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Flashback: Vioxx, Gardasil maker Merck and Co drew up doctor hit list | Did Pharma Giant with Gardasil HPV Patents Buy Nobel Prize? | Political Intrigue in Merck’s Push for Mandatory HPV Vaccinations

Summer Johnson, PhD, Bioethics.net
May 1, 2009

It’s a safe guess that somewhere at Merck today someone is going through the meeting minutes of the day that the hair-brained scheme for the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine was launched, and that everyone who was in the room is now going to be fired.

The Scientist has reported that, yes, it’s true, Merck cooked up a phony, but real sounding, peer reviewed journal and published favorably looking data for its products in them. Merck paid Elsevier to publish such a tome, which neither appears in MEDLINE or has a website, according to The Scientist.

What’s wrong with this is so obvious it doesn’t have to be argued for. What’s sad is that I’m sure many a primary care physician was given literature from Merck that said, “As published in Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, Fosamax outperforms all other medications….” Said doctor, or even the average researcher wouldn’t know that the journal is bogus. In fact, knowing that the journal is published by Elsevier gives it credibility!

These kinds of endeavors are not possible without help. One of The Scientist’s most notable finds is a Australian rheumatologist named Peter Brooks who served on the “honorary advisory board” of this “journal”. His take: “I don’t think it’s fair to say it was totally a marketing journal”, apparently on the grounds that it had excerpts from peer-reviewed papers. However, in his entire time on the board he never received a single paper for peer-review, but because he apparently knew the journal did not receive original submissions of research. This didn’t seem to bother him one bit. Such “throwaways” of non-peer reviewed publications and semi-marketing materials are commonplace in medicine. But wouldn’t that seem odd for an academic journal? Apparently not. Moreover, Peter Brooks had a pretty lax sense of academic ethics any way: he admitted to having his name put on a “advertorial” for pharma within the last ten years, says The Scientist. An “advertorial”? Again, language unfamiliar to us in the academic publishing world, but apparently quite familiar to the pharmaceutical publishing scene.

It is this attitude within companies like Merck and among doctors that allows scandals precisely like this to happen. While the scandals with Merck and Vioxx are particularly egregious, we know they are not isolated incidents. This one is just particularly so. If physicians would not lend their names or pens to these efforts, and publishers would not offer their presses, these publications could not exist. What doctors would have as available data would be peer-reviewed research and what pharmaceutical companies produce from their marketing departments–actual advertisements..

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Report: Fluoride in Water Supply Harms Thyroid Function | Frequent school lockdowns raise questions | Air freshener chemicals could impact fertility: study | Are we already dining on clones? | Bisphenol tied to lower brain function | Revealed: The serious health concerns about the cervical cancer jab | Study finds higher rate of reactions to HPV shot | Radiation touted to protect meat | Dementia drugs still prescribed, despite warnings | Chemical Industry Source of Hyped FDA Study ‘Exonerating’ Plastic Bottles | Researchers Question Wide Use of HPV Vaccines | Vaccines Found to Cause Diabetes in Children | Pfizer to be called on carpet in Nigeria for experimenting on children | Pesticides, pollutants threaten Canadian tap water, researchers suggest | Cut children’s fluoride exposure, report to Health Canada urges | Kids and cellphone warning | Sludge biosolids decried as ‘toxic stew’, used as fertilizer | Cellphone use potentially risky for kids, teens: health agency | CDC reports almost 8,000 adverse reactions to “Gardasil” HPV vaccine in U.S. | Is HPV Vaccine to Blame for a Teen’s Paralysis? | Home-grown veg ruined by toxic fertiliser | Alberta to offer HPV vaccine this fall | Ottawa knew breast implants harmful, case alleges | Naturopaths Fear Proposed Bill C-51 | The tiny, useful particle that could also be a health problem | Farmer Surveilled, Raided for Natural Milk Operation has Trial Delayed | Discovery of HPV in male oral cancers leads to vaccination call | Families will make case for vaccine link to autism | HPV vaccination program raises concerns in B.C. | Canada’s C-51 Law May Outlaw 60% Of Natural Health Products | Homeless people die after bird flu vaccine trial in Poland | Perspective on the HPV vaccine | Gardasil shots have earned a painful reputation | Vaccine-linked polio hits Nigeria | Deaths associated with Merck’s HPV vaccine (Gardasil), over 3500 adverse affects reported | Bush To Veto Ban On Mercury In Vaccines | Government knew of HIV risk from imported blood | Political Intrigue in Merck’s Push for Mandatory HPV Vaccinations | Codex Alimentarius — An Emerging Threat | Polio Warning Issued for Travel to Nigeria | Bayer Continued Selling Contaminated Blood Product in 1980s | Aids scandals around the world | Blood Money: The Clinton Ties to the Blood Scandal

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