Article Claims Drug Makers Used ‘Ghostwriters’ To Distort Hormone Replacement Truths

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Ghost written articles were used in the late 1990s and early 2000s to exaggerate the benefits and downplay the side effects of taking hormone replacement therapy to reduce menopause symptoms, according to an analysis of recently unsealed documents.

The documents are being used by the lawyers of more than 14,000 women in their lawsuit against drug maker Wyeth, which was bought by the larger pharmaceutical company Pfizer in 2009.

The author of the analysis is Adriane Fugh-Berman, who is a researcher at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and a paid expert witness for the plaintiffs in their case against the pharmaceutical companies.

Fugh-Berman wrote that the medical education and communication company, DesignWrite, was paid $25,000 to ghostwrite articles reporting clinical trials of the hormone-replacement drug Prempo, and $20,000 a piece for 20 review articles about the drug.

Fugh-Berman based the analysis on 1,500 e-mails and other documents released by Wyeth and Pfizer after the Public Library of Science and the New York Times sued for their release.

The analysis claims these articles aimed at mitigating the perceived risks of breast cancer associated with hormone-replacement therapy, and were used to support what Fugh-Berman calls “unsupported” claims the therapy had cardiovascular benefits, and could prevent dementia, Parkinson’s disease, vision problems and wrinkles.

A statement was released by Pfizer to the journal Nature by Pfizer spokesman Christopher Loder saying Fugh-Berman’s article ignores that the articles in question were subject to “rigorous peer review by outside experts.”

Fugh-Berman’s article appears in the Public Library of Science journal, Medicine. The full piece can be found at http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000335.

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