Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8164

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

Aldhous P.
Prescribed opinions
New Scientist 2007 Jan 6; 193:(2585):17
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19325854.600-comment-prescribed-opinions.html

Abstract:

Can we trust the media to report fairly on health and medicine when it appears so heavily influenced by the drugs industry? Peter Aldhous is concerned
IN MID-October, an email landed in my inbox that set me thinking. It was an invitation to a meeting organised by the UK Medical Journalists’ Association (MJA), described as “an evening workshop with arthritis experts”. Paid for by an “educational grant” from Merck Sharp & Dohme, the UK arm of the drugs giant Merck, it included a presentation by the company about its clinical research, with comments from other experts.

Ordinarily I might have deleted the mail, but at the time I was helping to complete a report into whether drug firms are exerting undue influence on patient groups (New Scientist, 28 October 2006, p 18). An important part of that story was the industry’s use of educational grants, so I decided to take a closer look at the MJA meeting.

Merck’s aim was to introduce journalists to the MEDAL trial, which has investigated the safety of a painkiller called …