`“It kind of makes me laugh that with what is going on in the Senate, the Senator’s worried about something [that is] ghost written, I mean give me a break.” This is the sentiment expressed to The New York Times by Linda Nachtigall, M.D., NYU Professor and Director of the Women’s Health Center, when asked about authorship of a 1999 journal article extolling hormone treatment.
Senator Grassley is on the march again, this time with letters to the Presidents of Wyeth and DesignWrite, a publication planning company. In the letters, they accuse DesignWrite of drafting manuscripts for reviews regarding the company’s hormone replacement therapy products and breast cancer risk and seeking academic investigators to sign on as primary author(s).
Senator Grassley states that ghost writing is important because: Articles published in medical journals are widely read by practitioners, and relied upon as being unbiased and scientific in nature. Concerns have been raised, however, that some medical literature may be subtle advertisements, rather than publications of independent research. The information in these articles can have a significant impact on doctors’ prescribing behavior and, in turn, on the American taxpayer, because the Medicare and Medicaid Programs pay billions of dollars for prescription drugs. Thus, 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.
The pursuit of “ghost writers” is not new. Earlier this year, The Journal of American Medical Association, published an article about ghost writing based upon the testimony of several plaintiffs’ witnesses in the Vioxx cases. Also, plaintiffs’ attorneys have relied upon is a better choice of words] the use of ghost writers to help bolster their case, that pharmaceutical companies are unfairly influencing content in medical journals.
This time, the Senator is giving the companies one month (until January 11, 2009), to send over all types of documentation – think truckloads -, and he is requesting all information from 1995, which more than likely is no longer available.
The question I have for everyone is not all physicians are given to writing, and since when has it become a crime to get help with what you are working on?.
Collaboration is one of the keys to success, and if we brand all collaboration as evil, much brilliant work will be lost due to poor writing skills of investigators. In the absence of proof that these practices are in existence, the Senator is releasing documents to the press vilifying those receiving the requests for information.
Another question about ghost writing — Did the Senator write the letter about ghost writing himself? Did he draft that letter in his own hand? What was his role in reviewing the drafts of the letters? Of course his staff wrote the letters, and he added his name to them. Where are the ghosts here?
Key Documents
Senator Grassley: Letter to President of Wyeth 12-12-08
Letter to DesignWrite President 12-12-08
Wall Street Journal: Wyeth is Pressed on Drug Reviews
New York Times: Wyeth Use of Medical Ghost Writers Questioned
Policy and Medicine: JAMA Ghosts = Invisible News
JAMA: Ghost Author's Skeletons
JAMA articles on Ghost writing and Study Results draws attention
Design Write: Press Release in Response to Grassley Investigation 12-15-08