ABSTRACT

Pharmaceutical companies fund the bulk of clinical research and this funding can introduce biases into the research through methods such as influencing the choice of standards of comparison, only publishing positive trials, reinterpreting data submitted to regulatory agencies, ghostwriting, and the use of “seeding” trials. There is no evidence that any of the measures introduced so far have stopped this bias and it’s not clear that they have even slowed down the process. What is needed is a paradigm change in the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and the conduct and reporting of clinical trials.

SPEAKER PROFILE

Dr. Lexchin is an emergency physician at The University Health Network and a Professor in the School of Health Policy and Management at York University and an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is co-author of Drugs of Choice: A Formulary for General Practice and author of Drug Therapy for Emergency Physicians.

Read more about Joel Lexchin.

VIDEO

This event is co-sponsored by Situating Science.