So, when a legitimate science/slash medical journal publishes an article written by an expert researcher touting, indirectly, the benefits of a drug, can you trust it? Can you assume the scientist wrote it, or should you suspect a PR firm paid by a pharmaceutical company actually did the research, wrote the article and got the researcher to claim authorship?
And what happens if your doctor, being diligent, reads and relies on the PR firm's work?
Some of the answers here.
The important principle to focus is noted here:
ReplyDelete". . . court documents – unsealed recently after a successful motion by The New York Times and the journal PLoS Medicine – have lifted the veil on the extent of ghostwriting in the pharmaceutical industry."
Consider how political corruption in British Columbia is hidden because veils of secrecy cover so much. No contract of the public should ever be completely secret, whether it is to sell a billion dollar railroad or to pay a lobbyist hundreds of thousands.