An Australian court case centered on big pharma Merck’s promotion of the drug Vioxx, even as it knew of dangerous side effects, has provided a remarkable window into the abuse of corporate power. The Guardian‘s Ben Goldacre provides a most interesting account of developments in the case.
It was not enough, Goldacre recounts, for Merck to develop a “hit list” of doctors and academics critical of the company and Vioxx, attempting to interfere with their academic appointments and hinting that funding would “dry up” if criticism continued. They paid an academic publishing company, Elsevier, to produce a pseudo-academic journal, The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, for the express purpose of promoting Vioxx, other Merck drugs and Merck itself. Issue 2 of the journal had 29 articles — nine supporting Vioxx and another 12 supporting another Merck drug, Fosamax.
Now it has been revealed that Elsevier has produced six such industry sponsored “journals.” Junk science for sale to the highest bidder.
Puts Wal-Mart funded “Departments of Education Reform” at academic institutions like the University of Arkansas into an interesting context, doesn’t it?
Hat Tip: Henry at Crooked Timber
