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VOL.437 NO.7062 DATED 20 OCTOBER 2005
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News: Pharma's influence on drug prescriptions
Academics and physicians who write the rules on how to prescribe drugs have
extensive financial connections with the pharmaceutical industry, according
to an investigation by Nature. Public-health experts say results from the
survey, which is the largest of its kind, suggest that drug companies are
distorting decisions about how their products are be prescribed.
In a survey of the panels that write clinical practice guidelines --
documents designed to govern diagnosis and treatment of patients -- Nature
found that more than a third of authors declared financial links to relevant
drug companies, with nearly 70% of panels affected. In one case, every
member of the panel had been paid by the company responsible for drug that
was ultimately recommended.
"The numbers in the survey are distressing," says Drummond Rennie, deputy
editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association and an advocate of
proposals to free guidelines from industry influence. "The practice stinks."
PLEASE NOTE: the results of the survey are available for download from the
Nature press site and can be found next to a full text pdf of this news
article
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