Every step of the production of new miracle drugs now appears tainted.

Pharmaceutical companies pay researchers to conduct trials. The Food and Drug Administration, underfunded, understaffed and unmotivated, is in a poor position to police the drugs it approves. And now we find out from a report in The Seattle Times that doctors involved in top-secret drug testing have been paid to reveal information about how things are going to Wall Street firms.

“The practice is a moral cesspool,” Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Times. “It really just seems to me to be the last straw in the corporatization of American medicine.”

The practice is also likely illegal, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming common. The Times documented 26 examples of doctors selling information to investment companies, giving them an edge over investors without the information.

Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, says he’s shocked and he’s going to do something about it – pass the buck to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Nothing less than the integrity of medical research is at stake. At every turn, profit trumps the public good. We’d like to see a few indictments coming from the Times’ report and a crackdown on researchers and investors who cash in on the black market for information.