Today's Globe: Vioxx ghostwriting study, French on anorexia, baby-bottle chemical, tainted heparin, Tysabri report, Ruth Mann

Drug maker Merck & Co. manipulated public opinion on its blockbuster pain pill Vioxx by paying high-profile doctors to add their names to scientific reports drafted by others, according to a prominent medical journal.

In the capital of high fashion and ultrathin models (for Guy Laroche, left), conservative French legislators adopted a pioneering law yesterday aimed at stifling a proliferation of websites that promote eating disorders with "thinspiration" and starvation tips. The bill, if passed, it would take aim at any means of mass communication - magazines, blogs, websites - that promote eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia with punishments of up to three years in prison and 45,000 euros, or $71,000 fines.

A controversial, estrogenlike chemical in plastic could be harming the development of children's brains and reproductive organs, a federal health agency concluded in a report released yesterday.

US regulators suspect that Baxter International Inc.'s blood thinner heparin, linked to deaths and allergic reactions, was intentionally contaminated to increase profit.

Biogen Idec Inc., the world's largest maker of multiple sclerosis drugs, said its fastest- growing product, Tysabri, was linked to no new cases of the deadly brain infection tied to the drug three years ago.

Ruth (Stone) Mann was in her late 20s and a recent bride in 1952 when she chose what was then an experimental procedure known as an ileostomy to remove the lower part of her small intestine during her 10-year struggle with ulcerative colitis. One of the first things she did was to cofound the Ostomy Association of Boston to inspire and to improve the quality of life for others. Mrs. Mann died April 7. She was 84 and had been a longtime resident of Beverly.