Knowledge industry: a powerful mechanism.
The paper deals with the pharmaceutical industry's links to the knowledge industry, through powerful marketing strategies. With the aim of scientifically legitimizing its products, the pharmaceutical industry interferes with the production of medical knowledge. In the form of a mechanism for directing economic interests, it funds drug research, biases its results and stimulates the production and publication of scientific papers. This is a mechanism that threatens important ethical issues: it transforms the process of scientific legitimization into a marketing strategy, compromises the credibility of the process of constructing medical knowledge and encourages distortions of the criteria for evaluating the quality of scientific papers.
Miguelote
Vera Regina da Silva
VR
Departamento de Planejamento, Políticas e Administração em Saúde, Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. veramiguelote@terra.com.br
Camargo
Kenneth Rochel de
KR
D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics*; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000941:ethics*; D008297:Male; D040541:Marketing