Pharmaceutical companies may be financing drug studies in order to influence their outcomes, say researchers writing in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International. The findings confirm the conclusions of two previous reviews published in 2003 which looked at the pharmaceutical industry's influence on research, the authors say.  

Researchers studied 57 publications obtained from a systematic Medline search from November 1, 2002 to December 16, 2009. Selected studies were evaluated by two of the authors. These 57 papers were supplemented by studies found in their references sections.

They say pharmaceutical companies exploit a wide variety of possibilities for manipulating study results.   Apart from financing the study, financial links to the authors, such as payments for lectures, may tend to make the results of the study more favorable for the company. Not only the results themselves, but also their interpretation, are significantly more often in accordance with the wishes of the sponsor.

In some publications, the authors detected evidence that sponsors from the pharmaceutical industry had influenced study protocols. For example, placebos were more frequently used in drug studies than was the case with independently financed studies.   Some favorable effects were linked to financial support from the pharmaceutical industry.

They note that 25% of researchers and two-thirds of academic institutions have industry ties, meaning it is quite normal, and that the methodological quality of studies with industrial support tended to be better than government-funded drug studies.

It may be a matter of nuance.  The researchers said 23 of 26 studies (out of 57 publications analyzed) seemed to show results favorable to the sponsor but in only 4 cases was it apparent.  So 4 obviously apparent cases versus 3 obviously not apparent cases.

Citation: Schott et al.,  'The Financing of Drug Trials by Pharmaceutical Companies and Its Consequences: Part 1. A Qualitative, Systematic Review of the Literature on Possible Influences on the Findings, Protocols, and Quality of Drug Trials',  Dtsch Arztebl Int, 2010, 107(16), 279-85 doi: 10.3238/arztebl.2010.0279