Conflict of Interest / Pharma Influence
Even if retracted, published clinical trial reports that misrepresent findings, withhold negative data, or make false, or unsubstantiated claims have done irreparable damage. AHRP calls upon all medical journals to adopt a publication policy requiring submission of the sponsor’s formal Clinical Study Report to accompany articles about clinical trial findings.
News and Analysis for Colleges, Universities and Teaching Hospitals
Big Drop in OHRP Letters, Open Cases Raise Questions of Agency Commitment
In 2010, the Office for Human Research Protections issued and posted 16 determination letters, the lowest number in its 11-year history and less than half the number issued in each of the previous five years. Since 2007, the office has averaged 35 letters a year, down from a peak of 146 in 2002 and another high of 86 in 2006.
The number of determination letters is tied to the number of cases OHRP opens, and during the recent past, that number has also declined, RRC has learned, tumbling to an all-time low of six in 2009. Some tie the decline in activity to the arrival of Jerry Menikoff, whose tenure as OHRP director began in the late fall of 2008.
The authoritative expert who chaired the DSM-IV revision has become a formidable critic whose publicly expressed views about psychiatry’s diagnostic assessments and prescribed treatments–mostly chemical interventions–validate the criticism expressed by the Alliance for Human Research Protection for more than a dozen years.
Hidden financial conflicts-of-interest are sneaking into published drug research through the back door–meta-analyses.
"The problem of prescription overdose in the military has its parallel in civilian life. The tragic overdose victims in both spheres represent canaries in the coal mine–only the most obvious victims of what has become our national orgy of over using psychotropic drugs." Allen Frances MD
"We didn’t declare these competing interests because it didn’t occur to us to do so " Fiona Godlee, editor-in chief, BMJ.
Why did the BMJ fail to disclose its partnership agreement with Merck, major vaccine manufacturer–13 vaccines, including the controversial MMR vaccine ?
We are no longer "blowin’ in the wind." A growing number of prominent physician-scientists, including several former journal editors, and New York Times columnists, have written sobering critiques about the corrupting impact pharmaceutical industry influence has had on medicine.
1 April 2010 The Peer Review “Fig Leaf”: Vera Hassner Sharav By SUZAN MAZUR While the chief of the US National Institute of Mental Health this week stopped short of saying scientists are corrupt because of their ties to industry, as AP reported — Vera Hassner Sharav does not…
Dr Mark Stolar, professor of clinical medicine at Northwestern: "There are very few people in whom I don’t detect bias based on where their conflicts lie.”
"For patients, navigating the debate can be difficult because doctors, patient advocacy groups and manufacturers often endorse positions that are in their economic self-interest." The New York Times
In response to yesterday’s AHRP Infomail (March 5) in which we informed readers that Dr. Gilbert Ross, the Medical Director of the American Council on Science and Helath (ACSH), the author of a WT OpEd (March 4, 2010), is a convicted felon, whose medical license was revoked after serving two years in prison for healthcare fraud:
