Lawsuit alleges Pfizer manipulated drug studies - International Herald Tribune

By Stephanie Saul

NEW YORK: The U.S. drug maker Pfizer earlier this decade manipulated the publication of scientific studies to bolster the use of its epilepsy drug Neurontin for other disorders, while suppressing research that did not support those uses, according to specialists who reviewed thousands of company documents for plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the company.

Pfizer's tactics included delaying the publication of studies that had found no evidence the drug worked for some other disorders, "spinning" negative data to place it in a more positive light, and bundling negative findings with positive studies to neutralize the results, according to written reports by the specialists, who analyzed the documents at the request of the plaintiffs' lawyers.

One of those who reviewed the documents, Dr. Kay Dickersin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, concluded that the Pfizer documents spell out "a publication strategy meant to convince physicians of Neurontin's effectiveness and misrepresent or suppress negative findings.

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