The cohabitation of academia and industry: What position do the medical journals take regarding opinion articles?
Should medical journals publish editorials and educational articles written by authors who have financial conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries on whose products (or their competitors) they discuss? In the last 18 months, a controversy was sparked between The New England Journal of Medicine and BMJ, who took 2 opposite positions: the former stated that the negative bias against authors with conflicts of interest with industry is excessive and therefore accept articles from any expert, ensuring that they have the minimum possible bias. BMJ, in contrast, prohibits the publication of these types of article by authors who have financial conflicts of interest with industry. This article discusses the approaches of the 2 journals (and those of others) and reflects on this type of conflict in the medical profession.
Investigación Clínica, Programa BUC (Biociencias UAM+CSIC), Campus de Excelencia Internacional, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, España. Electronic address: Rafael.dalre@fuam.uam.es.
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Servicio de Farmacología Clínica, Hospital Clínic, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Departamento de Fundamentos Clínicos, Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, España.
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Artículos de carácter educativo; Authors; Autores; Biotechnology industry; Conflictos de intereses financieros; Directores de revistas; Editoriales; Editorials; Educational articles; Financial conflicts of interest; Industria biotecnológica; Industria farmacéutica; Journal editors; Pharmaceutical industry