Scholars have found that the language used to define, describe, and regulate pharmaceuticals influences the understanding and perception of the drugs among both the general public[21] and experts.[22] Information about pharmaceutical products is highly regulated[23] and filtered through many channels as it moves from scientist to consumer.[24] Despite the regulations on pharmaceutical advertising, pharmaceutical companies use carefully crafted direct-to-consumer advertising to rhetorically influence the patient-physician dialogue to drive consumption of specific pharmaceutical drugs.[25] Furthermore, pharmaceutical companies mislead physicians and scientists through deceptive rhetorical strategies in technical documentation (which both package inserts directed towards physicians and medical journal articles directed towards scientists).[22] In a recent study, a pharmaceutical company disguised negative performance in one group of subjects by selectively merging data between different patient groups in clinical trials and carefully crafting supporting statements.[22] This study shows that scientific data and knowledge is secondary to rhetorical messages supporting commercialization, and that human health is secondary to company profit. Notably, technical information is subject to obfuscation and distortion so that the message communicated outside of a commercial organization aligns with the primary goal of selling a product. Studying and trying to improve the rhetorical processes involved in pharmaceutical information as it moves through the chain of dissemination is a key concern of rhetorical scholarship on this topic.[26][27]