Truly independent research?

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ comment articles:

From

Limit by

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

Jeanne Lenzer, medical investigative journalist

¹New York

jeanne.lenzer{at}gmail.com

Research contracted to commercial or academic organisations might sound less biased than that done by industry. But as Jeanne Lenzer reports, influence is hard to avoid

Drug and medical device companies are increasingly outsourcing clinical trials to commercial and academic contract research organisations (CROs). As well as cutting costs, this could potentially put desperately needed distance between sponsor and research product. If achieved, such distancing couldn’t come at a better time: a Harris Interactive poll shows that of the top 11 industry sectors, only tobacco companies had higher negative public opinion ratings than drug companies (76% and 52% respectively).1

Although the literature about the biasing effects of industry sponsorship on medical research is rapidly expanding, little is known about whether studies conducted by CROs are subject to similar biases. This raises the question whether research outsourced to CROs is genuinely independent or subject to influence from corporate sponsors.

Contracted research

CROs contract with industry or public agencies to perform research activities such as recruiting participants, data collection, study design and analysis, and ghost writing. They reduce costs through economies of scale and by outsourcing to poorer nations.2 3 4 Kevin Schulman, associate director of the academic CRO Duke Clinical Research Institute, says that research conducted by CROs is independent, partly because they are not beholden to any one client. Only by providing high quality research, can they survive in the marketplace and retain credibility. Dr Schulman says his organisation’s strategy “is to have a mix of private and public sources of funding, and it’s more important for us to maintain the integrity of the university than our relationship with any individual sponsor.”

However, CROs face a fundamental conflict of interest—if they do not please their commercial clients, they may be less likely to get more work from them. Instances of …