E-drug: Pharmaceutical industry sponsorship
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BMJ 326:1167-1170 (31 May 2003)
Pharmaceutical industry sponsorship and research outcome and
quality: systematic review
Joel Lexchin, Lisa A Bero, Benjamin Djulbegovic, Otavio Clark,
Correspondence to: J Lexchin joel.lexchin@utoronto.ca
Objective: To investigate whether funding of drug studies by the
pharmaceutical industry is associated with outcomes that are
favourable to the funder and whether the methods of trials funded
by pharmaceutical companies differ from the methods in trials with
other sources of support.
Methods: Medline (January 1966 to December 2002) and Embase
(January 1980 to December 2002) searches were supplemented
with material identified in the references and in the authors'
personal files. Data were independently abstracted by three of the
authors and disagreements were resolved by consensus.
Results: 30 studies were included. Research funded by drug
companies was less likely to be published than research funded by
other sources. Studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies
were more likely to have outcomes favouring the sponsor than
were studies with other sponsors (odds ratio 4.05; 95% confidence
interval 2.98 to 5.51; 18 comparisons). None of the 13 studies that
analysed methods reported that studies funded by industry was of
poorer quality.
Conclusion: Systematic bias favours products which are made by
the company funding the research. Explanations include the
selection of an inappropriate comparator to the product being
investigated and publication bias.
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