Doctors/Meds/Conflict

[Guest guest]

A non-Lyme friend sent me this, I thought it was interesting.

10:09 PM ET 05/15/99

Report: Drug Trials Hiding Conflicts

Report: Drug Trials Hiding Conflicts

NEW YORK (AP) _ Hundreds of thousands of patients are being

recruited by their personal physicians into a booming venture for

doctors _ the business of testing experimental drugs on people, The

New York Times reports in its Sunday editions.

The newspaper said a 10-month investigation revealed a system

that is fraught with conflicts of interest; that relies on

government and private monitoring that can be easily fooled and

that some researchers said is inadequate; and that secretly offers

a share of the cash to other health professionals who might

influence patients to join a study.

The number of private doctors in research since 1990 has almost

tripled, and top recruiters can earn as much as $500,000 to $1

million a year, according to the story, which was based on

confidential documents and interviews.

This new system is a boon for drug companies because it reaches

out to a vast pool of test subjects who have never before been

available for experimentation. But it also injects the interests of

a giant industry into the delicate doctor-patient relationship,

usually without the patient realizing it.

Among the specific findings of the Times' investigation:

-- Drug companies and their contractors offer large payments to

doctors, nurses and other medical staff to encourage them to

recruit patients quickly. And doctors do not even have to conduct

trials to get paid: There are finder's fees for those who refer

their patients to other doctors conducting research.

-- Doctors who recruit the most patients receive additional

perquisites, such as the right to claim a coveted authorship of

published papers about the studies -- even though the true author

is a ghostwriter using analysis from the drug company. Those who

fail to meet the recruitment goals are usually dropped from future

studies.

-- Testing companies often use doctors as clinical investigators

regardless of their specialty, at times leaving patients in the

care of doctors who know little about their condition. For example,

psychiatrists have conducted Pap smears and asthma specialists have

dispensed experimental psychiatric drugs.

-- A growing number of doctors conducting drug research have

limited experience as clinical investigators, raising questions

among some experts about the quality of their data.

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