According to The Scientist, Merck paid Elsevier to publish Merck's own "peer-reviewed" fan-zine, Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, in 2003. Its articles don't show up in major medical research paper search engines, and the "Honorary Advisory Board" did not receive a single paper to "review".
The journal didn't disclose its funding source anywhere within the publication. Bioethics.net blasts this fraudulent journal on the grounds that its Merck-friendly findings could be given to primary-care physicians, and falsely persuade them in favor of using the drug.
Apparently, it's already happened-- and in a big way. Remember Vioxx? The one that was recalled due to ion channel complications? The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine was implicated in an Australian civil suit regarding a heart attack caused by Vioxx.
