Episode 17. Professor emeritus Peter C Gøtzsche explains that the main problems with medical journals are the editors’ personal beliefs and the widespread corruption. The editors of BMJ and The Lancet called journals “an extension of the marketing arm of pharmaceutical companies” and “information laundering operations for the pharmaceutical industry,” respectively. Peter’s systematic review of mammography screening was initially supported by Lancet’s editor, Richard Horton, in 2001, but 11 years later, when Lancet published a poor-quality “Yes Minister” whitewash review and Peter criticised it in a Lancet letter, Horton withdrew his membership of the Advisory Board for Peter’s Nordic Cochrane Centre.
Documentation:
Gøtzsche PC. Mammography screening: truth, lies and controversy. London: Radcliffe Publishing; 2012.
Gøtzsche PC. Mammography screening: The great hoax. Copenhagen: Institute for Scientific Freedom 2024 (freely available).
Gøtzsche PC. Cochrane on a suicide mission. Brownstone Journal 2025;June 20.
Horton R. The Dawn of McScience. The New York Book Review 2004;March 11.
Smith R. Medical journals are an extension of the marketing arm of pharmaceutical companies. PLoS Med 2005;2:e138.
