Medical Journal: Drug Studies Hide Key Data

By Sataline, S

“Several major pharmaceutical companies are withholding important details about clinical drug trials, despite urging from federal regulators and medical journal editors to be more forthcoming, according to a study published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine. The study says that companies including Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc., and GlaxoSmithKline PLC are obscuring basic information- including the names of some drugs under study-in reporting on trials of drugs to treat serious or life-threatening diseases. Some of the drugs involved are already on the market, and the companies are seeking approval for new uses of them. In an editorial, the journal calls for investigators and patients to avoid participating in drug trials where companies take a secretive approach.”

Sataline S. Wall Street Journal. December 29, 2005

Noted by JFL, MD

Copyright American Academy of Pediatrics Mar 2006