The American public relies on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure nothing but the safest drugs are prescribed but the FDA relies on medical research scientists to provide the background data in order to approve or deny every drug’s application.  Unfortunately, not all data delivered to the FDA is reliable, as evidenced by the charges just filed against a research doctor who made up some or all of the data he’s supplied for the past 13 years.

Dr. Scott Reuben, of the Springield, Massachusetts, Baystate Medical Center, has been accused of fabricating results published in almost two dozen studies that indicate painkillers such as Vioxx and Celebrex do, in fact, provide beneficial results.

Reuben, an anesthesiologist specializing in the use of multiple drugs to relieve pain after surgery, has been on extended medical leave since last May when it was discovered his research had not been cleared by an internal hospital review board.  The discovery launched further investigation, which identified 21 papers, written by Reuben in the past 13 years, which included some or all data he’d made up.

Vioxx, manufactured by Merck, was pulled from the market in 2004 due to the heightened risk of adverse cardiovascular event associated with it, an association not clearly identified until after it was approved.

Between 2002 and 2007, Pfizer Inc., manufacturer of Celebrex, awarded Reuben five research grants.  Reuben also published positive claims that the Wyeth-made antidepressant, Effexor XR, produces positive results.