Bloomberg News (1/13, Blum) reports, “Drug regulators haven’t done enough to force disclosure of financial conflicts of interest among the researchers who conduct clinical trials of medications and medical devices, according to a US government investigation.” The report notes that “companies don’t have to report conflicts if they try to get the information from researchers and certify that they acted with ‘due diligence’ to obtain it, according to the report.” The AP (1/12, Alonso-Zaldivar) also covered the story.
NYTimes: Conflict of interest should be made public. The New York Times (1/13, A24) editorializes, “Despite rising concern that conflicts of interest may bias the outcome of clinical trials, the Food and Drug Administration has distressingly limited interest in rooting out the problem.” The Times calls for legislation from Congress that would require “all drug and device makers to report their financial arrangements with doctors in a public databank.”
From the American Association for Justice news release.
