Pharma 101 - Pharmaceutical Fraud

Industry Drug Studies Can Mislead

Article Says Industry Drug Studies Can Mislead, With Results Often Favoring Test Company’s Product

An article in The Wall Street Journal Europe discusses how trials conducted by drug companies and those conducted by the government and other public entities may produce varied results, prompting some to ask whether the research establishment needs to be reoriented toward publicly funded studies.

For example, an analysis published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that in every publicly available trial funded by the pharmaceutical industry pitting five new antipsychotic drugs against one another, nine in 10 showed that the best drug was the one made by the company funding the study. The authors point out that the discrepancies may result from biases in design and interpretation.

Experts say the problem is exacerbated in areas of medicine where the goal of trials is not to demonstrate cures but to measure symptomatic relief, which allows more latitude in how the results are interpreted and marketed. (The Wall Street Journal Europe)

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