Yet More Research Scandals in the News
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Yahoo News 02/22/2006
Industry-Funded Research Disputes Grow
WASHINGTON - Dr. Aubrey Blumsohn was stunned: Research results were submitted to a scientific meeting under his name, yet the British bone specialist insists he not only hadn't written or reviewed the report, he wasn't sure it was accurate.
The incident turned into a public feud when Blumsohn charged that the U.S. drug company paying for the study rebuffed his attempts to analyze the data.
It's the latest in a string of controversies about pharmaceutical industry control of medical research, from hidden antidepressant risks to the undercounting of heart attacks in a critical study of the painkiller Vioxx.
Whoever pays for medical research -- not necessarily the scientists who do the work -- controls what doctors, and the public, learn about its outcome. Scientific journals, including one that published some of the reports Blumsohn now questions, are grappling anew with how to ensure that they print complete results.
"This is a major problem, for both researchers and scientific journals," said Dr. Joseph Lorenzo of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, which has convened a task force to consider whether extra steps are needed to protect against "hidden biases" in industry-funded research.
Full article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_he_me/research_conflicts