• Slate, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 10:30 AM

Evidence suggests that doctors are subtly shilling for drug companies through their media appearances, under the guise of being objective experts. Slate describes a recent example of an NPR radio panel of "four prestigious medical experts that discussed the controversial link between antidepressants and suicide and agreed that critics' worries were overblown."

But the program did not reveal that all the experts had financial ties to the makers of antidepressants and the radio program itself received grants from the maker of Prozac.

Some medical sources for the media who appear independent are, serving as stealth marketers for the drug and biotech industries, and reporters either don't know about it or are failing disclose it to the public. In an era of marketing authenticity, the practice seems to carry risks for the drug brands, as well as consumers.

Read the whole story at Slate »