The court documents provide a detailed paper trail showing how Wyeth contracted with a medical communications company to outline articles, draft them and then solicit top physicians to sign their names, even though many of the doctors contributed little or no writing. The documents suggest the practice went well beyond the case of Wyeth and hormone therapy, involving numerous drugs from other pharmaceutical companies.

As the New York Times reports, phamaceutical companies paid ghostwriters to compile review papers touting the benefits of new drugs, with doctors then signing on as authors. But it would be a shame if we did anything to reform the healthcare industry, thus stifling their innovation.