Correspondence

Buying Editorials

N Engl J Med 1995; 332:194January 19, 1995

Article

To the Editor:

Dr. Brennan's tale of drug companies and public-relations firms that ``buy'' editorials (Sept. 8 issue)1 struck home with me.

As the editor of American Family Physician, a medical journal that publishes primarily clinical review articles, I periodically receive a query from a public-relations firm shopping around for the publication of a manuscript. Only on questioning does the firm admit that the work has been supported by a drug company. In some cases, I have learned, physicians are offered thousands of dollars to put their names on articles they did not write or reports of research they did not perform.

For years we have had an unwritten policy of not accepting a review sponsored by a pharmaceutical company or written by an author with a financial interest in a product discussed in the article.2 I doubt that many physicians want to read advice about the management of a particular disorder that is essentially work for hire sponsored by a drug company and that features an approving discussion of the company's latest wonder drug.

Jay Siwek, M.D.
Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC 20007

2 References