Portal to BMJ Special issue on Doctors and the Drug industry

Healthy Skepticism International News May 2003 Vol 21 No 5

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Editor's choice

Food, flattery, and friendship
Jane Smith [Full text] [PDF]  

 

This week in the BMJ

This week in the BMJ [Full text] [PDF]
Research sponsored by drug companies is biased [Full text]
Drug representatives may increase unnecessary GP prescribing [Full text]
Reporting of clinical trials of drugs shows bias [Full text]

 

Editorials

 
No more free lunches
Kamran Abbasi and Richard Smith
BMJ 2003; 326: 1155-1156. [Full text] [PDF]  
Information from drug companies and opinion leaders
Alessandro Liberati and Nicola Magrini
BMJ 2003; 326: 1156-1157. [Full text] [PDF]  

 

News

Drug company secretly briefed medical societies on HRT [Full text] [PDF]  
Schering uses German medical association to promote HRT [Full text] [PDF]  
Drug company sponsorship of education could be replaced at a fraction of its cost [Full text] [PDF]  
Drug companies advised to publish unfavourable trial results [Full text] [PDF]  

 

News roundup

World body reviews doctors' links to drug industry [Abridged text] [Abridged PDF] [Full text]  

 

Papers

 
Pharmaceutical industry sponsorship and research outcome and quality: systematic review
Joel Lexchin, Lisa A Bero, Benjamin Djulbegovic, and Otavio Clark
BMJ 2003; 326: 1167-1170. [Abstract] [Abridged text] [Abridged PDF] [Full text] [PDF]  
Evidence b(i)ased medicine—selective reporting from studies sponsored by pharmaceutical industry: review of studies in new drug applications
Hans Melander, Jane Ahlqvist-Rastad, Gertie Meijer, and Björn Beermann
BMJ 2003; 326: 1171-1173. [Abstract] [Abridged text] [Abridged PDF] [Full text] [PDF]  

 

Primary care
Characteristics of general practitioners who frequently see drug industry representatives: national cross sectional study
Chris Watkins, Laurence Moore, Ian Harvey, Patricia Carthy, Elizabeth Robinson, and Richard Brawn
BMJ 2003; 326: 1178-1179. [Full text] [PDF]  

 

Education and debate

 
Who pays for the pizza? Redefining the relationships between doctors and drug companies. 1: Entanglement
Ray Moynihan
BMJ 2003; 326: 1189-1192. [Full text] [PDF]  
Who pays for the pizza? Redefining the relationships between doctors and drug companies. 2: Disentanglement
Ray Moynihan
BMJ 2003; 326: 1193-1196. [Full text] [PDF]  
How to dance with porcupines: rules and guidelines on doctors' relations with drug companies
Elizabeth Wager
BMJ 2003; 326: 1196-1198. [Full text] [PDF]  
Medical journals and pharmaceutical companies: uneasy bedfellows
Richard Smith
BMJ 2003; 326: 1202-1205. [Full text] [PDF]  
Unhealthy spin
Bob Burton and Andy Rowell
BMJ 2003; 326: 1205-1207. [Full text] [PDF]  
Relationships between the pharmaceutical industry and patients' organisations
Andrew Herxheimer
BMJ 2003; 326: 1208-1210. [Full text] [PDF]  

 

Letters

 
Journals should select drug advertisements more carefully
James J Oliver and Simon R Maxwell
BMJ 2003; 326: 1211. [Full text]  
Charities and patient groups should declare interests
Jenny Hirst
BMJ 2003; 326: 1211. [Full text]  

 

reviews

 

Multimedia

 

Book: The Big Fix: How the Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers
Ray Moynihan [Full text] [PDF]  
Ad: Regulator spells out rules on disease awareness campaigns
Trevor Jackson [Full text]  
Website Of The Week: Doctors and the drug industry
Marcus Müllner [Full text]  

 

Personal views

In praise of the "devil"
Silvia Bonaccorso and Richard Smith [Full text]  

 

How not to do medical research
Philip Belcher [Full text]