This article, written by Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman of Georgetown University Medical Center, reveals the ethically questionable ways in which Wyeth Pharmaceuticals promoted Prempro, their hormone “replacement” treatment for menopause.
Wyeth paid highly respected physicians to list their names as authors of research studies, reviews, commentaries, and letters to the editor, even though they had not actually written them. These articles were “ghost written,” often by company employees, and published in medical journals. When other doctors saw these highly respected physicians as authors of the articles, they believed that menopausal hormone therapy was beneficial. When the National Institutes of Health (NIH) finally funded independent research on hormone therapy, the results were completely different. Click below to read this fascinating article, published in September 2010.
The Haunting of Medical Journals: How Ghostwriting Sold ‘‘HRT’’