Science or Marketing?

[Guest guest]

From Science in the Center of the Public Interest

Science or Marketing?

Most doctors insist that participating in a company-run

clinical trial does not influence what drugs they

prescribe. But a study in last week's Journal of the

American Medical Association found otherwise. It compared

two groups of physicians who prescribed asthma inhalers -

one group from clinical trials funded by inhaler

manufacturers and the other drawn from practicing

physicians. The study, whose primary findings were

statistically significant, found that the clinical trial

docs increased their use of the sponsors' drugs from 52.9

percent to 58.7 percent after two years. Meanwhile other

doctors did not change their prescribing practices (stable

at about 52 percent).

Senate Passes Advance Notice Conflict-of-Interest

Disclosure Bill

The Senate Appropriations Committee last week passed

legislation that would force the Food and Drug

Administration to post all advisory committee conflict-of-

interest waivers 15 days prior to meetings. The bill,

sponsored by Sen. Durbin (D-IL), mirrors the law

passed last year but falls short of a House measure

sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), which prohibits

the FDA from using consultants with direct financial ties

to manufacturers or their competitors. The Senate bill

also requires the agency to send Congress semi-annual

reports documenting what steps it took to find scientists

without conflicts of interest to serve on FDA advisory

panels

Journal Editors Should Publish Their Conflicts of Interest

Calling commercial influence over medical journals " a

fundamental threat to the(ir) credibility, " University of

Toronto professor Lexchin and Princeton University

professor Light recommended that journals fully

disclose their sources of income, " including the amount

they get from the sale of reprints, supplements, and

advertising. " Writing in last week's British Medical

Journal, the authors also recommended that journals publish

their editors' conflicts of interest and forbid them from

having financial ties with advertisers.