Sir,
In response to Dr Vallance's letter,1 we refute the implication that this article2 is an example of ‘medical ghostwriting'. Alpha-Plus Medical Communications acts in accordance with good publication practice guidelines (GPP2) as published in the BMJ,3 and confirms that there was no exception with this article. The authors provided direction, had full control of the editorial content, and accepted full responsibility for views and opinions as well as accuracy of the content.4 A clear and unambiguous statement regarding our involvement in this publication was included in the acknowledgements.
In relation to Dr Vallance's claim that Alpha-Plus provides ‘complete medical communication services for all marketing needs', we would like to highlight that the source of this statement is an out-of-date and obsolete business listing from early 2009. We thank Dr Vallance for drawing our attention to this listing and have requested that it is removed at the earliest opportunity. Please refer your reader to our website (http://www.fishawack.com) for up-to-date and accurate information regarding our group of companies. As you will note on our website, publication activities are separate from other medical communications services.
We would like to add that with regard to comments made about the appointment of Jo Jarvis, the conference in which Jo participated focused on how the industry should interact with different stakeholder groups (including physicians) in an ethically responsible manner and in compliance with the latest code of practice governing this area.
Alpha-Plus Medical Communications provides medical communications services to a number of pharmaceutical companies.
References
- Vallance JH. Comment on ‘Preclinical aspects of anti-VEGF agents for the treatment of wet AMD: ranibizumab and bevacizumab. Eye. 2012;26:167. doi: 10.1038/eye.2011.193. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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- Graf C, Battisti WP, Bridges D, Bruce-Winkler V, Conaty JM, Ellison JM, et al. International Society of Medical Publication Professionals. Good publication practice for communicating company sponsored medical research: the GPP2 guidelines. BMJ. 2009;339:b4330. doi: 10.1136/bmj.b4330. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals . http://www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html . [PubMed]