Response to clarifying the costs of conflicts of interest

Abstract

Linked Comment: Citrome . 2015; 69: 267–8. Linked Comment: Clark . 2015; 69: 270–2. Linked Comment: Mayes . 2015; 69: 384–5.

Conflicts of interest: a matter of transparency

“…Recent correspondence informs us that COI remains a 'hot button' issue (5,6). As Mayes et al point out, 'Over the past two decades, a deep suspicion has emerged in the healthcare community about the influence of private industry-particularly the pharmaceutical industry-over doctors, researchers, regulators and policymakers' (5).…”

Unreliable Threats: Conflicts of Interest Disclosure and the Safeguarding of Biomedical Knowledge

“…Much in fact turned on the discloser's perceived motives. Focus on the presumed motives of authors, however, detracts from an unbiased evaluation of the content of a publication, and is the epitome of an ad hominem approach to science (Acquavella 1997;Rothman 1993;Stossel 2007;Stossel, Barton, and Stell 2015). Avoiding this focus need not gainsay the profound influence authors' interests can have on the content of their publications; it is only to recognize that such content can be evaluated independently of those interests.…”

“…Partly this has been due to the systematic distortion of the evidence base and other abuses committed by the pharmaceutical industry (Angell 2005;Every-Palmer and Howick 2014). Recently, the rhetoric surrounding COI reporting has increased to a boiling point, marked by heavy debate and diametrically opposed positions over what COIs are, what effects they are likely to engender, and how they should be managed-if at all (Acquavella and Ramlow 1997;Cappola and FitzGerald 2015;Elliot 2014;Fineberg 2017;Fontanarosa and Bauchner 2017;Johnson and Horn 2010;Lee [44.224.250.200] Project MUSE (2024-06-03 15:52 GMT) KENNEDY INSTITUTE OF ETHICS JOURNAL • MARCH 2022 [ 104 ] 2008; Loewenstein, Sah, and Cain 2012;Mayes, Lipworth, and Kerridge 2015;McKinney and Pierce 2017;Mintzes and Grundy 2018;Psaty 2009;Resnik and Elliot 2013;Rosenbaum 2015aRosenbaum , 2015bRosenbaum , 2015cRothman 1993;Steinbrook, Kassierer, and Angell 2015;Stossel 2008;Stossel, Barton, and Stell 2015;Tarone 2018;Wiersma et al 2018a, b). More and more journals require disclosure, and recommendations have been made that religious (Smith and Blazeby 2018), dietary (Ioannidis and Trepanowski 2018), and other non-financial disclosures be added to the list of financial disclosures (Wiersma et al 2018a, b).…”