E-drug: Re: No Free Lunch (cont'd)
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In response to Tanya Boyce's promotion of her Centre, I have no reason to
suspect that the sponsorship of SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals causes
any actual conflict of interest. But I would submit that the very fact
that Mrs. Boyce must spend almost half of her message defending that
sponsorship suggests that it may not be that easy to disclaim such
conflict.
It is easy to say that they have no influence over the activities of the
Centre. I'm not sure how that can be ensured. Such influence can be very
subtle--and indeed unintended. Inevitably in such activities, editorial
decisions are made, sometimes at a lower level, which may have the effect
of telling the good news, or avoiding the bad news, regarding one of the
sponsor's products. Such decisions are not 'blind' and therefore are
unlikely to be totally unbiased. In fact, in just leaning over backwards
to be 'fair', it is possible to be 'unfair' to the sponsor. And even if
they are scrupulously fair, how can the users be really sure?
I have to say that I feel that by far the best approach is avoid
sponsorship which could give the impression of potential conflict of
interest. I am by no means convinced that alternative funding is out of
the question; after all, everyone who accesses the site is a consumer.
The fact (as this correspondence has shown) is that the profession has
appeared to concerned outsiders to do a very poor job of protecting itself
from conflict of interest, and even in accepting that there is potential
for conflict of interest. Unfortunately this has rubbed off on all. The
only solution for those who wish to appear 'clean' is to be 'spotless'.
Chris
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Chris W. Green (chrisg@rad.net.id)
Jakarta, Indonesia
Tel: +62-21 846-3029 Fax: +62-21 846-1247
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