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Date Posted:	July 28, 2006
More Despicable Corruption in Published Studies
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The Journal of the American Medical Association is making its conflict of interest policy more stringent as a result of the failure of many scientists to disclose financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. The announcement followed the news that the authors of a recent article about adverse health effects on pregnant women who stop taking a prescribed antidepressant had not disclosed drug company ties. A letter to the editor revealed that most of the article's 13 authors had been paid by companies that manufacture antidepressants, and that the lead author had received funding from at least eight such companies. This is not the first time financial conflict of interest has been an issue for articles in JAMA. JAMA now dictates that authors must disclose any financial or other relationship with any company, even if a specific medication is not mentioned in the article. Recent studies have found that doctors who participated in drug-company-sponsored drug trials were more likely to prescribe that company's drugs, and that clinical trials funded by drug companies were more likely to report positive findings. Journal of the American Medical Association July 12, 2006; 296(2): 220-221 Forbes.com July 11, 2006