Merck wrote drug studies for doctors | Arthritis Information
I saw this appalling news on another board and am surprised it hasn't
surfaced for discussion here. Sorry about all the gobbledeegook before
the article---it's not showing up in my message posting box so I don't
know how to get rid of it. Just scroll past it to the artcle excerpt:
Merck Wrote Drug Studies for Doctors
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The drug maker Merck
drafted dozens of research studies for a best-selling drug, then lined
up prestigious doctors to put their names on the reports before
publication, according to an article to be published Wednesday in a
leading medical journal.
Read the rest of The New York Times article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/16vioxx.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin
More on this from the Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120828763322216997.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
From the Journal of American Medical Association:
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/299/15/1800
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/299/15/1813
From: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/299/15/1800 Conclusions This case-study review of industry documents demonstrates that clinical trial manuscripts related to rofecoxib were authored by sponsor employees but often attributed first authorship to academically affiliated investigators who did not always disclose industry financial support. Review manuscripts were often prepared by unacknowledged authors and subsequently attributed authorship to academically affiliated investigators who often did not disclose industry financial support.
Gimpy-a-gogo2008-04-18 16:55:10I also found this posted by Pip! It's good for those that don't want to wade through academic journals.
JIM LEHRER on News Hour reporting about this Big Pharma scandal:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june08/vioxx_04-15.html
Like I said on another thread, "this is just the tip of the iceberg."
Vioxx almost killed me, or maybe I should say Merck almost killed me. Vioxx caused my BP to spike to 220/118 and it took 3 weeks to stabilize. I don't have much faith in the literature and studies that I read from the pharma co. but like so many others we want to feel better. We know there's no cure, so all we can hope for is remission or a lessoning of the symptoms and hope that the pharma cos. are being honest about side efffects and that the statistics aren't skewed. I can only hope. Lindy
LinB2008-04-18 19:13:12
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