New ethical framework for pharmaceutical physicians

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7548.1034

BMJ 2006;332:1034 (29 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7548.1034

Letter

New ethical framework for pharmaceutical physicians

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

EDITOR—Lenzer highlighted the helping hand that some USnews organisations give to pharmaceutical companies in circumventingthe Food and Drug Administration's requirements for fair balancein video news releases.¹ An ethical framework of guiding principlesfor pharmaceutical physicians has recently been published.²Pharmaceutical physicians should "ensure that expectations arenot inappropriately raised as a result of media briefings" and"be involved in the drafting of any briefings about potentialtherapeutic interventions provided to financial analysts orto the media." Thus the disproportionate publicity that arosefrom studies such as ASCOT and ASTEROID—targeted directlyat the consumer via the news media—should not occur whenother trials are reported.^{3 4}

The particularly dubious habit of reporting trials that achievesignificance only for their secondary end points (ASCOT, PROACTIVE)with the same vigour and publicity as if the primary end pointhad been achieved should now also be relegated to history.³⁵ Details . . . [Full text of this article]

Rubin Minhas, general practitioner

Sunlight Medical Centre, Gillingham, Kent ME7 1LX rminhas@nhs.net

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