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Prempro cases reveal drug companies' ghostwriting.

Article Excerpt
Doctors turn to peer-reviewed medical literature for unbiased information about the drugs they choose for their patients. Such articles enjoy both prestige and the stamp of authority. But documents from litigation alleging that the hormone therapy drug Prempro caused breast cancer show that some of these articles are little more than vehicles for pharmaceutical company marketing.

The documents show that Wyeth, Prempro's manufacturer, ghostwrote articles that tout the drug's benefits and downplay its risks. In this practice, the drug company comes up with the message the article will deliver, hires a medical writer to draft the article, and recruits respected physicians to sign on as authors--only after the article is essentially written. The articles appear to be created by independent physicians, and they do not reveal the extent of the drug company's involvement or that of outside medical writers.

The Senate Finance Committee is investigating the issue. In December, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)...

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