Ghost Authorship of Studies

Ghost authorship of industry funded drug trials is common

Ghost authorship was defined as present if individuals who wrote the trial protocol, performed the statistical analyses, or wrote the manuscript, were not listed as authors of the publication, or as members of a study group or writing committee, or in an acknowledgment. Of the 44 trials included, 43 were initiated by one of 26 multinational pharmaceutical firms and one by a local company.

That doesn't surprise me. It's interesting how many studies that show support for the pharmaceutical or beverage industry are heavily influenced or sponsored by those same industries. Something seems amiss with our health reporting. If you recall, I wrote previously about the New England Journal of Medicine and pharmaceutical conflicts of interest. Furthermore, our own FDA officials, charged with protecting our health, have their hands in the till, taking money from pharma companies. It's no wonder that our nation's collective waistline is ever-expanding and more people than ever are on pharmaceuticals. We're spoon-fed marketing from these companies in the form of "studies" and the corruption runs straight to the top of the FDA.