Medical Specialists and Pharmaceutical Industry Sponsored Research: a Survey of the Australian Experience
A recent survey has shown that commercial ties between pharmaceutical manufacturers and clinical researchers may influence the research agenda, the conduct of studies, and may even lead to incomplete reporting of results.
In an article in the latest issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, Professor David Henry and colleagues report a survey of medical specialists, which aimed to characterise the research relationships between medical specialists and the pharmaceutical industry in Australia.
The evidence showed a high level of commercially sponsored clinical research being performed by contract research organisations rather than academic medical centres, with significant involvement of physicians in private practice.
The authors believe that while this collaboration has been responsible for many significant advances in research, it also raises concerns about the integrity of results and their authorship. The survey showed that 12.3% of respondents reported that industry staff had written the first draft report and 5.1% of respondents said that key negative findings were not published at all.
"Our findings underscore the necessity for ethics committees to oversee not only the conduct of research, but also the analysis of results, to ensure that the public has access to accurate data on the benefits and harms of modern medical treatments," say the authors.
Though most respondents in the survey did not believe they had made ethical compromises during their research, the survey's reliance on self-reporting could have led to the possibility of selective or inaccurate recall.
Also in this issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Peter G tzsche from the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, agrees with the basic findings of Henry and colleagues' research, but adds that research misconduct would be reduced if trials were registered at the beginning, ensuring public access to protocols and data.
Dr G tzsche believes that the current research agenda predominantly serves the interests of the industry rather than patients, and suggests that the best solution to industry bias would be for testing of drugs to be a public enterprise.
The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.
CONTACT: Professor David A Henry, 0419284883
Dr Peter G tzsche, Ottawa until Saturday afternoon, +1 613 236 5000
Copenhagen from Saturday afternoon, +45 45 86 88 66
Judith Tokley, AMA, 0408 824 306