Tidligere i uken gjorde jeg oppmerksom på at Elsevier utga et fake tidsskrift for farmasigiganten Merck.
Det viser seg bare å være en del av historien. Bloggen The Scientist er oppdatert, og kan fortelle at antallet fake-reklametidsskrift betalt for (formodentlig også av farmasøytisk industri) bare hos dem var seks:
An Elsevier spokesperson told The Scientist in an email that a total of six titles in a «series of sponsored article publications» were put out by their Australia office and bore the Excerpta Medica imprint from 2000 to 2005. These titles were: the Australasian Journal of General Practice, the Australasian Journal of Neurology, the Australasian Journal of Cardiology, the Australasian Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, the Australasian Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine, and the Australasian Journal of Bone & Joint [Medicine]. Elsevier declined to provide the names of the sponsors of these titles, according to the company spokesperson.
Nei, det er vel kanskje ikke alt betalt for av Merck & co.
De har til gjengjeld andre interessante og uskjønne svin på skogen, ifølge en australsk rettssak som går om dagen.
The Australian kan fortelle at:
Staff at US company Merck &Co emailed each other about the list of doctors – mainly researchers and academics – who had been negative about the drug Vioxx or Merck and a recommended course of action.
The email, which came out in the Federal Court in Melbourne yesterday as part of a class action against the drug company, included the words «neutralise», «neutralised» or «discredit» against some of the doctors’ names.
It is also alleged the company used intimidation tactics against critical researchers, including dropping hints it would stop funding to institutions and claims it interfered with academic appointments.
«We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live,» a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read to the court by Julian Burnside QC, acting for the plaintiff.
Intimidering på personnivå og på institusjonsnivå, trakassering og forfølgelse som strategi for å få kritiske røster til å tie. Et vakkert bilde.
Spesielt tatt i betraktning at det gjelder de som ikke var overbegeistret for Vioxx:
It was voluntarily withdrawn from sale in 2004 after concerns were raised that it caused heart attacks and strokes and a clinical trial testing these potential side affects was aborted for safety reasons.
The Australian har flere detaljer, ingen av dem vakre.
(Via Bad Science.)