Source:The Australian

Writer: Gay Healy

AN international expert on oral cancer withdrew from joint authorship of a paper that drew a link between the disease and theListerine mouthwash made by his university laboratory’s corporate sponsors, it has been claimed.

The research paper’s co-authors say Newell Johnson, whose Griffith University laboratory was funded by pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, Listerine’s recent owner, decided not to put his name to the research paper, which made headlines across the world with its finding that alcohol-based mouthwashes were implicated in oral cancer.

Professor Johnson says he was never an author.

The claim about his involvement and withdrawal, made by Australian co-authors Michael McCullough of the University of Melbourne and Camile Farah of the University of Queensland, adds a new dimension to the controversy ignited by the paper, published in the Australian Dental Journal last December.

In January UQ’s head of dentistry Laurence Walsh came to the defence of mouthwashes, arguing they might prevent oral cancer, but later conceded that Listerine’s present owner, Johnson & Johnson, had sponsored some of his workshops.

The paper found the risk of oral cancer was increased by prolonged use of alcohol-based mouthwashes and highlighted six Listerine products.

Professor McCullough said the research paper or literature review sprang from a 2007 meeting of the three researchers at a conference in Amsterdam.

“After a session on the role of alcohol in oral cancer, we ended up deciding that we would formally write this article and review it between the three of us,” hesaid.

“We (Farah and I) were pleased. He (Johnson) is an internationally recognised expert in oral cancer.”

Professor Johnson, a former head of oral health research at London’s prestigious King’s College, was involved in the initial discussion, the concept of the review and several drafts of the paper but ultimately decided to withdraw his name as author, Professor McCullough said.

In May 2006 Professor Johnson had announced a ground-breaking sponsorship deal with Pfizer, allowing his dentistry school to “equip its newest research laboratories” at Southport on the Gold Coast. The deal also founded the Listerine chair in periodontology. In June 2006 Johnson & Johnson bought Pfizer’s healthcare business.

The HES put to Professor Johnson the account of his involvement in the literature review before it was accepted for publication.

He responded: “I was never an author on this paper.”

Professor Johnson said the value of the Pfizer sponsorship to his laboratories was “commercial-in-confidence”.

Asked about any commercial restrictions on his research, he said: “Unless you have questions about the science, no comment.”