 
News of the Day ... in Perspective5/11/2005Journal articles can be misleading on drug safety, effectiveness Some major medical journals are tightening editorial scrutiny of articles that drug companies might use in marketing their products, in response to a study showing that 65% of findings on adverse effects were not completely reported. The BMJ will start demanding that authors submit the original study design so that peer reviewers can judge whether the goals were changed. One dispute concerns a study on the suitability of selling the “anticholesterol” drug Mevacor over the counter. Merck and Johnson & Johnson set up mock drugstores and solicited customers through advertising. An article summarizing the results in the November 2004 issue of the journal of the American Journal of Cardiology said that two-thirds of the customers who chose to try the drug met the conditions set out on the label, or came close. The authors said the results made a “compelling case” for the suitability of OTC sales. The FDA, however, highlighted a figure that did not appear in the article: only 10% fully met conditions on the label. “One solution to this is to publish the raw data,” said Dr. Kamram Abbasi, deputy editor of the BMJ (Wall St J 5/10/05). Additional information: NIH rules to require free public access to research results. News of the Day, Sept 8, 2004.
|