The Mercury News of San Jose is the latest to look at issues of bias in drug studies - bias introduced by researchers' financial ties to industry.
The News writes: "Earlier this year, an herbal supplement called FertilityBlend got a glowing endorsement from a prominent Stanford researcher, an author of two small studies that showed it increased pregnancy rates in infertile women.
``I think my opinion of herbal supplementation has changed. I was a skeptic,'' says Dr. Mary Lake Polan, chairwoman of Stanford's department of obstetrics and gynecology, in a video on the Web site of the product's manufacturer. But after one-third of the women taking the pills in the study got pregnant, she became a believer, she says.
What many consumers may not realize is that Polan also has a financial interest in the Mountain View company that makes the product -- and that such relationships between academic scientists and industry are increasingly common."
The article continues: "Critics believe the growing number of monetary relationships between scientists and companies that make drugs, supplements and medical devices could be tainting research and compromising patient care, and some are pushing for tighter regulations on such financial ties."
Posted by schwitz at August 22, 2005 10:54 AM | TrackBack