Allegations of fraud and extensive ghostwriting form core of upcoming Texas case against Johnson & Johnson | Alison Bass

On November 28, the Texas Attorney General is expected to begin a landmark trial against Johnson & Johnson on charges that the pharmaceutical giant “subverted scientific integrity” by paying off academic psychiatrists and state officials to boost the use of its atypical antipsychotic Risperdal among children and adults in that state. The case against J&J, for misleading doctors and consumers about the safety and effectiveness of its atypical antipsychotic Risperdal, has been reported before — by 1boringoldman, pharmalot and several Texas newspapers.

But a comprehensive report by an expert for the plaintiffs — Dr. David Rothman, a professor of social medicine and history at Columbia University — recently came to my attention, and what amazed me about Rothman’s findings, beyond the malfeasance of academic psychiatrists who sold their scientific integrity for thousands of dollars in speaking fees — was the sheer scope of the ghost-writing campaign that J&J (via its subsidiary, Janssen) embarked on to peddle Risperdal to doctors and patients throughout the country. Rothman cites 12 cases in which Janssen hired ghostwriting contractors to draft positive articles about Risperdal and then found academics willing to put their names on the articles, which were then published in supposedly respected medical journals, like the New England Journal of Medicine and the British Journal of Psychiatry.

via alison-bass.com

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