'Nonsense' science article offered publication -- for a fee

Using a bit of mischief, researchers at Cornell University and the New England Journal of Medicine have exposed the dangers of open access scientific journals after they were able to get a nonsensical article past editors of the Open Information Science Journal recently.

All they had to do was submit an $800 (US) "access fee" to the journal, blogger Bob Grant said in his blog for The Scientist magazine.

Philip Davis, a PhD student in scientific communications at Cornell University, and Kent Anderson, executive director of international business and product development at the New England Journal of Medicine, submitted the fake manuscript to The Open Information Science Journal (TOISCIJ) at the end of January. Image:

Sustiva

Sustiva

Generic Name: efavirenz (e FAV ir enz)

Brand Names: Sustiva

What is Sustiva?

Sustiva (efavirenz) is an antiviral medication that prevents human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cells from multiplying in your body.

Sustiva is used to treat HIV, which causes the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Efavirenz is not a cure for HIV or AIDS.

Sustiva may also be used for other purposes not listed in this medication guide.

Important information about Sustiva

Sustiva may cause serious psychiatric symptoms including confusion, severe depression, suicidal thoughts, aggression, extreme fear, hallucinations, or unusual behavior. Contact your doctor at once if you have any of these side effects, even if you have had them before.

Ghostwriting -- why they do it

A prominent hormone replacement therapy researcher exposed by the New York Times last December to have put his name on ghostwritten studies for estrogen drug company Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has broken his silence to say he's sorry.

Seattle blogger William Heisel, a former award-winning health reporter for the LA Times, managed to reach Australisn researcher John Eden by e-mail, where others had failed.

He was surprisingly forthcoming and said he regrets the decision.

"We academics are under some pressure to 'publish or perish,'" Eden wrote. "Performance evaluation of at least Australian academics includes the number and quality of publications per year. In retrospect, I was probably naive and I wouldn't do it now."

Conflicts of interest can hurt business

The chief executive of medical device maker Medtronic Inc. was forced during the company's annual meeting yesterday to defend his company's million-dollar deals with university professors and other researchers hired as consultants.

Medtronic is at the centre of a growing scandal over the close ties between medical and pharmaceutical companies and the researchers who are supposed to be testing their products.

At the annual shareholder meeting of Medtronic Inc. Thursday, CEO Bill Hawkins defended the company's longstanding practice of collaborating with physicians, although he acknowledged these paid relationships could pose a conflict of interest.

Canadian named in ghostwriting, part 2, and what can be done

In a story in this morning's Toronto Star, I explore the ties between McGill University professor Barbara Sherwin, alleged in court documents to have used a ghostwriter for an April 2000 study, and New Jersey ghostwriting firm on a second study published three years later.

Sherwin vehemently denies there was any ghostwriting involved in the 2003 article.

Here is her complete statement to the Star on the matter:

"Concerning the article in question, published in Endocrine Reviews in April 2003, I had refused to submit material offered by DesignWrite personnel. The article eventually published in Endocrine Reviews was entirely my own work. I cannot emmphasize that strongly enough."

Ghostwriting documents a wealth of information

Court documents put online last week by PLoS Medicine give the public an unprecedented look into the world of academic publishing and the extent to which big drug companies used ghostwriters to market their products.

The 1,500 documents -- internal memos, meeting agendas and minutes, project tracking report, faxes, cover letters, draft manuscripts and more -- detail the efforts by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals to use top academic journals as marketing tools for its hormone replacement therapy drugs, and to enlist top researchers from around the world to be "authors" of the studies.

The documents were made public last month after PLoS and the New York Times convinced a US court ot unseal documents in a lawsuit to release them to the public. PLoS put them all online last Friday.

Canadian named in ghostwriting

Writing in the Toronto Star this morning, I look at the case of a McGill University psychology professor, Barbara Sherwin, whose name appeared atop an article prepared by ghostwriting firm DesignWrite as part of its contract to promote Wyeth Pharmaceutical's HRT drugs.

A top Canadian researcher studying hormone replacement therapy was part of a ghostwriting scheme paid for by drug giant Wyeth Pharmaceuticals to promote its products, court documents obtained by the Toronto Star indicate.

The article in question appeared in the April 2000 edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and listed McGill University psychology professor Barbara Sherwin as author.

Swine flu on Facebook

The American Journal of Bioethics has set up a Facebook group to provide up-to-the-minute information on the current swine flu outbreak.

Launched today, pandemic.bioethics.net is your leading source for bioethics news, commentary and scholarship related to swine flu (H1N1), vaccine research, public health policy and more.

Whether you want up-to-the minute news updates, to comment on what we are writing here at bioethics.net, or to post your own news stories and to write your own comments via Twitter or Facebook, pandemic.bioethics.net is the primary source on the Internet for ethics and pandemics.

Senator's ghostwriting campaign gaining attention

The efforts of an Republican senator from Iowa to lift the veil on the secretive world of academic publishing and the ties between doctors, researchers and big medical companies is gaining increased attention, with stories this week in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal and the Minneapolis Star Tribune have also got in on the action, writing about the ties to medical supply compnies and big pharma of local doctors and researchers at their local universities.

What all these stories have in common is the work of Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, who is putting his post on the Senate Finance Committee to to use by looking into the ties between doctors and researchers and the big companies behind medical and pharmaceutical advances.

Preparing for a swine flu pandemic

Margaret R. McLean, director of bioethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, says preparing for a swine flu pandemic must be about far more than stockpiling vaccines or freeing up hospital beds.

It must also go hand-in-hand with ethics, she says.

In a video posted to YouTube, McLean discusses the issue, drawing on research she did two years ago looking into response to a possible bird flu pandemic.

In pandemic planning, as in medicine in general, the allocation of these scarce medical resources is the most difficult ethical issue confronting the current health care system. No one wants to speak of rationing, but it occurs daily and necessarily escalates during a disaster. In a time of pandemic, rationing is inevitable and must be done in a manner that is transparent, respectful of persons, inclusive, accountable, proportional, fair, and minimizes harm.

Healthcare for all called an ethical issue

A professional association of U.S. bioethcists has come out in favour of President Barack Obama's plans to make public health insurance available to the 50 million Americans currently uninsured.

Collegiate bioethicists waded into the health-care reform debate Tuesday, declaring that "the current state of health care is unethical" and branding as false criticisms that congressional proposals would threaten patient choice or deny older Americans medical treatment.

"We felt we needed to speak up. The tenor of the debate has become quite strained and full of misinformation," said Jeffrey Kahn, president of the new, 60-member Association of Bioethics Program Directors. Kahn also heads the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota.

Ghostwriting documents put online

PLoS Medicine, the medical journal that paired up with the New York Times last month to convince a US court ot unseal documents in a class action suit against Wyeth, put the court documents online this morning. These are raw documents, and so numerous they're tough to sort through.

The documents include internal correspondence, reports, and tracking documents relating to interactions between the pharmaceutical company Wyeth and a medical communications firm, to promote Wyeth’s hormone drugs. These documents show in considerable detail a coordinated and carefully monitored campaign of “ghostwriting” by Wyeth and medical writing companies for a number of products marketed by the company.

Vermox

Vermox

mebendazole (me BEN da zole)

What is the most important information I should know about Vermox?

Follow your doctor's instructions about treatment; about the washing of clothes, linens, and towels; and about household disinfecting. Pinworm infections are easily spread from one person to another.

Vermox tablets may be swallowed, chewed, or crushed and mixed with food.

What is Vermox?

Vermox is an "antihelmintic," or anti-worm, medication. It prevents worms from growing or multiplying in your body.

Vermox is used to treat infections caused by worms such as whipworm, pinworm, roundworm, and hookworm. It is also used to treat infections caused by more than one of these worms at the same time.

Ghostwriting called bad medicine

Over the weekend, I had a story in the Toronto Star looking at ghostwriting in medical journal, beginning with the case of a woman diagnosed with breast cancer after two decades of using hormone replacement therapy.

Jackie Smith thought she was doing the right thing.

With an asthmatic 4-year-old boy at home and a sick father a world away in Australia, she had no room in her life for osteoporosis or early menopause. It was 20 years ago, and when her gynecologist suggested hormone replacement therapy to stave off the effects of aging, she agreed.

"I was having these awful hot flashes," the 62-year-old recalls. "I found it really hard to deal with. There was a lot of stress in my life."

Flu ethics articles available free

Articles and editorials published in the American Journal of Bioethics over the past few years on pandemics and how to handle them are now available for free to help health officials figure out what to do about swine flu.

Presumably, for in the general public, the articles will also provide something to measure the actions of health officials and politicians against.

Here's a list of available articles:

Ethics, Pandemics, and the Duty to Treat by Heidi Malm, Leslie P. Francis, Robert Hood, Thomas May, Saad B. Omer, Daniel Salmon 2008; 8(8):4

OPCs: Carrots and Sticks: Keeping Healthcare Workers on the Job in a Public Health Disaster by Tia Powell 2008; 8(8):20