Should the drug industry work with key opinion leaders? No

doi:10.1136/bmj.39541.731493.59

BMJ 2008;336:1405 (21 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39541.731493.59

Head to Head

Should the drug industry work with key opinion leaders? No

Giovanni A Fava, professor of clinical psychology

¹ University of Bologna, Italy

giovanniandrea.fava@unibo.it

Feature, doi: 10.1136/bmj.39575.675787.651

Industry commonly works with experts to put across its message.Charlie Buckwell (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39541.702870.59) believesthat such interaction is essential for medical advancement,but Giovanni Fava argues that it risks scientific integrity

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

The proliferating connections between doctors and the drug industryhave brought the credibility of clinical medicine to an unprecedentedcrisis. Corporate actions that have placed profit over publichealth have become regular news. High profile examples includethe misrepresentation of research on rofecoxib and on the useof selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in children. Recently,two respected scientists who work for a drug company wrote thatthe problem of conflict of interest "could well erode the credibilityof the entire enterprise of academic medicine, if not properlyand promptly addressed."¹ ²

Industry objectives

The game is clear: to get as close as possible to universalprescribing of a drug by manipulating evidence and withholdingdata. A recent paper illustrates how selective publication oftrials of antidepressants exaggerated their efficacy.³ Thirtyseven of the 38 studies that had positive outcomes were publishedin peer reviewed journals compared with only three of the 36studies . . . [Full text of this article]