In one of his latest blogs, Richard Smith reminds us that high-faluting does not come cheap, and 32% of papers published by the NEJM relate to studies paid for by drug companies, who then pay the journal up to $1M for reprints. It is this sort of thing that led Marcia Angell to her depressing conclusion that "it is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine."
Dr Richard Lehman MD, Journal Watch, Centre For Evidence Based Medicine
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?start=4140&end=4160&view=yes&id=5512#newspost
New Survey Shows Most U.S. Doctors Take Pharma Money And Gifts
About 84 percent of doctors in a nationwide survey reported having some type of relationship with the pharmaceutical and medical device industry in 2009, according to a study published in the latest Archives of Internal Medicine. According to our Dollars for Docs database, about 17,700 providers have accepted such payments since 2009 from seven major pharmaceutical companies. Last week we also reported that since 2009, 43 doctors earned more than $200,000 in compensation for their work with these companies.
Marian Wang, Pro Publica
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?start=4140&end=4160&view=yes&id=5519#newspost
