CINXE.COM
PLOS Medicine
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class="head-search"> <form name="searchForm" action="/plosmedicine/search" method="get"> <fieldset> <legend>Search</legend> <label for="search">Search</label> <div class="search-contain"> <input id="search" type="text" name="q" placeholder="SEARCH" required/> <button id="headerSearchButton" type="submit" aria-label="Submit search"> <i title="Submit search" class="search-icon"></i> </button> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="filterJournals" value="PLoSMedicine"/> </form> <a id="advSearch" href="/plosmedicine/search"> advanced search </a> <script src="/resource/js/components/placeholder_style.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </li> </ul> </section> </nav> </div> </header> <main id="main-content"> <div class="lemur-content two-column"> <nav class="site-content-nav"> <ul class="nav-page"> </ul> </nav> <article> <h1>Resources</h1> <div data-section-id="245"> <h2>Wyeth Ghostwriting Archive</h2> <p>In July 2009, a US federal court decision resulted in the release of approximately 1500 documents detailing how articles highlighting specific marketing messages written by unattributed writers, but “authored’ by academics, are strategically placed in the medical literature—a practice known as ghostwriting. To release these documents, <em>PLOS Medicine</em>, represented by the public interest law firm <a href="http://www.publicjustice.net/">Public Justice</a>, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><em>The New York Times</em></a>, acted as “intervenors” in litigation against menopausal hormone manufacturers by women who developed breast cancer while taking hormones. </p> <p><em>PLOS Medicine</em> argued that sealed documents identified during the discovery process for the court case, which demonstrated the practice of ghostwriting, should be made available to the public. As <em>PLOS Medicine</em> Chief Editor Ginny Barbour stated in the motion to intervene, ghostwriting “gives corporate research a veneer of independence and credibility” and may “substantially distort the scientific record”... “threaten[ing] the validity and credibility of medical knowledge.”</p> <p>On July 24, 2009, U.S. District Judge William Wilson, Jr., in Little Rock, Arkansas, granted the motion to make discovery materials public as of July 31, 2009.</p> <p>PLOS created this web page to make the released documents publicly available without delay. The documents are now available in indexed, searchable form at the <a href="http://dida.library.ucsf.edu/documents.jsp">Drug Industry Documents Archive</a> at the University of California, San Francisco. <a href="http://dida.library.ucsf.edu/queryform.jsp">Browse the documents</a>.</p> <h4>Documents related to the proceedings of the court case</h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://publicjustice.net/sites/default/files/downloads/Prempro_OrderUnsealing_072409.pdf">The District Court's Order</a></li> <li><a href="http://publicjustice.net/case-documents/brief-support-plos-medicines-motion-intervene">Public Justice's Brief in support of <em>PLOS Medicine</em>'s Motion to Intervene</a></li> <li><a href="http://publicjustice.net/case-documents/brief-support-plos-medicines-motion-seek-public-access-discovery-materials">Public Justice's Brief in Support of <em>PLOS Medicine</em>'s Motion for Access to the Materials in this Case</a></li> </ul> <h4>Blog posts on the court case from <em>PLOS Medicine</em>'s blog, <a href="http://speakingofmedicine.plos.org/">Speaking of Medicine</a></h4> <ul> <li><a href="http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2009/07/25/successful-intervention-by-plos-medicine-and-new-york-times-in-federal-court-grants-public-access-to-evidence-that-drug-company-%E2%80%98ghostwrote%E2%80%99-medical-articles-about-hormone-therapy-dru/">Successful intervention by <em>PLOS Medicine</em> and <em>New York Times</em> in Federal court grants public access to evidence that drug company ‘ghostwrote' medical articles about hormone therapy drug, Prempro</a></li> <li><a href="http://speakingofmedicine.plos.org/2009/08/05/guest-blog-from-adriane-fugh-berman-plos-medicine-and-the-new-york-times-victorious-in-court-public-will-have-access-to-ghostwriting-documents/"><em>PLOS Medicine</em> and the <em>New York Times</em> victorious in court; Public will have access to ghostwriting documents</a></li> <li><a href="http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2009/08/07/ghostwriting-101/">Ghostwriting 101</a></li> <li><a href="http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2009/08/25/mining-the-ghostwriting-documents-results-in-university-investigation/">Mining the ghostwriting documents results in university investigation</a></li> <li><a href="http://speakingofmedicine.plos.org/2009/09/18/wyeth-ghostwriting-documents-added-to-drug-industry-document-archive/">Wyeth Ghostwriting Documents Added to Drug Industry Document Archive</a></li> <li><a href="http://speakingofmedicine.plos.org/2009/11/27/further-developments-relating-to-prempro-and-wyeth-documents/">Further developments relating to Prempro and Wyeth documents</a></li> </ul> <div class="block-more-information"> <strong>Further reading</strong> <br> <ul> <li>Additional blog posts on ghostwriting in medical literature can also be found on <a href="http://speakingofmedicine.plos.org/category/ghostwriting/">Speaking of Medicine</a></li> <li>An <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/health/research/05ghost.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print">article</a> in the <em>New York Times</em> on Aug 5, 2009, discusses some of the ghostwritten papers.</li> <li>In September 2010, the first academic analysis of the 1500 documents unsealed in the litigation was published in <em>PLOS Medicine</em>: Fugh-Berman AJ (2010) The Haunting of Medical Journals: How Ghostwriting Sold ‘‘HRT''. PLOS Med 7(9): e1000335. <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000335">doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000335</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </article> </div><script defer src="/resource/js/components/scroll.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script defer src="/resource/js/components/floating_nav.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script defer src="/resource/js/pages/site_content.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </main> <footer id="pageftr"> <div class="row"> <div class="block x-small"> <ul class="nav nav-secondary"> <li class="ftr-header"><a href="https://plos.org/publications/journals/">Publications</a></li> <li><a href="/plosbiology/" id="ftr-bio">PLOS Biology</a></li> <li><a href="/climate/" id="ftr-climate">PLOS Climate</a></li> <li><a href="/complexsystems/" id="ftr-complex-systems">PLOS Complex Systems</a></li> <li><a href="/ploscompbiol/" id="ftr-compbio">PLOS Computational Biology</a></li> <li><a href="/digitalhealth/" id="ftr-digitalhealth">PLOS Digital Health</a></li> <li><a href="/plosgenetics/" id="ftr-gen">PLOS Genetics</a></li> <li><a href="/globalpublichealth/" id="ftr-globalpublichealth">PLOS Global Public Health</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="block x-small"> <ul class="nav nav-secondary"> <li class="ftr-header"> </li> <li><a href="/plosmedicine/" id="ftr-med">PLOS Medicine</a></li> <li><a href="/mentalhealth/" id="ftr-mental-health">PLOS Mental Health</a></li> <li><a href="/plosntds/" id="ftr-ntds">PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases</a></li> <li><a href="/plosone/" id="ftr-one">PLOS ONE</a></li> <li><a href="/plospathogens/" id="ftr-path">PLOS Pathogens</a></li> <li><a href="/sustainabilitytransformation/" id="ftr-sustainabilitytransformation">PLOS Sustainability and Transformation</a></li> <li><a href="/water/" id="ftr-water">PLOS Water</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="block xx-small"> <ul class="nav nav-tertiary"> <li> <a href="https://plos.org" id="ftr-home">Home</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://blogs.plos.org" id="ftr-blog">Blogs</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://collections.plos.org/" id="ftr-collections">Collections</a> </li> <li> <a href="mailto:webmaster@plos.org" id="ftr-feedback">Give feedback</a> </li> <li> <a href="/plosmedicine/lockss-manifest" id="ftr-lockss">LOCKSS</a> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="block xx-small"> <ul class="nav nav-primary"> <li><a href="https://plos.org/privacy-policy" id="ftr-privacy">Privacy Policy</a></li> <li><a href="https://plos.org/terms-of-use" id="ftr-terms">Terms of Use</a></li> <li><a href="https://plos.org/advertise/" id="ftr-advertise">Advertise</a></li> <li><a href="https://plos.org/media-inquiries" id="ftr-media">Media Inquiries</a></li> <li><a href="https://plos.org/contact" id="ftr-contact">Contact</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <p> <img src="/resource/img/logo-plos-footer.png" alt="PLOS" class="logo-footer"/> <span class="footer-non-profit-statement">PLOS is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, #C2354500, based in San Francisco, California, US</span> </p> <div class="block"> </div> </div> <script src="/resource/js/global.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </footer> </body> </html>