Wyeth’s Use of Medical Ghostwriters Questioned..(estrogen replacement)

[SoCalDem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/business/13wyeth.html?ref=business

Wyeth’s Use of Medical Ghostwriters Questioned
By DUFF WILSON
Published: December 12, 2008

Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company, paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its hormone replacement therapy Prempro, according to Congressional letters seeking more information about the company’s involvement in medical ghostwriting. At least one article was published even after a federal study found the drug raised the risk of breast cancer.

From Agenda Item to Published Medical Article
A sequence of documents showing how a medical writing firm hired by Wyeth developed an academic article about hormone therapy. The letters, sent electronically Friday by Senator Charles E. Grassley, ask Wyeth and DesignWrite, a medical writing company, to disclose payments related to the preparation of journal articles and the activities of doctors who were recruited to put their names on them for publication.

The letters are part of a continuing investigation by Mr. Grassley, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, into drug industry influence on doctors. “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,” Mr. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, wrote Friday to Wyeth’s chairman and chief executive, Bernard J. Poussot. Doug Petkus, a Wyeth spokesman, said Friday that Mr. Grassley was recycling old arguments.

snip...


and then there is this:


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gP_ZvdO69_MFxESPrhLhCFDd6mBQD9523P400

New study firmly ties hormone use to breast cancer

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE – 1 day ago

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Taking menopause hormones for five years doubles the risk for breast cancer, according to a new analysis of a big federal study that reveals the most dramatic evidence yet of the dangers of these still-popular pills.

Even women who took estrogen and progestin pills for as little as a couple of years had a greater chance of getting cancer. And when they stopped taking them, their odds quickly improved, returning to a normal risk level roughly two years after quitting.

Collectively, these new findings are likely to end any doubt that the risks outweigh the benefits for most women.

It is clear that breast cancer rates plunged in recent years mainly because millions of women quit hormone therapy and fewer newly menopausal women started on it, said the study's leader, Dr. Rowan Chlebowski of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"It's an excellent message for women: You can still diminish risk (by quitting), even if you've been on hormones for a long time," said Dr. Claudine Isaacs of Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. "It's not like smoking where you have to wait 10 or 15 years for the risk to come down."

snip...

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Uh, troubling no... criminal yes. People die because of this sort

of immoral behavior on pharmo's part.

>>“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,”<<