BMJ  2003;326:1202-1205 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7400.1202

Education and debate

Medical journals and pharmaceutical companies: uneasy bedfellows

Richard Smith, editor1

1 BMJ, London WC1H 9JR rsmith@bmj.com

Many medical journals have a substantial income from pharmaceutical companies from the purchasing of advertising and reprints and the sponsoring of supplements. Is this funding corrupting journals?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

One of my first experiences of the relation between medical journals and pharmaceutical companies occurred in the early 1980s after the BMJ had published papers suggesting that a new non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, benoxaprofen, might have serious side effects. We were visited by three stern men from Eli Lilly, the makers of the drug. Tony Smith, the deputy editor, conducted the meeting and asked me to join him. The men, whom I remember (probably wrongly) as having gold teeth, threatened us with legal action, at which point Tony said: "In that case we'll see you in court." They backtracked hastily and asked simply to be able to publish a prompt response.

Those papers led eventually to benoxaprofen being banned, but the drug's rapid demise may well have been caused by its rapid ascent. The summer before the meeting with the men with gold teeth, I had visited Eli Lilly's headquarters in . . . [Full text of this article]


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