Back in the July issue of Second Opinion, I told you about the dirty Pharmaceutical practice of ghostwriting. As I said then, ghostwriting is when the drug company does the research, and then hires a high-profile doctor to write up the conclusions.
The trouble with this practice is that the doctor does not do the research. So he cant refute any conclusions the drug company comes up with. Well, the situation continues to deteriorate.
Years ago, real scientific research was about to hit the presses that indicted Wyeths HRT drug Prempro in breast cancer. To counter the research, Wyeth flooded medical journals with 40 ghostwritten articles. These ghostwritten articles supposedly proved the drug was safe.
Now theres a class-action lawsuit filed against Wyeth because its ghostwriting campaign caused thousands of women to get breast cancer. A U.S. federal judge has ordered the company to unseal thousands of documents. These documents provide details about the ghostwriting campaign.
If Wyeth really valued human life over money, they would have pulled the drug off the market as soon as the real science came out. Instead, the executives hid the truth, allowing thousands of women to die. While the current lawsuits are civil, there should be criminal charges as well.
Whats more, this is not the only time this has happened. Ghostwriting is epidemic. Theres just no way to know how infectious it is. And theres no way to know how many doctors these ghostwritten articles brainwash to use chemicals that can and will ultimately kill you (not immediately, but perhaps over years).
Pharma has done an incredible brainwashing job in the medical schools. They teach students to hold up evidence based medicine as the standard. And this also is the standard for continuing medical education credits and legal standards of practice before medical boards. But the evidence is often, if not usually, tainted by corruption.
Ghostwriting for drugs is a catastrophe. Tens of thousands were killed by Vioxx. We have no way of knowing how many women have died of breast cancer secondary to unethically promoted HRT. Many say that mammograms save lives. It has not. Breast cancer rates began to come down when women decreased taking HRT.
Please remember my maxim. If there is a place (receptor) on your cells for a synthetic chemical, your Creator placed that receptor there for a naturally occurring molecule that your body actually needs. So stay away from drugs if at all possible.
Ref: Associated Press, Judge orders Wyeth papers unsealed, July 25, 2009.