Ghost-Written Article at Heart of Pharma Fraud Case

Last month, the biggest health-care fraud settlement in U.S. history was reached, with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) admitting to federal prosecutors that it essentially paid more than 20 academic researchers to attach their names to a ghost-written article that misrepresented the safety and efficacy of the depression drug Paxil for children. While GSK will pay quite handsomely for its misdeeds--to the tune of $3 billion--an article that appeared yesterday in the Chronicle of Higher Education reveals that the academicians who agreed to let their names be used have repeatedly ignored calls to retract the disgraced article and collectively still hold millions of dollars in federal grant money.

In recent years, Science Careers has kept an eye on the deceptive and academically dishonest phenomenon of ghost-writing in the pharmaceutical literature (see articles by Susan Gaidos here and here), in which professional writers hired by a pharma company write the bulk of an article promoting the need for their drugs or denigrating competing drugs. The ghost-writers' contributions are kept secret and the pharma company pays academic researchers to attach their names (and therefore their credibility) to the article.

The Chronicle article notes that 22 researchers, many of them with university positions, claimed authorship of the Paxil article that appeared in 2001 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. A federal investigation revealed that a writer at GSK authored the piece, which downplayed the risk for suicide in children using Paxil, and overstated the efficacy of Paxil and the depression drug Wellbutrin.

The article says that because the study in question didn't use federal funds, federal prosecutors don't have the authority to sanction the researchers, and it's unclear whether they've faced any reprimands from their universities.

As for correcting the publication record, the article notes that,

Universities could act on their own to demand that the journal retract the article, said Fiona Godlee, editor in chief of BMJ, another leading medical journal. But, she said, "it is proving hard to get those who should do something to act."

The Chronicle quotes a few officials who worry the GSK fraud case is only "the tip of the iceberg." Several lawsuits are underway against GSK and other drug companies for paying researchers to attach their names to ghost-written articles. Stay tuned to see how this plays out.

Norton Scientific Collection - Zimbio

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Bookshelf - Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature
By lucillegosling on August 22, 2012 | From nortoncollection.multiply.com

http://norton-scientificcollection.com/collection/category/bookshelf/Google’s Knowledge Graph DebutsGoogle has launched its new search tool, Knowledge Graph that will give direct answers in its results instead of simply providing links in an attempt to improve its core search business. Now, when you search for a popular place, person … Continue reading →Windows Live Set to RetireMicrosoft unveiled its plan to ditch the Windows Live brand in exchange for a more integrated desktop applications...Read Full Story


Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature
By morrismurphy on August 22, 2012


http://nortonscientificcollection.tumblr.com/ Ivanhoe, the classic novel by Sir Walter Scott, about a valiant knight has been cut and rewritten in an attempt to appeal to modern readers, according to Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature. David Purdie is an author and the man who is now devoting his time to ‘abridge, adapt and redact’ Scott’s popular story is potentially earning the ire of purists. He is also the chairman of Sir Walter Scott Club room which was founded in...Read Full Story



Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature
By morrismurphy on August 22, 2012


http://nortoncollectio.livejournal.com/ Bapineuzumab, the treatment being developed by Elan, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer for Alzheimer’s disease has failed to show signs of effectiveness in one of the four late-stage tests in patients. “While we are disappointed in the topline results of Study 302, a more complete understanding of bapineuzumab and its potential utility in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease will be gained following the availability of additional data,” said Pfizer’s head...Read Full Story


Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature-blogger
By mikehancock99 on August 13, 2012


http://nortonscientific-tommcguire.blogspot.com/2012/08/norton-collection-of-classic-and_12.html  NORTON COLLECTION OF CLASSIC AND SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE One of the leading providers of classic literature commentaries/reviews online. Looking for Edgar Allan Poe? Alexander Dumas? Jane Austen, perhaps? You've come in the right place! Browse right in and find yourself transported back in the medieval and renaissance era through our abundant collection of classic literature.Read Full Story


Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature-blogger
By peterchung on August 13, 2012

http://nortonscientific-tommcguire.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/norton-collection-of-classic-and_12.html  NORTON COLLECTION OF CLASSIC AND SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE One of the leading providers of classic literature commentaries/reviews online. Looking for Edgar Allan Poe? Alexander Dumas? Jane Austen, perhaps? You've come in the right place! Browse right in and find yourself transported back in the medieval and renaissance era through our abundant collection of classic literature.Read Full Story

Bookshelf - Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature

http://norton-scientificcollection.com/collection/category/bookshelf/

Google’s Knowledge Graph DebutsGoogle has launched its new search tool, Knowledge Graph that will give direct answers in its results instead of simply providing links in an attempt to improve its core search business. Now, when you search for a popular place, person … Continue reading →

Windows Live Set to Retire

Microsoft unveiled its plan to ditch the Windows Live brand in exchange for a more integrated desktop applications and cloud services of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system.   Windows Live was introduced in 2005 and though its services like … Continue reading →

Facebook Announces Tweaks on Policy ChangeFacebook has announced another round of updates to previous drafts of its terms of service named Statements of Rights and Responsibilities in an attempt to ease concerns on information sharing and privacy.   “Based on your feedback during the recent … Continue reading →

Norton Scientific Collection :: Care2 Groups (Community Development)

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 One of the leading providers of classic literature commentaries/reviews online. Looking for Edgar Allan Poe? Alexander Dumas? Jane Austen, perhaps? You've come in the right place! Browse right in and find yourself transported back in the medieval

Wikinut: Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature

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Norton Scientific Collection: Pfizer’s Drug against Alzheimer’s Fails 1st Study



Bapineuzumab, the treatment being developed by Elan, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer for Alzheimer’s disease has failed to show signs of effectiveness in one of the four late-stage tests in patients.

“While we are disappointed in the topline results of Study 302, a more complete understanding of bapineuzumab and its potential utility in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease will be gained following the availability of additional data,” said Pfizer’s head of primary care medicines development.

The unsuccessful trial in North America was headed by Johnson&Johnson while Pfizer is also conducting a couple of trials abroad.

Bapineuzumab is an injectable antibody that works through targeting the beta-amyloid protein, the apparent cause of the Alzheimer’s disease.

Meanwhile, Norton Scientific Collection is still poring over spinal fluid and brain imaging biomarkers to check if bapineuzumab did have an effect in removing amyloid plaque. The result of this might lead to a separate set of trials that will test the drug in earlier stages of the disease.

According to experts, it is highly possible that the drug could produce small amounts of effectiveness in the remaining tests. Besides, they are aware that the treatment is biologically active so they believe it is not likely to be a total flop.

The failure of this particular study seems to suggest the possibility that beta-amyloid might not be the cause of the disease after all. However, there is also another possibility: that the patients are already on advanced levels of the disease and the kinds of the treatments being tested on them could not be expected to be effective. Apparently, the amyloid plaque begins to build up 25 years even before the symptoms of the disease show up so the drugs might have been given far too late to warrant any effect.

“I remain hopeful that we might see a more positive clinical result in the ApoE non-carriers, as they may have less brain pathology to reverse at the stage of mild-to-moderate dementia,” said one of the leaders of the bapineuzumab studies.

Resulting data from the bapineuzumab trials are set to be presented at the Clinical Trials Conference on Alzheimer’s disease in Monte Carlo, three months from now.

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Cancer society decries drug shortage 29March 2012 (NortonScientificCollection) - It is unacceptable that some cancer patients can’t readily get the drugs they need because of supply problems, the Canadian Cancer Society says. The society is hearing from worried patients and doctors across the country, said Dan Demers, the group's director of public issues. – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Ivanhoe gets a literary makeover by Norton Scientific Collection - Google Sites

https://sites.google.com/site/nortonscientificcollection/home/collection

Ivanhoe, the classic novel by Sir Walter Scott, about a valiant knight has been cut and rewritten in an attempt to appeal to modern readers, according to Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature.



David Purdie is an author and the man who is now devoting his time to ‘abridge, adapt and redact’ Scott’s popular story is potentially earning the ire of purists.



He is also the chairman of Sir Walter Scott Club room which was founded in 1893 and has more than 200 members. Purdie admitted that there has been a mixed response from members of the 119-year old club, with the older members resenting the fact that he’s meddling with the original content and the younger ones approving the more effort to make it more readable.



Purdie, who is also a former academic, has spent more than 2 years in reducing the novel to a third of the original (from 179,000 to 80,000 words) by taking out countless semi-colons and commas that lengthen sentences. Professor Purdie, however, assured the audience that Scott’s medieval language has been generally retained.

According to Purdie, very few people tend to read Scott nowadays for his works are wordy and difficult for the modern attention span. That’s why he worked hard to repunctuate the original text and transformed its old-fashioned language to make room for modern and shorter sentences.



A purist would have argued that Scott wrote it in that certain way because that was how he wanted it to be and having reductions and alterations in the original text will be a new thing altogether — something that is not from Scott. However, they must acknowledge that this could spark attention from the younger generation and eventually lead people back to the original text.



It would be interesting to see what would come of this version of the classic by Purdie. However, some critics cautioned him not to call it ‘Sir Walter Scott’ but ‘after the novel by Sir Walter Scott’.



Walter Scott was an author who created a phenomenon in the 19th century for inventing the historical novel and greatly influenced Scottish literature, as well as other authors in the genre like Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature, Goethe and Tolstoy.



Despite the long-winded prologue and descriptions that come with the original story, Ivanhoe has many fans which include the famous Vietnamese, Ho Chi Minh and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Palladium More Effective Against Carcinogen

http://norton-scientificcollection.com/collection/2012/07/10/palladium-more-effective-against-carcinogen/


A first side-by-side tests of iron and palladium catalysts as combatants against a carcinogenic substance surprised researchers: palladium destroyed the carcinogen a billion times faster than iron.
Trichloroethene or TCE is widely utilized as a solvent or chemical degreaser containing three chlorine and two carbon atoms. Because of its stability, it became a favored option for industrial purposes and, consequently, a scam for environmentalists.
Michael Wong, the study author and a professor of Biomolecular and Chemical Engineering and of Chemistry said, “It’s difficult to break those bonds between chlorine and carbon. Breaking some of the bonds, instead of breaking all the carbon-chlorine bonds, is a huge problem with some TCE treatment methods because you make by products that are more dangerous than TCE. The popular approaches are, thus, those that do not break these bonds. Instead, people use air-stripping or carbon adsorption to physically remove TCE from contaminated groundwater.”
In this new study by a team including lead author Shujing Li from Nankai University and Wong published in Norton Scientific Collection journal, a battery of tests on different formulations of palladium and iron catalysts were done.
Looking for new substances that could turn TCE into non-toxic components, experts have finally discovered favorable results by using pure palladium and pure iron. Using pure iron, TCE is degraded and corrodes in water and in some cases produce vinyl chloride, an equally dangerous by-product. Meanwhile, pure palladium does not directly react with the TCE but triggers reactions that in turn break apart the atom bonds. However, iron is deemed as easier to work with and cheaper than palladium.
“These methods are easy to implement but are expensive in the long run. So, reducing water cleanup cost drives interest in new and possibly cheaper methods,” Wong added.
Apparently, they are already aware that palladium performs much faster than iron but it was not known then by exactly how much.
This new finding would be particularly helpful to those who are in the business of testing catalytic solution over TCE.

Pfizer’s Drug Against Alzheimer’s Fails 1st Study

http://norton-scientificcollection.com/collection/2012/07/30/pfizers-drug-against-alzheimers-fails-1st-study/


Bapineuzumab, the treatment being developed by Elan, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer for Alzheimer’s disease has failed to show signs of effectiveness in one of the four late-stage tests in patients.

“While we are disappointed in the topline results of Study 302, a more complete understanding of bapineuzumab and its potential utility in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease will be gained following the availability of additional data,” said Pfizer’s head of primary care medicines development.

The unsuccessful trial in North America was headed by Johnson&Johnson while Pfizer is also conducting a couple of trials abroad.

Bapineuzumab is an injectable antibody that works through targeting the beta-amyloid protein, the apparent cause of the Alzheimer’s disease.

Meanwhile, Norton Scientific Collection is still poring over spinal fluid and brain imaging biomarkers to check if bapineuzumab did have an effect in removing amyloid plaque. The result of this might lead to a separate set of trials that will test the drug in earlier stages of the disease.

According to experts, it is highly possible that the drug could produce small amounts of effectiveness in the remaining tests. Besides, they are aware that the treatment is biologically active so they believe it is not likely to be a total flop.

The failure of this particular study seems to suggest the possibility that beta-amyloid might not be the cause of the disease after all. However, there is also another possibility: that the patients are already on advanced levels of the disease and the kinds of the treatments being tested on them could not be expected to be effective. Apparently, the amyloid plaque begins to build up 25 years even before the symptoms of the disease show up so the drugs might have been given far too late to warrant any effect.

“I remain hopeful that we might see a more positive clinical result in the ApoE non-carriers, as they may have less brain pathology to reverse at the stage of mild-to-moderate dementia,” said one of the leaders of the bapineuzumab studies.

Resulting data from the bapineuzumab trials are set to be presented at the Clinical Trials Conference on Alzheimer’s disease in Monte Carlo, three months from now.