New Harvard study on drug co. involvement in clinical studies

From today's Boston Globe: Hospitals split over role drug firms play: Involvement in tests raises concerns over integrity of studies.

The survey, conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health with the University of Massachusetts Center for Survey Research, found that 41 percent of 107 academic institutions questioned accept research contracts with drug companies that prohibit physicians and scientists from independently disclosing trial results.

Fifty percent of the hospitals said they would permit drug companies to write manuscripts detailing trial results for publication in medical journals, and 24 percent said they would allow them to insert their own statistical analyses into manuscripts.

''It raises issues about the integrity of studies that are published in medical journals," said Dr. Robert Steinbrook, the author of an accompanying perspective article and a national correspondent for the New England Journal of Medicine. He is also an adjunct professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School.

Just thought you might like to know.