Biotech Values

[Biowatch]

Its oriented towards making oncologists & authors disclose financial ties, which would let people take their publications with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, many/most clinical trials are funded by for-profit companies, which can lead to a bias or the perception of bias.

In addition, the article says:

"The policy was crafted in response to reports about the growing practice of physicians consulting for Wall Street firms about confidential drug research, typically for $300 to $500 an hour, the authors wrote...

"The Times found 26 cases in which doctors leaked critical information about drug research to investment firms, despite signing confidentiality contracts with sponsors of drug trials."

If you have people signing confidentiality contracts then turning around and ignoring them for healthy fees, it is difficult to tell why this will matter.

On a separate topic, did people read the news that the FDA cancelled an upcoming meeting on herpes drugs because of a public outcry that the experts have too many ties to industry?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116916307757580847.html

>>
NIH Cancels Meeting on Herpes
Treatment Review Panel
Faces Criticism Over Ties
To Pharmaceutical Firms
By DAVID ARMSTRONG
January 19, 2007 1:29 a.m.; Page B2

The National Institutes of Health abruptly canceled a meeting scheduled for next month to draft guidelines for treating pregnant women and babies with herpes, after concerns were raised about conflicts of interest among a panel of experts tapped to review the issue.

The action came after a group of physicians, medical researchers and consumer and health groups urged the NIH in a letter yesterday to bar experts who are paid by drug makers from helping to draft government guidelines for how doctors treat diseases. Their action was touched off by the NIH's recent naming of five experts to present evidence at a conference next month aimed at drafting guidelines for treating pregnant women with herpes and babies born with the condition...

...The group wrote that the NIH agency "must be an honest broker in the development of medical evidence that will inform clinical practice" and that the NIH must ensure that all members of guideline-writing committees are "free from conflicts of interest."

As reported, several doctors who are paid consultants or speakers for GlaxoSmithKline PLC, maker of the best-selling herpes drug Valtrex, have traveled the country to promote testing and treatment of pregnant women with herpes as a way of preventing babies from picking up the infection. Newborn herpes, though rare, can be fatal. That treatment strategy, however, is controversial. Critics say that there isn't any evidence that treating pregnant women with herpes drugs will reduce cases of newborns born with the infection and that exposing as many as a million women a year to herpes medication could result in dangerous side effects for mother and baby...
<<