Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17595

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

Godlee F
Vested interests
BMJ 2010 Apr 8; 340:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/340/apr08_2/c1922

Abstract:

Controversy over the safety of a widely used drug is fertile ground for exploring conflicts of interest. Back in 1998 the controversy was over calcium channel antagonists. A paper in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that journal articles and letters were much more likely to support use of these drugs for treating cardiovascular disorders if their authors had financial ties to the drugs’ manufacturers (NEJM 1998;338:101-5). As Richard Smith, then editor of the BMJ, said at the time, the safety of calcium channel antagonists was a good subject to investigate “because it is intensely controversial and the market for the drugs is huge and lucrative” (BMJ 1998;317:291-2).

Perhaps for similar reasons Amy Wang and colleagues chose to look at the diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia). Published in this week’s BMJ, their systematic review found just over 200 articles commenting on rosiglitazone and the risk of . . .