Prialt Pushed Through Duplicate Publication

Apparently, the same data on Elan's pain medication Prialt (ziconotide) was published twice. Same data set. No reference in the second publication to the first publication. As I noted last week in a post about Cymbalta, that's not supposed to happen. It's the sort of thing that leads physicians to believe that a medication has a lot of supporting evidence -- "Of course I prescribe it; I've seen two positive clinical trials" -- when in fact it's just the same data being repackaged in another journal. The full story is contained in two posts at The MacGuffin (1, 2). An infomercial passing off as continuing medical education is also involved in the plot. Count The MacGuffin as an official must-read blog.