Why Are These Fraudulent Papers Unretracted?
According to Science Times[1], the Tuesday science section in the New York Times, scientific retractions are on the rise because of a “dysfunctional scientific climate” that has created a “winner-take-all game with perverse incentives that lead scientists to cut corners and, in some cases, commit acts of misconduct.”
But elsewhere, audacious, falsified research stands unretracted–including the work of authors who actually went to prison for fraud!
Richard Borison, MD, former psychiatry chief at the Augusta Veterans Affairs medical center and Medical College of Georgia, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a $10 million clinical trial fraud[2] but his 1996 US Seroquel® Study Group research is unretracted.[3] In fact, it is cited in 173 works and medical textbooks, misleading future medical professionals.[4]
Scott Reuben, MD, the “Bernie Madoff” of medicine who published research on clinical trials that never existed, was sentenced to six months in prison in 2010.[5] But his “research” on popular pain killers like Celebrex and Lyrica is unretracted.[6] If going to prison for research fraud is not enough reason for retraction, what is?
Wayne MacFadden, MD, resigned as US medical director for Seroquel in 2006, after sexual affairs with two coworker women researchers surfaced[7], but the related work is unretracted and was even part of Seroquel’s FDA approval package for bipolar disorder.[8]
More than 50 ghostwritten papers about hormone therapy (HT) written by Pfizer’s marketing firm, Designwrite, ran in medical journals, according to unsealed court documents on the University of California–San Francisco’s Drug Industry Document Archive.[9] Though the papers claimed no link between HT and breast cancer and false cardiac and cognitive benefits and were ghostwritten by marketing professionals not doctors, none has been retracted.
Pfizer/Parke-Davis placed 13 ghostwritten articles[10] in medical journals promoting Neurontin for offlabel uses, including a supplement to the Cleveland Clinic[11] but only Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews and Protocols has retracted the specious articles.[12]
Nor is the phony science just a product of “Big Pharma.” In 2008, JAMA was forced to print a correction stating that authors of an article arguing for a higher recommended dietary allowance of protein were, in fact, industry operatives. [13] Sharon L. Miller was “formerly employed by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association,” and author Robert R. Wolfe, PhD, received money from the Egg Nutrition Center, the National Dairy Council, the National Pork Board, and the Beef Checkoff through the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said the clarification. Miller’s email address, in fact was smiller@beef.org, which should might have been the JAMA editors’ first tip-off.[14] The article has also not been retracted.
Martha Rosenberg’s is an investigative health reporter. Her first book, Born With A Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp The Public Health, has just been released by Prometheus books.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/science/rise-in-scientific-journal-retractions-prompts-calls-for-reform.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
[2] Steve Stecklow and Laura Johannes, “Test Case: Drug Makers Relied on Two Researchers Who Now Await Trial,” Wall Street Journal, August 8, 1997
[3] Richard Borison et al., “ICI 204,636, an Atypical Antipsychotic: Efficacy and Safety in a Multicenter, Placebo-Controlled Trial in Patients with Schizophrenia,” Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 16, no. 2 (April 1996): 158–69
[4] Alan F. Schatzberg and Charles B. Nemeroff, Textbook of Psychopharmacology (New York: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2009) p. 609
[5] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-medical-madoff-anesthestesiologist-faked-data
[6] Scott Reuben et al., “The Analgesic Efficacy of Celecoxib, read more..
Monday, 4 June 2012
Journal Of Clinical Psychopharmacology-Veterans Affairs Medical Center-Medical College Of Georgia
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Inflammatory Bowel Disease-Birth Control Pills-Oral Contraceptives-Overweight Women
MONDAY, May 21 -- The use of oral contraceptives by younger women or hormone therapy by older women may be linked with inflammatory bowel disease, new research indicates.Birth control pills are associated with a higher risk for Crohn's disease,... read more..
Dieting May Lower Hormone Levels Tied to Breast Cancer
MONDAY, May 21 -- New research suggests that weight loss through exercise and dieting helps overweight women lower the levels of certain hormones in their blood, potentially raising the odds that they'll avoid developing breast cancer.The findings... read more..
Study Finds Gout Significantly Impacts Lives of Women and Their Loved Ones
BRIDGEWATER, N.J., May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- An online survey conducted by Red Hot Mamas North America, Inc. found that women and their loved ones are significantly affected by very painful bouts of gout, which they consider to be chronic and severe. Respondents... read more..
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Hormone Replacement Therapies-Estrogen Treatments-Brandon, Manitoba-Hormone Therapy
Pfizer ($PFE), which faces thousands of lawsuits over hormone replacement therapies, will cut about 40% of the workforce at a Canadian plant where one of them is made.The company says that by the end of next year it will eliminate 50 of 130 jobs at a plant in Brandon, Manitoba, where it processes conjugated estrogen from pregnant mares' urine (PMU), reports the Alberta Farmer Express. It uses the product to manufacture Premarin, a hormone replacement treatment originally developed by Wyeth, which Pfizer acquired in 2009.Pfizer told the publication that it must always be looking for "efficiencies and cost reductions by using our resources and technology more effectively." It says the restructuring will not affect its network of about 25 horse ranchers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, from which it buys the raw PMU.According to Pfizer's website, Premarin is shipped globally and accounts for more than two-thirds of all estrogen prescriptions in the U.S. It says more Premarin is exported from Canada "than any other single pharmaceutical product." It doesn't mention the 10,000 lawsuits it has been fighting by women who claim that estrogen treatments were tied to their breast cancer.The company in December said it had settled about 5,000 of 10,000 lawsuits brought on behalf of women who had taken its hormone therapy drugs Premarin, Provera and Prempro. It said in a financial filing that it had set aside about $840 million to help settle claims. That disclosure came on the heels of a settlement it reached with three women who had been awarded more than $70 million from a jury who agreed that Pfizer's estrogen treatments contributed to their getting breast cancer.The Brandon plant was built in the 1960s and Pfizer inherited it as part of its 2009 acquisition of Wyeth. The Express says Wyeth reduced its network of PMU suppliers by half about 10 years ago after health studies identified the cancer risks associated with estrogen therapy and demand for the drugs fell off.- read the Alberta Farmer Express storyRelated Articles:
Pfizer settles hormone-drug suit after $72.6M jury award
For Pfizer, 5,000 lawsuits resolved, 5,000 to go read more..