Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16438

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Collier R
Medical literature, made to order
CMAJ 2009 Sep 1; 181:(5):254
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/181/5/254

Abstract:

Many publishers of scientific journals have divisions that produce customized publications for drug companies, and some experts in medical publishing standards say it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish science from marketing.

“The whole area of the pharmaceutical relationship with journals in this sort of gray literature is not really well spelled out, mainly because it’s often not clear where editorial responsibility lies,” says Dr. Virginia Barbour, a PLoS Medicine editor and secretary of the Committee on Publication Ethics, a United Kingdom-based charitable organization whose membership is comprised primarily of the editors-in-chief of scientific journals.

The 6 fake medical journals that recently brought scientific publisher Elsevier heaps of negative publicity were released under the company’s communications division, Excerpta Medica Communications. The division partners with clients “in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries to educate the global health community,” according to its website (www.excerptamedica.com).

“The biggest issue here was the lack of disclosure,” says Barbour.

One case study posted on the web-site describes the division’s efforts to promote a client’s cardiovascular product in a crowded market. It did this by producing a company-sponsored journal (the word “journal” was replaced on the website by “publication” sometime after CMAJ spoke with representatives from Excerpta Medica Communications in mid-July) to “establish this client as one of the industry’s authorities on cardiovascular disease.”