We've all known research can be biased, but it's good to see the admission in
print, especially with an emphasis on baby formula studies.
Joyce Jones
> 03:52 PM ET 07/30/98
Conflict of interest likely to taint medical studies
(Release at 2301 GMT, Thursday, July 30)
> LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - The results of medical studies
are likely to be tainted or flawed if they are funded by
industry and researchers have a conflict of interest, experts
said on Friday.
``Almost all funding comes with strings attached,'' Hurst
Hannum, a professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts, said
in report in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
``At a minimum, the recipient must be accountable for how
grants are spent. At a maximum, the recipient must deliver a
particular product that is acceptable to the donor.''
In a series of articles in the weekly journal doctors,
professors and industry representatives debated the ethical
dilemma of companies -- particular tobacco, alcohol and infant
formula manufacturers -- financing research.
Tom Sorell of the University of Essex in England argued that
research funded by the tobacco industry has a tainted history
and needed to be closely monitored.
``Payments to some tobacco researchers have come from secret
funds or front organisations with misleading names. Much worse,
the industry has suppressed findings of its own researchers that
bear out what its opponents have claimed,'' he said.
Richard Smith, the editor of the journal, cited two
important studies published in American journals that showed
authors were more likely to be supportive of a drug or product
if they had financial backing from the company.
In a review of 70 medical articles about a type of drug to
treat cardiovascular disease, published in the New England
Journal of Medicine, the authors discovered that two-thirds of
the authors had industry backing.
``Almost all supportive authors (96 percent) had financial
relationships with manufacturers, compared with 60 percent
neutral authors and 37 percent of critical authors,'' he said in
an editorial.
A second study in the Journal of the American Medical
Association (JAMA) of 106 reviews on passive smoking found
similar results. Three quarters of the articles that found
passive smoking was not harmful were written by tobacco industry
affiliates.
``These two papers and their predecessors begin to build a
solid case that conflict of interest has an impact on the
conclusions reached by papers in medical journals,'' he added.
Smith said from now on the authors of papers, editorials and
reviews of articles in the magazine will be asked if they have
``competing interests'' which will relate to purely financial
matters.
If they have none the magazine will tell readers at the end
of each article or if it is found that authors had competing
interest readers will be informed.
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