Fake drug studies as marketing tools

A number of sources last month have exposed the pharmaceutical industry marketing tactic known as “seeding trials”. The purpose of a seeding trial is not to advance research but to make doctors familiar with a new drug by inviting them to take part in a research study and paying them for each subject they recruit. As the trial proceeds, the doctors gradually get to know the drug, making them more likely to prescribe it later.

• Study of Neurontin: Titrate to Effect, Profile of Safety (STEPS) Trial: Narrative Account of a Gabapentin Seeding Trial
  Samuel Drumholz; David Egilman; Joseph Ross
  Archives of Internal Medicine 2011;171(12):1100-1107. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.241
  


• Useless Studies, Real Harm
  Carl Elliott, NY Times. July 29, 2011, page A27