A new study has elaborated on how the pharmaceutical company Wyeth allegedly paid a team of ghostwriters to write medical journal articles that minimized a dangerous potential side effect — increased risk of breast cancer — from hormone replacement treatments.
The study’s author, Georgetown University Medical Center’s Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, cited dozens of ghostwritten reviews and commentaries as well as evidence from lawsuits brought against Wyeth by plaintiffs with breast cancer claims. She concluded that Wyeth had hired the editorial company DesignWrite to produce articles about clinical trials involving menopausal hormone replacement drugs, such as Prempro, and then found physicians who agreed to be listed as authors.
Fugh-Berman said the articles in question, which appeared in influential medical journals that are heavily relied upon by physicians in deciding which drugs to prescribe, downplayed the links between Prempro and increased risk of breast cancer. Writing in the journal PLoS Medicine, Fugh-Berman also said the articles trumpeted the idea that hormone replacement therapy reduced the risk of heart disease, which she says is untrue. In addition, she said the articles promoted unproven uses of the therapy to prevent dementia, Parkinson’s disease, vision problems and wrinkles.
Wyeth, which is now owned by Pfizer, challenged the study, arguing that Fugh-Berman has served as a paid witness for plaintiffs in hormone therapy court cases, Reuters reported Tuesday. “She could not establish that there were inaccuracies in any of the peer-reviewed articles, or that their authors relinquished control over their work,” the company said.
Fugh-Berman’s article builds on a 2009 report from The New York Times, which found that top physicians were solicited to put their names on the articles, “even though many of the doctors contributed little or no writing. The documents suggest the practice went well beyond the case of Wyeth and hormone therapy, involving numerous drugs from other pharmaceutical companies.”
