BMJ  2003;326 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7400.0

Research sponsored by drug companies is biased

Outcomes in research that is sponsored by a pharmaceutical company tend to favour the company's product. Lexchin and colleagues (p 1167) reviewed 30 studies that compared research sponsored by the drug industry and research that was funded in other ways. The quality of the methods was at least as good in research sponsored by industry as in research with other sources of funding, but industry sponsored studies were four times as likely to produce favourable outcomes. This might be due, the authors say, to an inappropriate comparator or to publication bias.

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