Greed and science don’t mix

Dr. Scott Reuben. Unless you read the New York Times, you may not recognize his name. However, there’s a good chance that you, or someone you know, takes a pharmaceutical drug that Dr. Reuben studied and reported on in what is now being called the largest research fraud in medical history.

A former member of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals speakers' bureau, Reuben has agreed to plead guilty to faking dozens of research studies that were published in medical journals.

In one such study, Reuben accepted $75,000 from Pfizer to study the pain reliever Celebrex. The research was published in a medical journal, and has since been quoted by hundreds of unsuspecting doctors as the science that proves Celebrex helps reduce pain during post-surgical recovery. This, in spite of the fact that not a single patient was ever enrolled in the study.

Other studies on drugs including Bextra and Vioxx were complete fakes, but nonetheless published. The medical journal Anesthesia & Analgesia was forced to retract 10 "scientific" papers authored by Reuben. The Day of London reports that 21 articles written by Dr. Reuben that appear in medical journals have apparently been fabricated, too, and must be retracted.

After being caught fabricating research for Big Pharma, Dr. Reuben has reportedly signed a plea agreement that will require him to return $420,000 received from the drug companies. He also faces up to a 10-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.

Barb Jarmoska