As the days grow shorter in this northern outpost of Europe, we can dream about sunshine, real and metaphorical. Barack Obama’s Sunshine Act comes into force in 2013, requiring drug companies to declare all payments and hospitality they give to doctors. As Andrew Jack explains, the aggressive marketing of drugs in the United States is now being met with an equally aggressive response from government, fuelled by exposés, law suits, and public pressure (doi:10.1136/bmj.d6459).

Jennifer Neuman and colleagues give the bandwagon another shove (doi:10.1136/bmj.d5621). Their review of clinical guidelines in the US and Canada finds that half the panel members had conflicts …