Drug Companies Influence Medical Research

May 26, 2005

(The Associated Press) -- Many U.S. medical schools are willing to give companies that sponsor studies of new drugs and treatments considerable control over the results, according to survey results that some doctors found troubling.

Half of the schools said they would let pharmaceutical companies and makers of medical devices draft articles that appear in medical journals, and a quarter would allow them to supply the actual results. But academics draw the line at gag orders that keep researchers from publishing negative findings.

"This is totally beyond reasonable practice. What you're seeing here is a willingness by some institutions to give more leeway than they should," said Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a Yale University cardiologist and epidemiologist who was not involved in the survey.