Two articles in the British Medical Journal this month discuss the problem of widespread conflicts of interest in medicine and psychiatry, and provide updates on efforts in the U.S. and the UK to increase transparency, such as legally required disclosures and pre-registering clinical trials. “Problems identified, writes BMJ legal correspondent Clare Dyer, have included “doctors failing to disclose substantial payments from drug companies as required by their institutions or by medical journals; settlements by companies to avoid prosecution for making illegal payments to doctors; and professional societies drafting clinical practice guidelines without disclosing industry funding or the drafters’ conflicts of interest.”
In “Seeing the Strings,” Rebecca Coombs notes that we now know pharmaceutical companies gave over $1 billion to US doctors in 2012.
Seeing the strings (Coombs, Rebecca. British Medical Journal. July 2014. BMJ 2014;349:g4657)
Who is paying your doctor? (Dyer, Clare. British Medical Journal. July 2014. BMJ 2014;349:g4601)