Clinical research: the influence of the pharmaceutical industry.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the investigation is to throw light on the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on clinical research in Norway. The files of the five regional medical research ethics committees, which contain the application forms and the protocols of all the research projects on humans, were used as source for the statistics. The projects were first classified and registered in two groups: pharmacology/pharmacotherapy and others. Then the pharmacology/pharmacotherapy group was divided into projects sponsored or initiated by the industry and others.


RESULTS
In the 3 years 1988-1990, the yearly average number of projects was 360. Sixty-two percent of the projects were pharmacology/pharmacotherapy; seventy-nine percent of these projects were conducted by the industry. The corresponding figures for the year 1997 were 747, 40% and 68%, respectively. We have not been able to find similar statistics from other countries.


CONCLUSIONS
Our conclusion is that research in pharmacology/pharmacotherapy should be more independent of industry.
Hole
O P
OP
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, National Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Winther
F O
FO
Straume
B
B
D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D009664:Norway; D010600:Pharmacology; D012106:Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*