BMJ  2003;326:1220 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7400.1220-a

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Doctors and the drug industry

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There is evidence that industry sponsored research leads more often to an outcome favourable to the drug under investigation (p 1167). Studies with low methodological quality tend to overestimate an effect but the methodological quality of studies funded by drug companies is no worse than that of other studies—often it is even better.

Developing new drugs without the industry is unfortunately not realistic. Let's ignore all the preclinical research—this is regulated by good laboratory practice guidelines (www.oecd.org/env/glp). Let's jump directly to clinical research. Good clinical practice (GCP) protects research subjects and is a quality assurance tool. The International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) "is a unique project that brings together the regulatory authorities of Europe, Japan, and the United States and experts from the pharmaceutical industry in the three regions to discuss scientific and technical aspects of . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ BMJ marcus.muellner@univie.ac.at

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Pharmaceutical industry sponsorship and research outcome and quality: systematic review

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Correction

Marcus Müllner
bmj.com, 10 Jun 2003 [Full text]