In many cases the studies in journals aren't even written up by the researchers they're written by the drug companies themselves. The researcher simply puts his name above the ghostwritten article. To stop the practice, the editors at JAMA now ask every potential author some tough questions. The editors at the New England Journal of Medicine are also trying to clamp down on ghostwritten articles. A drug company that controls the data and that has a ghostwriter writing the paper may neglect to write about the side effects of a drug.
Drug companies say it's okay to ghostwrite because researchers still have the final say.
But don't tell that to doctor James Kahn last year his study showed a vaccine to stop aids didn't work. I recommended that the study be halted and that the patients be released from the study so they could find other ways to receive treatment. The editors here at the Journal of the AMA published Kahn's study partly as a matter of principle. The science prevailed. This was a solid study.