Drug firms accused of distorting research 

Thirteen of the world's leading medical journals today mount an
outspoken attack on the rich and powerful drug companies,
accusing them of distorting the results of scientific research for
the sake of profits. 

The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of
the American Medical Association and other major journals
accuse the drug giants of using their money - or the threat of its
removal - to tie up academic researchers with legal contracts so
that they are unable to report freely and fairly on the results of
drug trials. 

The scientists, often from cash-starved university departments,
may be prevented from having access to the raw data gathered
in the trial which would tell them how well or not the drug worked
and whether there were side-effects. They may be given no say
in the way the trial is designed and they may have only limited
participation in interpreting the results.

"These terms are draconian for self-respecting scientists, but
many have accepted them because they know that if they do
not, the sponsor will find someone else who will. And,
unfortunately, even when an investigator has had substantial
input into trial design and data interpretation, the results of the
finished trial may be buried rather than published if they are
unfavourable to the sponsor's product," says the commentary
which will run this week in 12 of the journals. The British Medical
Journal is running a separate editorial with the same message. 

The editors say that the study produced for publication may be
skewed in the interests of the pharmaceutical company, which
hopes to make big profits from a new drug. It is also a betrayal
of the patient who has agreed to take part in what he or she
believes is research to help find new and better treatments for
disease. 

Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, said the editors hoped to
start a debate over what patients are told when they sign a
consent form to take part in a trial. 

"The patient should know who is in control of the study. Are you
- my doctor or the scientist doing the study - in control or is the
pharmaceutical company in control? They are never told anything of
the sort. At the moment, informed patient consent is a fabrication." 

Sarah Boseley, health editor
Monday September 10, 2001
The Guardian 

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