Mercketing - Concurring Opinions:
BY FRANK PASQUALE · MAY 15, 2009
In an era of information overload, how can a drug marketer get its message across? One new method is creating its very own “journal”, as Merck and Elsevier did in Australia:
From 2002 through 2005, the Australian affiliate of Merck paid the Australian office of Elsevier, an academic publisher, to publish eight compilations of scientific articles under the title Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, a spokesman for Elsevier said.
Elsevier issued a statement last week acknowledging that its Australian office had created paid-for compilations “that were made to look like medical journals and lacked the proper disclosures” of their drug company sponsors and calling such practices “unacceptable.” A company spokesman said Elsevier believed that one of the Merck issues was distributed to 20,000 doctors in Australia while other issues went to about 10,000 doctors.
Thus the current gallows humor in the halls of research: “Is medical science for sale?” “No, its current owners are perfectly happy with it.”*"
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