1,2). The stories center on the pharmaceutical giant Wyeth and its marketing of the hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drug Prempro, but the practice of using ghostwriters is by no means restricted to Wyeth.

What is medical ghostwriting?

Pharmaceutical companies generate medical articles presenting their products in a favourable light. They then hire medical doctors — ghostwriters — to claim to be the authors of these articles.

Here is how Wyeth worked the scam, according to the NY Times (1):

• Company executives came up with ideas and specifications for articles for publication in medical journals
• A medical writing company was hired to prepare the manuscripts to the company′s specs
• Medical doctors with academic credentials were recruited to put their names on the finished papers — for a handsome fee you can be sure.
• The drug company′s name, or the names of the people who actually wrote the articles, didn′t appear anywhere in the publications.

What is wrong with this practice?

It is fraud, plain and simple!

By posing as authors, these medical doctors claim the findings and conclusions in the ghostwritten articles as their own. This is a barefaced lie; they have no way of knowing if the data they present are real or fabricated. And the conclusions favourable to the drugs are dictated by the company. That is the purpose of these articles, and that′s what the "authors" are paid for.

Doctors posing as authors clearly collude with company officials in committing fraud. It is ludicrous to assume that medical doctors deemed credible enough to front for a drug company are too naive to understand what they are doing — fooling the readers into mistaking company spin for objective scientific/medical reporting.

In Sen. Grassley′s words:

"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." (1).

The World Association of Medical Editors calls the practice of ghost authorship "dishonest and unacceptable" (1).

The pharmaceutical industry has no credibility left, and they know it. The drug companies admit this by the very fact of using ghostwriters — bribing "independent" medical doctors to front for them.

Sources:

1. Wyeth′s Use of Medical Ghostwriters Questioned. Duff Wilson. NY Times December 13, 2008.
2. From Agenda Item to Published Medical Article. Duff Wilson. NY Times December 13, 2008.