1 Boring Old Man

In 1980, Arnold Relman, then editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, gave us a dire warning. He saw what was coming and laid it out for all to see:

While he underestimated the involvement of the pharmaceutical industry, he was still dead on in general – that industry was poised to invade Medicine with a ferocity the rest of us couldn’t yet imagine. And this very problem played out in the editorial offices of his journal itself not very many years later resulting in the firing of Relman’s successor, Jerome Kassirer [see a narrative… and not so proud…]. For the last year, Relman‘s point has been the subject of a debate, largely in the pages of the New England Journal of Medicine. But this time, the  editor, Jeffrey Drazen, has been on the other side. Here are the relevant articles, arranged by date, all available full-text on-line:

I listed the primary sources for you to read for yourself because I have no neutrality in this matter. From my point of view, Jeffrey Drazen, presumably backed by the current powers that be at the New England Journal of Medicine, has shamed his journal and our profession. He’s used the time-honored medical journal of record to push his own corporate-friendly agenda. Let’s hope he and his like-minded associates find a way to move on quickly…