Tag Archives: transparency

ABC News: DSM-5 Criticized for Financial Conflicts of Interest—70% of task force members have ties to Pharma

Controversy continues to swell around the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, better known as DSM-5. A new study suggests the 900-page bible of mental health, scheduled for publication in May 2013, is ripe with financial conflicts of interest.

The manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association, details the diagnostic criteria and recommended treatments — many of which are pharmacological — for each and every psychiatric disorder. After the 1994 release of DSM-4, the APA instituted a policy requiring expert advisors to disclose drug industry ties. But the move toward transparency did little to cut down on conflicts, with nearly 70 percent of DSM-5 task force members reporting financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies — up from 57 percent for DSM-4.

Big pharma pays US doctors $150m in 2011

A report by the Financial Times has claimed a group of pharmaceutical companies has paid doctors in the US almost $150m so far during 2011.

Prepared in conjunction with the data provider, PharmaShine, the figures show the money was paid by pharmaceutical firms, including Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca (AZ) and Pfizer, for doctors’ travel and entertainment expenses as well as education and consultancy fees.

Grassley Wants Website Disclosing Conflicts of Interest—Letter Cites Harvard Psychiatrists Failure To Report Nearly $1 Million

Sen. Chuck Grassley warned the administration not to back off from a proposed rule that would create a website to disclose medical researchers’ conflicts of interest. “I am troubled that taxpayers cannot learn about the outside income of the researchers whom the taxpayers are funding, and this flies in the face of President Obama’s call for more transparency in the government. The public’s business should be public.

FDA Issues Draft Guidance For Investigator Conflicts

In another effort to shed light on untoward relationships, the FDA has just issued a draft guidance on financial conflicts of interest for clinical investigators and the drugmakers that enlist their assistance. The document is designed to revise a 10-year set of rules and address an issue that has grown increasingly contentious in recent years.

“Sunshine: Best Rx for good medicine” by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley

In the past few years, congressional investigations and state gift disclosure laws have raised eyebrows about these financial connections, especially where the amount that has been publicly reported is vastly less than what has actually been paid. For example, a congressional review I led from my position on the Senate Finance Committee revealed a troubling financial link between a drug maker and a child psychiatrist at Harvard, whose work led to a significant spike in diagnoses of pediatric bipolar disorders and prevalent use of antipsychotic medicines for children. Separately, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Wisconsin received more than $19 million from a medical device company, although he reported only receiving “more than $20,000” per year on his financial disclosure records to the university.