The pharmaceutical industry produces an abundance of special-purpose knowledge, flooding the markets it is most interested in. To gain the largest scientific impact and market value from research, drug company articles placed in medical journals are often written under the names of independent medical researchers. Pharmaceutical company statisticians, reviewers from a diverse array of company departments, medical writers, and publication planners are only rarely acknowledged in journal publications, and key company scientists only sometimes acknowledged. The public knowledge that results from this ghost-managed research and publication is a marketing tool, providing bases for continuing medical education, buttressing sales pitches, and contributing to medical common sense and further research. In the pharmaceutical industry, knowledge is a resource to be accumulated, shaped, and deployed to best effect. In this paper, I describe this process and discuss ways in which it might be addressed.