STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has reportedly announced plans to investigate US senator Chuck Grassley's allegations against one of its journals. According to Grassley, Elsevier's American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology had carried an article ghostwritten by pharmaceuticals firm Wyeth to promote its hormone replacement therapy (HRT), Prempro. Earlier this month, he alleged that Wyeth commissioned articles to promote Prempro and other products and had them ghostwritten by DesignWrite, a medical communications company.
Grassley has stated that Wyeth selected physicians to appear as authors of the articles after DesignWrite had written them. One of the articles appeared as the "Editors' Choice" feature in the May 2003 issue of the journal. John Eden, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia and director of the Sydney Menopause Center, appeared as the author of the article. The article stated that "no definitive evidence" linked HRT with increased risk for breast cancer despite the release of a 2002 federal Women's Health Initiative study that found such a connection.
Wyeth officials have, however, denied the charges of making any payment to the authors of the articles, and that the authors had "substantive editorial control" of the articles.
