In an article published on the web sites of over 100 media outlets the AP (1/13, Perrone) reports, “Food and Drug Administration officials have finalized guidelines that make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to use medical journal articles to promote drugs for unapproved uses.” The new guidelines, which have been “criticized by some lawmakers as too lenient, allow companies to distribute articles about their products to doctors — even when they involve uses that have not been federally approved.” A year ago, the “reliability of medical journal articles came into question…when drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. was accused of ghostwriting several articles about its painkiller Vioxx, which was withdrawn from the market in 2004 for safety reasons.”
From the American Association for Justice news release.
