Healthy Skepticism Library item: 608

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Macbeth F, Stephens R.
Marketing clinical trials.
Lancet 1996 Jul 13; 348:(9020):111-2

Keywords:
*analysis United Kingdom drug company sponsored research relationship between researchers, academic institutions and industry clinical trials

Notes:

What rewards can and do clinicians get for the obtaining and transfer of patient data in clinical trials. For most doctors the scale of value probably runs: money>resources>esteem>group membership (being part of an organization)>intellectual curiousity; although publicly doctors may still insist that it is the reverse. At the moment many clinicians fund data managers and/or research nurses by undertaking industry-sponsored investigations. Some may be good studies but many are either disguised marketing exercises or ways of getting data for drug licensing, and they are not often subject to rigorous peer review.