Researchers deny any attempt to mislead the public over JAMA article on arthritis drug

Researchers at the centre of a row over data presented to JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, which showed the results of only the first six months of a trial of a new arthritis drug have defended their actions, following a controversial article in the Washington Post earlier this week (5 August).

The newspaper article accuses researchers of intentionally giving a prominent gastroenterologist incomplete data on the safety of a popular arthritis drug so that he might write a more favourable editorial about their study.

The editorial, published in the 13 September issue of JAMA (2000;284:1297-9) was cowritten by Dr Michael Wolfe, a gastroenterologist …