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Doctors' links with drug companies under fire

By Ben Hirschler

Last Updated: 2003-05-30 13:00:25 -0400 (Reuters Health)

LONDON (Reuters) - Doctors have an over-cosy relationship with pharmaceutical companies that can adversely influence prescribing and affect research, a leading medical publication said on Friday.

The British Medical Journal believes regular contacts between drug reps and doctors can lead to unnecessary use of medicines while industry sponsorship of research may result in biased results.

"Our central argument is that doctors, drug companies and most importantly patients would all benefit from greater distance between doctors and drug companies," said editor Richard Smith, who devoted this week's edition to the issue.

There is a growing debate about conflicts of interest in relations between physicians and the $400 billion-a-year global pharmaceutical industry.

Earlier this month, the World Medical Association, grouping of 80 national medical associations, discussed a draft paper setting out new rules governing doctors' dealings with companies.

"There is a feeling that it's all gone a bit far and it's time to try and throw it into reverse," Smith told Reuters.

The drug industry rejects suggestions it is trying to unduly influence doctors, arguing that open discussion between doctors and manufacturers is vital if patients are to get the best treatment.

"It is important ... that regular dialogue is maintained to ensure that patients, everywhere, benefit from the most appropriate treatment," said Trevor Jones, director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

The latest issue of the BMJ, however, cited several areas of concern.

One study of 1,000 doctors across England, for example, showed that those who saw drug industry representatives at least once a week were more likely to prescribe new drugs when an old one would do just as well.

Other research showed that clinical trials financed by drug firms were more likely to have outcomes favouring the sponsor than studies with other backers.

Smith said doctors were being flooded with clinical data from company-sponsored drug trials but there was a dearth of research comparing rival products.

Such head-to-head studies could be hard for firms to swallow but were invaluable for doctors -- like the discovery from a major U.S. investigation of blood pressure medicines last year that older and cheaper diuretic pills worked as well as and often better than newer and more costly drugs.

Copyright 2002 Reuters.