Evaluation of Conflict of Interest in Economic Analyses of New Drugs Used in Oncology

摘要: ContextRecent studies have found that when investigators financial relationships with pharmaceutical or product manufacturers, they are less likely to criticize the safety efficacy of these agents. The effects health economics research on company revenue make drug investigations potentially vulnerable to this bias.ObjectiveTo determine whether there is an association between pharmaceutical industry sponsorship and economic assessment oncology drugs.DesignMEDLINE HealthSTAR databases (1988-1998) were searched for original English-language research articles cost cost-effectiveness analyses of 6 drugs in 3 new categories (hematopoietic colony-stimulating factors, serotonin antagonist antiemetics, taxanes), yielding 44 eligible articles. Two independently abstracted each article based on specific criteria.Main Outcome MeasureRelationships funding source (1) qualitative assessment (favorable, neutral, unfavorable) (2) conclusions that overstated quantitative results.ResultsPharmaceutical company–sponsored than nonprofit-sponsored report unfavorable conclusions (1/20 [5%] vs 9/24 [38%]; P=.04), whereas overstatements of results not significantly different pharmaceutical company–sponsored (6/20 [30%]) nonprofit-sponsored (3/24 [13%]) studies (P=.26).ConclusionsAlthough we did identify bias individual studies, findings indicate analyses associated with reduced likelihood reporting results.