Center For Science In The Public Interest-Report Faults Scientific Journals on Financial Disclosure

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http://www.cspinet.org/new/200407123.html

 

Report Faults Scientific Journals on Financial

Disclosure

 

CSPI Says Authors Fail to Disclose Financial Conflicts

of Interest; Journals Fail to Enforce Disclosure

Policies

 

Several leading medical and science journals fail to

enforce their own policies for disclosing financial

conflicts of interest among contributing authors,

according to a study released today by the nonprofit

Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The

study examined 163 articles in the New England Journal

of Medicine (NEJM), the Journal of the American

Medical Association (JAMA), Environmental Health

Perspectives (EHP), and Toxicology and Applied

Pharmacology (TAP). It identified at least 13 articles

where authors did not disclose relevant conflicts of

interest that should have been disclosed according to

the journals’ policies. CSPI found another 11 articles

where there were undisclosed conflicts of interest

that might not have directly related to the subject at

hand, but should have been disclosed nevertheless.

 

Some of the unpublished conflicts of interest include:

 

* a University of Arkansas College of Medicine

professor, Dr. John Shaughnessy, published a NEJM

article outlining the potential efficacy of a

treatment for multiple myeloma, but did not disclose

that he intended to apply for a patent on the

underlying technology. He also failed to disclose that

he is a paid consultant for drug companies developing

vaccines for the condition.

 

* a Procter & Gamble scientist, William Owens, was

only identified in EHP as an official of the

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

in an article that validated a toxicity test that

would likely be used on various P & G products. There

was no disclosure of Owens’ employment with Procter &

Gamble in this article, even though it was known to

EHP editors.

 

* two scientists at the U.S. Armed Forces

Institute of Pathology, Frank D. Kolodgie and Renu

Virmani, published an article in NEJM about the

formation of plaque in coronary arteries, but did not

disclose their consulting relationships with over 20

companies in the heart disease treatment field,

including Medtronic, Guidant, Boston Scientific, and

Novartis.

 

* a National Institutes of Health senior scientist

published a study in JAMA on predictors of kidney

disease, but did not disclose his consulting

relationships with Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb,

GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer, all of which sell

products whose marketing could benefit from the

insights gleaned from that study.

 

“Published research that fails to disclose authors’

ties to drug companies threatens the credibility of

scientific journals and rightly undermines public

confidence in studies about the safety or efficacy of

various drugs or chemicals,” said Merrill Goozner,

director of the Integrity in Science Project at CSPI

and the author of the study.

 

Nondisclosure of financial conflicts of interest was a

problem at all four journals, but JAMA had the highest

rate of nondisclosure of conflicts at 11.3 percent

(six out of 53 articles). The undisclosed conflicts in

JAMA ranged from consulting fees from companies

immediately involved in the subject of the study to

authors holding patents on technologies that may one

day prove valuable because of information contained in

the study. EHP had a nondisclosure rate of 8.6 percent

(three of 35 articles), TAP had a nondisclosure rate

of 6.1 percent (two of 33 articles), and NEJM had the

lowest rate of nondisclosure at 4.8 percent (two of 42

studies examined). CSPI typically researched only the

first and last of the authors cited for each article,

and only when no disclosure statement was published

for either author, so there are likely to be

undisclosed conflicts among the other authors not

researched.

 

CSPI recommends that journal editors require authors

to disclose any financial arrangements they have had

with private firms within the past three years,

regardless of whether those arrangements relate to the

subject of the article, and that the conflicts be

published if they are in any way related to the

article’s subject. CSPI also says that authors should

be required to disclose any patent applications, or

intentions to apply for any patents. To encourage

authors to comply with journals’ policies, CSPI also

recommends that editors adopt strong sanctions for

failing to disclose conflicts of interest, such as a

three-year ban on publication imposed on authors who

fail to make complete disclosures.

 

“Some of the blame for the failure to disclose these

conflicts rests with the individual scientists, who

clearly feel comfortable withholding fairly glaring

conflicts,” Goozner said. “But much of the blame must

rest with the journal editors themselves, who, for the

most part, have created disclosure policies that too

narrowly define what conflicts are relevant.”