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Life in the FastLane » Australia » A Stand Against Big Pharma

A Stand Against Big Pharma

March 8, 2011 By Nickson â Leave a Comment





The editorial kicking off the Febuary 2011 edition of Emergency Medicine

Australia is written by Jelinek and Tony Brown and is titled, ‘A stand

against drug company advertising’. This posts highlights some of Jelinek and

Brown’s key messages.

Jelinek GA, Brown AF. A stand against drug company advertising. Emerg Med

Australas. 2011 Feb;23(1):4-6. PMID: 21284808. [fulltext]

The LITFL team applauds this stand against drug companies, which has seen ACEM,

ASEM and the journal’s Editorial Board uphold a motion to no longer accept

drug advertisements. Only a few medical journals, such as PLOS Medicine, have

taken such a stand thus far. Jelinek and Brown point out that emergency medicine

has a chance to take the lead, as, for reasons of industry profit, we are

targeted less than more lucrative specialties such as cardiology (who, not

incidentally, play a big role in writing many of the guidelines that affect our

patients).

Unfortunately big journals such as NEJM, The Lancet and the BMJ have not taken

such a stand. To do so would mean a big loss in income. Indeed, Jelinek and

Brown point out that these journals actively solicit drug advertising. This is

ongoing despite the warnings of many of the former and current editors of these

self same journals:

“Journals have evolved into information laundering operations for the

pharmaceutical industry.â€

— Horton, The Lancet

[medical journals are an] “extension of the marketing arm arm of

pharmaceutical companiesâ€

— , BMJ

[the pharmaceutical industry is] “Primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs

of dubious benefit…â€

— Marcia Angell, NEJM

The evidence is clear, the involvement of the drug industry is detrimental to

medicine. This is what the evidence tells us:

drug company sponsored research is 4 times more likely to be favourable to its

product than independent research

authors of drug company research are far more likely to recommend a company’s

drug than independent researchers

the apparent efficacy of a company’s products are inflated by the selective

reporting of results by drug companies

drug companies engage in ethically dubious practices such as pressuring

academics to withhold negative findings and promoting ghost authorship

drug company advertising works — otherwise they wouldn’t do it! Advertising

targeting the prescribing practices of doctors increases sales proportional to

the volume of advertising.

The EMA’s stand is bold step in the right direction. But will other medical

journals follow their lead? The deficiencies and biases that plague the

literature on which our practice is based means the need to eradicate the malign

influence of the pharmaceutical industry has never been greater.

I wonder if they’ll be taking on peer review next?

Useful links

Angell, M. The Truth About Drug Companies. How They Decieve Us and What to Do

About It. New York: Random House Trade, 2005. [Google Books]

Angell, M. Big Pharma, Bad Medicine. Boston Review, May/June 2010. [fulltext]

Angell, M. The Truth About Drug Companies. New York Review of Books, 2004.

[fulltext]

Angell, M. Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption. New York Review of

Books, 2009. [fulltext]

Angell, M. Your Dangerous Drugstore. New York Review of Books, 2006. [fulltext]

Jelinek GA, Neate SL. The influence of the pharmaceutical industry in medicine.

J. Law Med. 2009; 17: 216–23. PMID:19998591

Jelinek, GA. General Cautions about Drug Trials, from Overcoming Multiple

Sclerosis.

No Free Lunch

Marcia Angell speaking the truth about drug companies.

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