The federal district court in Chicago has reportedly denied a Pfizer subpoena demanding the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) to release the identities and comments of its referees. The referees normally remain anonymous so that they can feel free to give their honest opinions.
In his decision, Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys ruled that the journals were not compelled to provide Pfizer with documents regarding how manuscripts are accepted or rejected. Neither are they required to hand over copies of rejected manuscripts, identities of peer reviewers and the manuscripts they reviewed, and comments by and among peer reviewers and editors. In the March 14 ruling, Keys agreed with the journal editors that this information could be kept confidential from Pfizer and the public and that any information Pfizer's lawyers might need could be obtained from published articles.
Pfizer had requested the documents as part of a request for information it hoped to use in its defence against the over 3,000 lawsuits pertaining to how celecoxib and valdecoxib were advertised and marketed in the US.
Other journals also subpoenaed by Pfizer - including Science and the British Medical Journal - have published editorials warning that compelling journals to provide this kind of information could have a negative impact on the peer-review process.
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