Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13829

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

Fava GA.
Should the drug industry work with key opinion leaders? No
BMJ 2008 Jun 21; 336:(7658):1405
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/336/7658/1405

Abstract:

Industry commonly works with experts to put across its message. Charlie Buckwell (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39541.702870.59) believes that such interaction is essential for medical advancement, but Giovanni Fava argues that it risks scientific integrity

The proliferating connections between doctors and the drug industry have brought the credibility of clinical medicine to an unprecedented crisis. Corporate actions that have placed profit over public health have become regular news. High profile examples include the misrepresentation of research on rofecoxib and on the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in children. Recently, two respected scientists who work for a drug company wrote that the problem of conflict of interest “could well erode the credibility of the entire enterprise of academic medicine, if not properly and promptly addressed.”…