Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Industrie pharmaceutique" in French language version.
« Medical ghostwriting, the practice of pharmaceutical companies secretly authoring journal articles published under the byline of academic researchers, is a troubling phenomenon because it is dangerous to public health. Ghostwriting was once the “dirty little secret” of the medical literature , but this no longer is the case. Pharmaceutical companies have used ghostwriting to market sertraline, olanzapine, gabapentin estrogen replacement therapy , rofecoxib , paroxetine , methylphenidate , milnaciprin , venlafaxine , and dexfenfluramine . Ghostwriting is now known to be a major industry. »
« To some extent, academic medicine has long involved ghostwriting. Scientific writers have often written up the results of studies. But while this practice deprives the authors of the credit they rightly deserve, it does not threaten to undermine the scientific integrity of medical research. What is relatively new on the scene is industry-sponsored ghostwriting. (…) In the new, industry-sponsored ghostwriting, pharmaceutical companies fight for market share using "key opinion leaders" paid to sign on to articles authored by marketing departements. »
