In a new twist to the ethical issues Merck Inc, faces over Vioxx (rofecoxib), the company’s one-time best seller that was pulled from the market in 2004, because it became closely associated with patient heart attacks, some argue that the company hired writers to fashion the medical publications that their scientists are believed to have written. Many of these publications claim to be based upon the same scientific evidence which supposedly documented the safety of the drug in order to obtain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In what seems to be deceptive maneuvers to many people in both the medical and the publishing fields, Merck acknowledged that it has been known to hire outside professional writers to develop research-related documents that eventually get published under the name of reputable leaders in the medical community. Critics are expressing doubt about the validity of the research and about the actual involvement of the scientists listed as authors of the papers. One especially galling example is that of the paper being developed as solid academic research but the lead writer is listed as “External author?”
Dr. Joseph S. Ross, of New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine, came across the apparently ghostwritten research studies while reviewing documents related to lawsuits filed against Merck. Because Ross has served as plaintiffs’ consultant in some of the legal cases, he had access to the millions of documents Merck supplied plaintiffs’ legal teams.
CCHR, inspirited by L. Ron Hubbard Works, has worked for more than forty years for full informed consent in the field of mental health, and the right to all the information regarding psychiatric diagnoses and treatment, not just the information coming from those with a vested interest in keeping the public in the dark. For more information  http://www.cchr.org/take-action/psychiatric-abuse-report-form.html