Research panels face ethics conflicts
Study: Many members contract with industry
A survey of hospital review boards that watchdog experiments on patients shows that one in three members takes money from companies that make drugs and medical devices that come under study.
What's more, many of those with conflicts rarely or never disclose their financial ties, according to the study led by Eric Campbell of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
The study of 100 university medical centers is said to be the first to look at financial conflicts of interest on hospitals' institutional review boards. The review boards are little-known committees responsible for protecting patients in research experiments.
The study's findings are alarming, said some patient advocates.
If the review board "is riddled with financial conflicts of interest, it's not going to be as protective as it should be," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group.
The study was published in this week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the study, 575 members of review boards at 100 universities were surveyed; they were promised anonymity.
About 36 percent -- or more than 200 respondents -- reported at least one form of industry financial ties in the previous year.
Roughly 15 percent -- or about 80 respondents -- said that in the previous year, they were asked to review at least one research study that was sponsored by a company with which they had a relationship or by a competitor of that company.
Federal regulations bar institutional review board members from voting in a review of a study in which they have a conflict of interest. "This [the study's results] reflect a significant lack of law enforcement," Wolfe said.
