The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports on another questionable editorial decision by the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The WSJ reports: "The New England Journal of Medicine last month published studies warning that aggressive efforts to treat anemia in kidney-disease patients with the drug erythropoietin, or EPO, as recommended by the National Kidney Foundation, appear to increase the risk of heart failure and the need for dialysis. But the medical journal spiked an opinion piece commissioned from one of its senior writers that was critical of the foundation's reliance on multimillion-dollar donations from the companies that make such drugs.
The journal did run a less-critical editorial on the studies co-authored by Julie Ingelfinger, a nephrologist and deputy editor at the journal who is the immediate past president of the Massachusetts-based chapter of the National Kidney Foundation and a member of the state group's medical advisory board. The editorial that ran made no mention of the foundation's industry funding, and Dr. Ingelfinger's relationship with the foundation wasn't disclosed.
Meanwhile, the author of the spiked editorial, Dr. Robert Steinbrook, submitted it to one of the journal's chief rivals, the British medical journal Lancet, which ran a version on its Web site on Nov. 17, a day after the New England Journal published its reports on the matter.
Dr. Steinbrook's article said that the foundation's guidelines have been questioned because of the group's close relationship with the drug industry. The article also noted that in fiscal 2005, the foundation received more than half of its support from "corporate and organizational partners," and, in the calendar-year 2005, it received $4.1 million from Amgen Inc. and $3.6 million from Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Biotech, the current marketers of EPO in the U.S. Of the 18 members of the group that formulated the guidelines, two-thirds disclosed financial associations with Amgen or other EPO manufacturers or marketers, he noted.
Dr. Steinbrook commented that "given the billions of dollars at stake for the drug and dialysis, such guidance is likely to receive the broadest acceptance if developed without industry support and by experts without relevant financial associations."
The editorial that was published in the New England Journal also expressed doubt about the kidney foundation guidelines -- saying "these recommendations are not based on persuasive randomized, controlled trials" -- but made no mention of the industry funding of the kidney foundation."
Posted by schwitz at December 27, 2006 08:57 AM | TrackBackHow about a comment on the sale of the Strib and what that says about the health of the newspaper business, Minnesota, etc...
Posted by: mpls1934 at December 27, 2006 12:58 PMI thought about posting something about the Strib sale today but didn't. Since you asked, though, I'll tell you that I'm shocked. It's not a good sign to me that an investment company interested in "media, health care and energy" would make its first entry in the newspaper business by buying the Strib at a bargain basement price. It says volumes about the ill health of the newspaper business, and I fear that Minnesotans will not be well served.
Posted by: Gary Schwitzer at December 27, 2006 02:04 PM