Members of drug advisory committees at the US Food and Drug Administration often have financial conflicts of interest and those conflicts affect voting patterns, says a study in JAMA (2006;295: 1921).

In 73% of the 221 meetings analysed, at least one advisory member or consultant had one or more conflicts. On an individual level, 28% of advisory members and voting consultants had conflicts. The researchers found that if panellists with conflicts had been excluded, voting margins for the index drug would have been less favourable. In none of the instances studied would exclusions have changed the majority vote for or against approval.

The study, by …