Unethical drug and vaccine ads

Journals have devolved into information laundering operations for the pharmaceutical industry Pharmaceutical company advertising in The Lancet (11)61019-2/fulltext (Illustration: Margaret Shear, Public Library of Science) Editor, The Lancet, Richard Horton “Journals have devolved into information laundering operations for the pharmaceutical industry.” (Published in ‘The dawn of McScience’) Former New England Journal of Medicine Editor, Marcia Angell Describing information from the pharmaceutical industry as coming, “mixed with hyperbole, bias and misinformation, and there is often no way to tell which is which.” (Published in ‘The truth about the drug companies: how they deceive us and what to do about it.’) Medical Journals Are an Extension of the Marketing Arm of Pharmaceutical Companies Journals, “primarily a marketing machine” and co-opting “every institution that might stand in its way” Some studies found that journal advertisements were more strongly associated with prescribing than the scientific articles in the same journals, others found advertising associated with less rational prescribing, and greater prescribing costs. However, none found associations between exposure to journal advertisements and improved quality of prescribing, reduced cost, or reduced prescribing overall. “the findings support the case for reforms to reduce negative influence to prescribing from pharmaceutical promotion.” Information from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity, and cost of physicians’ prescribing: a systematic review (PLoS Medicine) Background: Pharmaceutical industry claims that promotion provides scientific and educational information to physicians. To examine the relationship between exposure to information from pharmaceutical companies to prescribing. Outcome measures: Quality, quantity, and cost. Exposures included Pharmaceutical sales representative visits Journal advertisements Attendance at pharmaceutical sponsored meetings Mailed information Prescribing software Participation in sponsored clinical trials Wide literature search, 58 included studies with 87 analyses. Five found associations between exposure to pharmaceutical company information and lower quality prescribing Five included studies found evidence for association with higher costs 38 studies, associations between exposure and higher frequency of prescribing Conclusions Studies of exposure to information provided directly by pharmaceutical companies have found associations with higher prescribing frequency, higher costs, or lower prescribing quality We did not find evidence of net improvements in prescribing We recommend that practitioners follow the precautionary principle, and thus avoid exposure to information from pharmaceutical companies. John Paul II “overriding financial interests“ operate in biomedical and pharmaceutical research. These forces prompted, “decisions and products which are contrary to truly human values and to the demands of justice.“ “the pre-eminence of the profit motive in conducting scientific research ultimately means that science is deprived of its epistemological character, according to which its primary goal is discovery of the truth. The risk is that when research takes a utilitarian turn, its speculative dimension, which is the inner dynamic of man’s intellectual journey, will be diminished or stifled.“