MOREon BMJ & Lancet Wedded to Merck & Merck's Medical Media Empire Martin J Walker
Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 4:07 am
2 articles
BMJ & Lancet Wedded to Merck CME Partnership
&
Merck's Medical Media Empire
Martin J Walker
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/766/9/
BMJ & Lancet Wedded to Merck CME Partnership
Monday, 14 February 2011
Why did the BMJ fail to disclose its partnership agreement with Merck, major vaccine manufacturer--13 vaccines, including the controversial MMR vaccine ?
Is it just conceivably possible, that the BMJ's decision to commission and publish Brian Deer's series of articles attacking Dr. Andrew Wakefield's personal and scientific integrity--and lend its unwavering editorial endorsement--without giving him an opportunity to defend himself--might be influenced by a SIGNIFICANT financial conflict of interest?
The discovery that a psychiatry textbook penned by two influential academics who gained notoriety, was actually ghostwritten shocked Dr. David Kessler , former commissioner of the FDA, who called it "a new level of chutzpah [that] takes your breath away."
How about the discovery that in 2008, the pharmaceutical giant, Merck--using its tradename, MSD signed a partnership agreement with the BMJ Group that effectively gave the company control of 350 interactive continuing medical education courses in over 20 medical therapy areas?
Why did the BMJ fail to disclose its partnership agreement with Merck?
Why did the BMJ conceal from readers-- of the Brian Deer series of articles and the BMJ editorial excoriating Dr. Andrew Wakefield, charging him with deliberate fraud and financial conflict of interest-- the fact that the BMJ had a partnership with Merck, a major manufacturer of vaccines--including the MMR vaccine, which is at the center of the Wakefield controversy?
In 2009, Univadis, a Merck trademark, entered into a partnership with The Lancet providing "medical education and an information website."
I don't think it a stretch to suggest--as for Martin Walker does (below) that:
The fact that BMJ and The Lancet-- two of the most prestigious international medical journals would enter into a medical education partnership with the drug manufacturer whose staff drew up a "doctor hit list" to intimidate doctors who dared to discuss the lethal cardiac risks linked to Vioxx--is in itself a betrayal of trust of the worst sort.
The stated purpose of the Merck / BMJ/ Lancet partnerships that remained hidden from readers' view, is to "change the face of medical education in Europe and beyond."
The BMJ editorial accompanying Deer's articles, did its best to lend authority to the vaccine industry (Merck's) perspective. In an introductory sound bite the editors declare:
Finally, the Statement about Competing Interests at the end of the BMJ Editorial claims compliance with conflict of interest disclosure requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. But the BMJ editor in chief and two deputy editors conceal rather than disclose the most relevant financial conflict of interest:
Posted by Vera Hassner Sharav
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mr. Walker's website, , http://www.slingshotpublications.com provides extensive analysis about the vituperous Wakefield-Deer controversy.
Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
http://homeopathycures.wordpress.com/ & http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/
ONLINE/Email classes in Homeopathy; Vaccine Dangers; Childhood Diseases
Next classes start Friday February 11 & March 4
BMJ & Lancet Wedded to Merck CME Partnership
&
Merck's Medical Media Empire
Martin J Walker
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/766/9/
BMJ & Lancet Wedded to Merck CME Partnership
Monday, 14 February 2011
Why did the BMJ fail to disclose its partnership agreement with Merck, major vaccine manufacturer--13 vaccines, including the controversial MMR vaccine ?
Is it just conceivably possible, that the BMJ's decision to commission and publish Brian Deer's series of articles attacking Dr. Andrew Wakefield's personal and scientific integrity--and lend its unwavering editorial endorsement--without giving him an opportunity to defend himself--might be influenced by a SIGNIFICANT financial conflict of interest?
The discovery that a psychiatry textbook penned by two influential academics who gained notoriety, was actually ghostwritten shocked Dr. David Kessler , former commissioner of the FDA, who called it "a new level of chutzpah [that] takes your breath away."
How about the discovery that in 2008, the pharmaceutical giant, Merck--using its tradename, MSD signed a partnership agreement with the BMJ Group that effectively gave the company control of 350 interactive continuing medical education courses in over 20 medical therapy areas?
Why did the BMJ fail to disclose its partnership agreement with Merck?
Why did the BMJ conceal from readers-- of the Brian Deer series of articles and the BMJ editorial excoriating Dr. Andrew Wakefield, charging him with deliberate fraud and financial conflict of interest-- the fact that the BMJ had a partnership with Merck, a major manufacturer of vaccines--including the MMR vaccine, which is at the center of the Wakefield controversy?
In 2009, Univadis, a Merck trademark, entered into a partnership with The Lancet providing "medical education and an information website."
I don't think it a stretch to suggest--as for Martin Walker does (below) that:
The fact that BMJ and The Lancet-- two of the most prestigious international medical journals would enter into a medical education partnership with the drug manufacturer whose staff drew up a "doctor hit list" to intimidate doctors who dared to discuss the lethal cardiac risks linked to Vioxx--is in itself a betrayal of trust of the worst sort.
The stated purpose of the Merck / BMJ/ Lancet partnerships that remained hidden from readers' view, is to "change the face of medical education in Europe and beyond."
The BMJ editorial accompanying Deer's articles, did its best to lend authority to the vaccine industry (Merck's) perspective. In an introductory sound bite the editors declare:
Finally, the Statement about Competing Interests at the end of the BMJ Editorial claims compliance with conflict of interest disclosure requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. But the BMJ editor in chief and two deputy editors conceal rather than disclose the most relevant financial conflict of interest:
Posted by Vera Hassner Sharav
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mr. Walker's website, , http://www.slingshotpublications.com provides extensive analysis about the vituperous Wakefield-Deer controversy.
Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
http://homeopathycures.wordpress.com/ & http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/
ONLINE/Email classes in Homeopathy; Vaccine Dangers; Childhood Diseases
Next classes start Friday February 11 & March 4