Thursday, April 30, 2009

The fake editorial board of Merck's fake bone journal

My previous post was about a fake scientific bone journal produced by Elsevier and paid for by Merck.

I thought it interesting to look at the editorial board - and at the names of my previous esteemed academic colleagues within the bone field who would lend their names to such fakery. The fake editorial board (see here) of this fake journal includes some well known luminaries (Reid, Seeman, Ebeling).

As an aside, Professor Peter Brooks was Executive Dean of Health Sciences at the University of Queensland at the time the University came down hard on Dr Andrew Gunn for asking scientific questions in public about a Merck drug which earns the University a mint (Brooks was not one of the bullies).

Also of interest is the regular appearance of clinicians who held postdoctoral positions at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) from 1975 to 1985 in the list of clinicians involved in dubious practices in the field of osteoporosis. In this instance, even though this is an Australasian list, there are two such appearances (Peter Ebeling and Ego Seeman both trained at the Mayo under Professor Larry Riggs).

Editorial board of "The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine"

Dr Jim Bertouch
Consultant Rheumatologist, NSW

Professor Peter Brooks
Executive Dean (Health Sciences)
University of Queensland

Professor Richard Day
St Vincent's Hospital, NSW

Professor Peter Ebeling
Royal Melbourne Hospital

Professor John Hart
Monash University

Professor Michael Hooper
Concord Repatriation General Hospital
Sydney

Dr Julien de Jager

Professor Geoff Littlejohn
Monash Medical Centre

Dr Peter Nash

Professor Nicholas Pocock
St Vincent's Hospital, NSW

Professor Ian Reid
University of Auckland
New Zealand

Professor Philip Sambrook
Sydney University

Professor I Ego Seeman
Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre

Professor David Sonnabend
Royal North Shore Hospital

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is ashame that the so-called professionals of today will risk their name and reputation for such misguided ventures. Lack of integrity at worst or no attention to detail at best! Do they treat their patients with similar cavalier actions?

ravenpsychepi said...

Another member of the editorial board was Professor Ric Day, Chair of the Australian Government's Pharmaceutical Health and Rational Use of Medicines (PHARM) Committee from 1999 to 2008 – in other words, arguably the most influential pharmacologist in Australia.
He has also been a board member for Pfizer (perhaps he would argue that relationships with multiple pharmaceutical companies neutralise conflict of interest).
Unfortunately, partnership with the pharmaceutical industry is enshrined in Australia's National Medicines Policy. Day is one of its most fervent advocates.
This fake journal is just an extreme example of the sort of partnership that is fostered by this policy. Less extreme examples win awards from the Australian Government.

Anonymous said...

Ebeling appears to have also been used by Merck to argue for Australian PBAC approval for Merck drugs

Anonymous said...

Pierre Delmas, the greatest ever snake-oil salesmen in the field of osteoporosis was also from the Mayo Clinic (Larry Riggs)