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The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study this week claiming that esteemed doctors frequently put their name on the byline of studies published in medical journals - when the studies were actually written by pharmaceutical companies. JAMA's editor-in-chief Dr. Catherine DeAngelis explains what steps medical journals should take to prevent this practice.
Referring to a "trained monkey on the take" is absurd. Pharmaceutical support of physician speakers for what are considered “promotional” talks is a common practice which is highly regulated by the FDA, not the pharmaceutical industry (http://www.fda.gov/cder/ddmac/). [“Educational” speakers are overseen by the ACCME: http://www.accme.org/.] In an effort to provide practicing clinicians with information intended to help advance patient care, it is well-known throughout the medical profession that pharmaceutical manufacturers pay medical professionals to share their expert knowledge with their colleagues. Because of stringent FDA regulation over these “promotional” communications, speakers cannot “add or subtract” information, as slides sets are carefully developed, reviewed and approved to comply with FDA policy by teams of medical, legal and regulatory professionals. If speakers attempted to inaccurately alter these materials, both the speakers and manufacturers could be in jeopardy of federal prosecution. Stop blaming the pharmaceutical industry. This is a federal issue.
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