Crackdown on studies

Better Nutrition, Dec, 2004

Greater openness is needed to stop drug firms from distorting the truth by selectively releasing--and therefore controlling--the publication of drug study results, say leading medical journal editors. And they intend to do something about it.

In a joint editorial, editors of prominent medical journals told researchers and pharmaceutical firms to register their trials in public databases before starting them. That means that later on, unflattering results cannot be buried.

Drug firms are known to pursue several studies and then present for peer-reviewed publication only those that produce favorable results.

These editors mean it. All 11 journals--including The Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, Medline and the British Medical Journal--have agreed not to publish studies that are not registered before they begin.