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News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room
Friday, September 30, 2005
Industry $$Helps Studies Think Positively About Drugs
The argument was originally just common sense but is now empirical: drug company studies are far more likely to give high ratings to drugs than those conducted by government. The New Standard reports as follows:
A recent study found that when pharmaceutical companies fund reports about drug trials, the medicine in question is more often given a high rating than when the reports are funded by government or nonprofit sources.... In an analysis of reports about hypertension medication conducted from 1996 to 2002, University of Washington at Seattle medical resident Veronica Yank found that drug-company-sponsored studies reported a 93 percent approval rate. Government- and academic-funded studies reported a success rates hovering around 79 percent.
Another finding that validates common sense: "that fewer than half of industry-sponsored research papers reporting positive results contained data backing up the assertions."
Posted by Robert Shull
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