Merck Faked a Research Journal (.PDFs Available)

mitch — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:54:51 +0000

As a good chemist I always defend drug companies when I hear people attack their integrity. I can’t help but roll my eyes when I hear the benefits of herbal remedies, and can’t help but wince when I hear people advocate only eating natural non-chemical containing foods. Even I will have to mellow these attitudes after The Scientist uncovered a deal Merck made with Elsevier to publish a fake medical journal for an undisclosed sum of money.

I always feel the readers of Chemistry Blog should draw their own conclusions, so here are the .PDFs for the 1st and 2nd issue of the journal: 1st, 2nd

My findings and take on each issue of the fake journal are summarized below.

Summary from my Perusal of the 1st issue of the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine.

Total Quantity	Article Type	# Merck Products	# other Company Products	Conclusion
6	International News	0	0
2	Review Articles	1	1	Aledronate is Good
2	Abstracts	0	0
1	Commentary	0	0
9	Conference Highlights	2	0	Aledronate Effective
2	Case Report	0	0
2	Ads	2	0	Fosamax, Vioxx

Out of 22 articles only 3 show Merck in a good light. The other articles are general information pieces that a doctor might be interested in. Doesn’t really seem too evil, but here are the stats from the next issue.

Summary from my Perusal of the 2nd issue of the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine.

Total Quantity	Article Type	# Merck Products	# other Company Products	Conclusion
3	International News	2	1	Rofexocib, Fosamax both good
2	Review Articles	2	1	Aledronate Good, Rofecoxib neutral
2	Case Report	0	0
9	Abstracts	6	2	Aledronate and Rofecoxib are good
8	Conference Highlights	5	2	Refoxib is good, Aledronate equal to hormone replacement, Aledronate better than PG’s Risedronate, Aledronate is good, Aledronate better than Lilly’s Raloxifene
1	Ads	1	0	Vioxx

Out of 24 articles 15 show Merck in a good light. Two of them show Merck’s drugs work better than competition. Any pretense of legitimacy to any ethical standard is completely lost when 63% of the stories are favorable to Merck. I can understand highlighting articles favorable to your company, but to go through all the hoops to make your own look-a-like peer-review journal seems over the top, ridiculous, and tarnishes science.

The Scientist broke this story: Merck Published Fake Journal

Update 1: Merck releases a statement: Merck Responds to Questions about the
Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine Journal. The statement goes over some examples of where they feel they have been slighted egregiously. It concludes with a broad statement implying they won’t do something like this again. In my mind, it still does not make up for creating a fake research journal to push Merck products.

Mitch

Chemistry Blog » Bob Grant

Merck Faked a Research Journal (.PDFs Available)