The lawsuits over Vioxx have forced very uncomfortable documents into public view, exposing that Big Pharma has massively corrupted the scientific database with what amounts to promo pieces written by its own employees who then pay for prestigious doctors to attach their names to the studies as if they are legitimate – hiding the fact the drug companies wrote their own studies and conclusions in the first place.

A new article published in JAMA¹ exposes severe technical compromise relating to the drug Vioxx that killed at least 50,000 Americans. Unfortunately, this is the tip of the iceberg as the practice appears rampant in the industry. The lead author of this study, Dr. Joseph Ross of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said “It almost calls into question all legitimate research that's been conducted by the pharmaceutical industry with the academic physician.”

Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, chief editor of JAMA, said her journal had been scammed by one of these Vioxx studies, and then said “But is that as serious as allowing someone to have a review article written by a for-profit company and solicited and paid for by a for-profit company and asking you to put your name on it after it was all done?”

Congress must investigate this matter and force a correction and disclosure of this ghostwriting practice with qualifiers on all existing published studies relating to blockbuster drugs currently on the market. The FDA should then be required to review these studies in a new light and determine to what extent the questionable and compromised studies are responsible for that drug being on the market. This is a serious publish health problem. At this time doctors have no way of knowing the truth of the data that supports their prescribing decisions.