Medical Journal May Have Flouted Own Ethics 8 Times

L.A. Times: Drug reviews by New England Journal did not disclose authors’ ties to firms. Editor concedes lapses.

Thursday, October 21 – The Los Angeles Times reported today that the renowned New England Journal of Medicine – the world’s top-ranked medical journal and a leading voice in biomedical ethics – has apparently violated its own ethics policy numerous times in the last three years, publishing articles by researchers with drug company ties and not disclosing the potential conflicts of interest.
This report coming just days after other claims have been made of financial links to drug manufacturers.
In an analysis of 36 “Drug Therapy” review articles since 1997, The Times has identified eight articles by researchers with undisclosed financial links to drug companies that marketed treatments evaluated in the articles.
The interim editor in chief, Dr. Marcia Angell, said in an interview Wednesday that the journal’s practices were at odds with its guidelines on financial conflicts of interest. “We’re going to try to do the right thing and bring our practice into conformity with our policy.
“There was a problem with the [‘Drug Therapy’] series. There was a misinterpretation of exactly what our policy was.” She said the journal had not yet had time to check all the articles identified by The Times.

Source: L.A. Times, click here for complete article