Are ghostwritten articles fraud?

Two law professors at the University of Toronto say that doctors who author ghostwritten medical articles should be subject to class-action lawsuits, calling the practice "fraud."

According to CBC News, Simon Stern and Trudo Lemmens published an article in the online journal PLoS Medicine this week, arguing that articles largely written by pharmaceutical companies with doctors named as "guest author" can distort information on a drug. Stern and Lemmens say that the practice can be misleading and articles can contain concealed marketing messages.

The U of T professors believe legal ramifications may deter doctors from lending their names to industry research in the future.