STAT+: How a scientific journal’s ‘grotesque overreaction’ inflamed the contentious debate over Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug
A science journal owned by the Alzheimer’s Association punished a trio of leading researchers after they published a stinging rebuke of Biogen’s controversial treatment aducanumab — a drug that the powerful advocacy group is lobbying regulators to approve.
In late December, the researchers told STAT, the Alzheimer’s & Dementia journal notified them that they had committed an “ethical violation” by tweeting a link to their own deeply skeptical aducanumab paper, which was not yet in its final form. The researchers were placed on a two-year publishing probation, and a letter disclosing the censure was sent to their academic bosses.
