Cochrane examines whether lead author of HPV review had undeclared conflicts of interest

The Cochrane Collaboration has asked its expert committee on financial links to consider whether the lead author of the review into the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Marc Arbyn of the Belgian Cancer Centre in Brussels, fully disclosed any conflicts of interest.

The review, which found the vaccines to be effective and safe, has been the subject of complaints that it failed to include all relevant trials or to make clear their possible sources of bias. Cochrane has rejected the criticism, saying that only five trials were omitted and that including them would have made no difference to the review’s conclusions.

In the declaration of interests Arbyn said that he had received travel grants from Sanofi-Pasteur-MSD and GlaxoSmithKline and that …