Originally published October 24 2005
Clinical panels have financial ties to Big Pharma
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The scientific journal Nature has published a study that estimates around 70 percent of clinical guideline panels have extensive financial connections to drug companies; further evidence that the drug industry may be distorting the policy decisions of regulatory agencies.
Drummond Rennie, deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, told Nature: "Drug company sponsors see guideline-issuing bodies as perfect places to exert influence.
Increasing emphasis on "evidence-based medicine" has brought clinical guidelines to the fore in the last decade or so.
Many expert bodies around the world publish several guideline documents each year.
In England and Wales the main organisation providing treatment guidelines is the Government-funded National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).
A similar task is carried out in Scotland by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (Sign).
Guidelines are also issued by professional bodies such as the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners.
All these bodies issue advice based on the results of clinical trials which influence the way doctors prescribe drugs.
Nature studied 215 guidelines from around the world that were deposited with an American archive, the US National Guideline Clearinghouse, in 2004.
More than a third of the 685 authors involved admitted conflicts of interest, often more than one.
A total of 143 authors had an advisory board or consultancy position with a relevant company, while 153 had received research grants from drug companies.
In one example, guidelines for the treatment of anaemia in HIV-positive patients were written by a working group recruited by a leading US Aids expert.
The group's meetings were funded by Ortho Biotech, a pharmaceutical company based in Bridgewater, New Jersey, USA.
All six panel members had been paid by the same company for lecturing or consultancy jobs, said Nature.
They included the physician who selected the group, Paul Volberding, vice-chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
The group's latest guidelines, published last year, recommend the use of epoetin alpha, a drug marketed by Ortho Biotech.
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