Drug companies are starting to get their come-uppance

This one is not actually directly related to my experience (though it has ramifications for the quality of health care I receive in general), but I am quite happy to have read this article in the NYTimes today:

Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company, paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its female hormone replacement therapy Prempro, according to Congressional letters seeking more information about the company’s involvement in medical ghostwriting. At least one article was published even after a federal study found the drug raised the risk of breast cancer.

Looks like Big Pharma is slowly being out-ed for its dangerous ways.  I am hoping that the deceptive marketing practices of the big pharmaceutical companies in the last decade start falling so far out of favor that they become explicitly illegal.  Vioxx, Redux, and — I strongly believe Gardasil in the future — are all examples of a drug approval process that is skewed too far in the direction of “innovation” (and profit) at the expense of conservative, proper, rigorous, long-term testing.