Drug Company financed test may not reveal truth
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There are no guarantees that studies paid for by drug compnaies are honest, accurate, or will even see the light of day:
•Researchers rarely were allowed a say in the design of the clinical trials, with only 10 percent of contracts covering how data is collected and monitored and only 5 percent covering how data is analyzed and interpreted.
•Less than 1 percent of contracts guaranteed that results would be published and that an independent committee would have control over that. But 40 percent of contracts addressed editorial control of manuscripts.
•Only 1 percent of contracts required an independent board to monitor patient safety. Such boards can stop a study early if the treatment is found to be harming participants.
This underlines the dangers of getting our health information from companies whose financial health depends on that information. Without oversight, without guarantees that the trials are going to be conducted properly, we have no guarantee that the information we see is accurate, or that we will get all the information to begin with.
At the very least, the FDA should insist on standards that correct the problems found in this report, and refuse to accept studies that do not follow them.
