1 Boring Old Man

McGill reprimands prof over ghostwriting scandal
^{Failed to acknowledge DesignWrite’s work}
Montreal Gazette
By AARON DERFEL
August 5, 2011

^{McGill University has formally reprimanded senior professor and researcher Barbara Sherwin for failing to acknowledge a ghostwriter hired by drug company Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in a paper Sherwin wrote in 2000. However, the university has decided against sanctioning Sherwin, who is a James McGill professor of psychology, obstetrics and gynecology. In August 2009, Sherwin’s name appeared in court documents in a class-action suit launched by 8,400 women against Wyeth. The documents revealed that Wyeth paid a New Jersey professional-writing firm, DesignWrite, to produce a paper on treatment options for age associated memory loss that was eventually published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Sherwin was listed as the sole author of that paper, even though Karen Mittleman, an employee of DesignWrite, was involved in the process.}

^{The paper was published just when critics started raising doubts about hormone-replacement therapy. Wyeth – through DesignWrite – had commissioned at least 40 scientific papers endorsing the therapy. The drug company [now part of Pfizer] had a vested interest in HRT, as sales of its hormone drugs soared to almost $2 billion in 2001. Shortly after the revelations from the court documents were made public, Sherwin issued a written statement in which she admitted to making "an error" in agreeing to have her name attached to the article without making it clear that there was another author. "I believe the article, which was peer-reviewed, represented sound and thorough scholarship, and in no way could be construed as promotion for any particular product or company," her statement read. Still, an eight-month investigation found that Sherwin should have credited Mittleman. "The committee said I should have acknowledged someone, but I tried to and she refused to be acknowledged," Sherwin told The Gazette this week.}

^{In an article published in May in Maclean’s, Sherwin is quoted as saying she "liked (Mittleman) and considered her a casual friend." Sherwin, however, told The Gazette that Mittleman "was never a colleague." Mittleman could not be reached for comment. Rosie Lynch, chief executive officer of DesignWrite, wrote in an email to The Gazette that "Design-Write stands by the medical and scientific validity of every article in which it has participated." McGill officials have refused to comment on the Sherwin investigation. "The investigation was completed in 2010 but the conclusions are confidential, as are all personnel matters between McGill and its employees," Rima Rozen, vice-principal of research and international relations, said in a statement.}

^{In May, Sherwin was no longer a member of the Quebec Order of Psychologists. "This means that she cannot practise under the title of psychologist," said Krystelle Larouche, a spokesperson for the Order. "That said, Ms. Sherwin never had a disciplinary file" with the Order. Of the Order, Sherwin said her case "never went to an investigation. It never got that far." Sherwin, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Hormones, Brain and Cognition, has continued her research. "I haven’t skipped a beat," she said in a brief phone interview. In fact, Sherwin is now recruiting women who are at least 65 years old for a "memory training study." Sherwin refused to disclose the source of funding for that study. "I have no need to go public on who funds that. I don’t see the point. It’s been through ethics and all the procedures that you need to go through in order to begin a study. Actually, this is a continuation of an earlier study we did last year – a pilot project." And with that, Sherwin added that she didn’t "really have any further comment about all of that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s now on the record and I don’t wish to go any farther with it."}

  [Hat tip to Soulful Sepulcher and Fear and Loathing in Bioethics]

This is an example of ghostwriting worth lingering on for a moment. For one thing, Dr. Sherwin was quick to acknowledge what happened, but her story makes little sense and her excuses sound contrived. Design-Write is a commercial Medical Writing company that was contracted by Wyeth to get 40 articles into the literature supporting HRT treatment. If you use the Wayback Machine, there are versions of their website going back to that period that show that they were much more explicit about their writing services and about getting articles placed.

So the part about Sherwin and the writer being pals or asking the writer to be an author sound pretty shaky to me. Likewise, Design-Write’s standing behind the scientific validity is laughable. And it’s nearly impossible to believe that Dr. Sherwin "believe[d] the article, which was peer-reviewed, represented sound and thorough scholarship, and in no way could be construed as promotion for any particular product or company". She was likely recruited as an author and it’s hard to imagine that she didn’t know who was behind the article and why it was being written.