Ghostwriting 101 - The Mittleman Files by William Heisel

The Drug Industry Document Archive at the University of California-San Francisco has posted two depositions that could be the linchpins for dozens of investigative stories.

The subject is Karen Mittleman, who, as Antidote has noted, has the perfect Dickensian name for her job as the go-between finding researchers willing to sign their names to papers written by drug companies. Her employer, DesignWrite, was hired by Wyeth to sell its products by disguising marketing messages as scientific research. (I have a feeling that Dickens would have found this story too tragic for his tastes. For one, where are the heroes?)

In May 2006, Mittleman was deposed by attorneys in Philadelphia suing Wyeth over the side effects, some deadly, of its estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs, including Premarin and Prempro. DesignWrite was not named in the suit, but Mittleman had information that the plaintiffs’ attorneys knew was valuable.

Part 1

Here’s more evidence that associations with nice-sounding causes can be industry fronts. One of Wyeth’s go-to authors willing to work with a ghostwriter, according to the documents presented during the deposition, was Lila Nachtigall, a New York University professor and the president of the North American Menopause Society.

Part 2