The assessment found that "at least half, maybe more, of the articles that appear in major journals under the names of the best known people in the field, are ghostwritten when they have to do with pharmaceutical drugs," he told the jury.
"If they have to do with the drugs that are being sold at the moment, the ones that are fashionable at the moment, then these articles are highly likely to be ghostwritten even when they appear in the very best journals," Healy said.
Ghostwriting Up Close
While testifying, Healy told the jury that he was familiar with companies that Glaxo hired to ghostwrite literature and put other doctors' names on it. "I think the leading firm in the field was one called STI," he said. "This stands for Scientific Therapeutics Information."
The jury was shown a July 28, 2003, document sent to the Glaxo product manager for Paxil, by Sally Laden, working for STI, which stated: "Thank you for offering me the chance to work with you to write two review articles."
"This letter summarizes my fees for this project," Laden wrote. "The safety paper is priced higher because of a greater number of named authors and the anticipated additional work involved in assessing the CR data in progress."
For the development of the manuscript, and up to five drafts, the price quoted was $12,000. One of the topics for a manuscript was on the safety of antidepressants in breast-feeding.
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