Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16285
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: Journal Article
Wyeth Ghostwriting Archive
PLoS Med 2009;
http://www.plosmedicine.org/static/ghostwriting.action
Abstract:
In July 2009, a US federal court decision resulted in the release of approximately 1500 documents detailing how articles highlighting specific marketing messages written by unattributed writers, but “authored” by academics, are strategically placed in the medical literature – a practice known as ghostwriting. To release these documents, PLoS Medicine, represented by the public interest law firm Public Justice, and the New York Times, acted as “intervenors” in litigation against menopausal hormone manufacturers by women who developed breast cancer while taking hormones. PLoS Medicine argued that sealed documents identified during the discovery process for the court case, demonstrating the practice of ghostwriting, should be made available to the public. As PLoS Medicine Chief Editor Ginny Barbour stated in the motion to intervene, ghostwriting “gives corporate research a veneer of independence and credibility” and may “substantially distort the scientific record”; “threaten[ing] the validity and credibility of medical knowledge.” On July 24, 2009, U.S. District Judge William Wilson, Jr., in Little Rock, Arkansas, granted the motion to make discovery materials public as of July 31, 2009.
PLoS has created this web page to make the released documents publicly available without delay. The documents are organized as they were received following the court’s decision. PLoS is working with the Drug Industry Documents Archive at the University of California, San Francisco, to develop an indexed archive of the documents.
Click here to browse the documents
Documents related to the proceedings of the court case are located below:
The District Court’s Order
Declaration in Support of PLoS Medicine’s Motion to Intervene
Public Justice’s Brief in support of PLoS Medicine’s Motion to Intervene
Public Justice’s Brief in Support of PLoS Medicine’s Motion for Access to the Materials in this Case
Blog posts on the court case from PLoS Medicine’s blogsite, Speaking of Medicine, are located below:
Successful intervention by PLoS Medicine and New York Times in Federal court grants public access to evidence that drug company ‘ghostwrote’ medical articles about hormone therapy drug, Prempro
PLoS Medicine and the New York Times victorious in court; Public will have access to ghostwriting documents
Ghostwriting 101
What should be done to tackle ghostwriting in medical literature?
An article in the New York Times on Aug 5, 2009 discusses some of the papers.
