Published 29 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3986
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3986

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US survey favours acknowledging medical study ghostwriters

¹ New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Pharma Marketing News, a US online journal, found that three quarters of respondents to a small survey of its readers thought that drug companies’ use of professional writers to write articles for medical journals was acceptable as long as it was clear who wrote the article and who endorsed the content (www.pharma-mkting.com).

John Mack, the journal’s publisher, wrote, "‘Ghostwriting’ in and of itself may not be objectionable, but when sponsored by pharmaceutical companies that distribute medical journal articles on off-label indications to physicians it becomes a huge marketing compliance and ethics concern."

The US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year allowed drug companies to distribute articles about off-label uses (BMJ 2009;338:b187, doi:10.1136/bmj.b187).

Mr Mack told the BMJ, "It’s not a scientific study, but rather it was meant to get an indication of how people were feeling. I was surprised there were a . . . [Full text of this article]

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