BMJ  2007;335 (14 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.39274.351389.3B

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Do adverts subvert? Are bacteria good for us?

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Do drug advertisements ("adverts" in Britspeak) belong in medical journals? In a head to head debate in this week's issue, Richard Smith, former BMJ editor and long-time critic of big pharma, says yes (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39259.472998.AD). He maintains, perhaps paradoxically, that advertising allows journals to be independent and thus better. Major journals have advertising from many manufacturers and thus no one company can exert undue pressure or influence. Smith's big concern is one that most readers don't even think about: the lucrative article reprints that journals sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, largely to the drug companies whose products are evaluated in clinical trials published in the very same journals. Conflict of interest? You betcha.

Gareth Williams, University of Bristol's medical dean, argues against journal advertising of pharmaceuticals (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39259.481134.AD). He wants drug ads at least vetted for inaccuracy and misleading claims, but he would prefer . . . [Full text of this article]

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