Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7853
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Publication type: news
Integrity in Science.
NIH Halts Neonatal Herpes Session after Protest
Integrity in Science 2007 Jan 22
http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/watch/200701221.html#1
Full text:
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases abruptly cancelled a conference on neonatal herpes aimed at writing clinical practice guidelines shortly after a coalition of influential physicians and consumer groups protested the lack of balance and conflicts of interest among the meeting’s presenters (see Integrity in Science Watch, 1/8/07). A letter sent to NIH, signed by 44 physicians and 16 health groups, called on director Elias A. Zerhouni to adopt an agency-wide rule prohibiting scientists with financial conflicts of interest from sitting on guideline-writing panels. NIH has not yet responded to the request.
The letter, whose signers included Lancet editor Richard Horton and two former New England Journal of Medicine editors, Marcia Angell and Jerome P. Kassirer, pointed out that many recent NIH-sponsored guideline-writing panels have been dominated by physicians with conflicts of interest. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s guideline-writing committees on hypertension and cholesterol management, for instance, had 9 of 11 and 8 of 9 members, respectively, with conflicts of interest. With insurers moving toward adopting pay-for-performance standards that would reward physicians who follow widely accepted clinical practice guidelines, the letter asked: “Why should either practicing physicians or patients have faith in guidelines written by researcher-physicians with ties to providers whose financial well-being is driven by the content of those recommendations?” Consumers groups signing the letter included the Center for Medical Consumers, the National Research Center for Women & Families and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which led the effort.
The NIAID letter cancelling the meeting told registrants that there had been “a misunderstanding about the intent of the meeting.” However, the agenda sent to invitees throughout December included a final session led by Richard Whitley of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who consults for anti-herpes drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. The printed agenda’s bullet points for that final session were “Codification of guidelines,” “Writing Teams” and “Deadlines.”
In mid-December, the Wall Street Journal ran a front page story describing how GlaxoSmithKline, which makes the anti-herpes medication Valtrex (valacyclovir), has funded researchers and continuing medication seminars to promote universal herpes testing among pregnant women, which could lead to significantly higher drug sales.
