Merck and a Little Thing Called Ghost-Writing

I touched on the Vioxx scandal a few posts back, but here is some more information on it.
The most recent article I found starts out this way:

"Industry documents reveal that pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. paid academics to put their names on Vioxx research published in top medical journals while company employees often ghost-wrote the studies on the controversial cox-2 painkiller.

The company apparently also exaggerated the safety of the medication in published clinical trials, and the academics frequently did not disclose industry financial support, the documents allege." TUESDAY, April 15 (HealthDay News)

Surprised? You shouldn't be. This kind of stuff happens all the time. How do I know? Because I keep finding it in the news! Yet, if you question a prescription your doctor writes you, you're often labeled as a "fanatic" or "paranoid" or you're belittled. I say, go ahead and belittle me or give me a crazy label. If we don't question the things we're putting into our bodies, who will? It's just scary.

To read the rest of the article, click on the title below:

Key Vioxx Research Was Written by Merck, Documents Allege