Ben Goldacre has outdone himself – I’d be tempted to call this column his best to date.
It’s too easy to snipe at homeopaths or purveyors of crystal healing: science has its own issues, and really ought to put its own house in order over some things. Like someone once said, when there’s a plank in your eye, it’s hard to see other people’s faults clearly. Or something.
Anyway, Ben’s column is about an anomaly in science publishing, and one that urgently needs attention. He highlights the fact that research studies funded by the pharmaceutical industry are “massively more likely to get into the bigger, more respected journals.”
There is, Ben points out, no explanation for this other than pharmaceutical companies having undue influence over the most prestigious journals.
Journals are businesses, run by huge international corporations, and they rely on advertising revenue from industry, but also on the phenomenal profits generated by selling glossy “reprints” of studies, and nicely presented translations, which drug reps around the world can then use.
There is a possible solution:
In an ideal world, all drugs research would be commercially separate from from manufacturing and retail, and all journals would be open and free. But until then, since academics are obliged to declare all significant drug company funding on all academic articles, it might not be too much to ask that once a year, since their decisions are so hugely influential, all editors and publishers should post all their sources of income, and all the money related to the running of their journal. Because at the moment, the funny thing is, we just don’t know how they work.
It's a very good call. And if this leaves you thinking that Big Pharma are the root of all evil, please read this Guardian story about GlaxoSmithkline rewriting the Big Pharma Book of Evil. They are changing the way they work in order to provide medicines for the world’s poor, and are going to start sharing information that might help speed up drug development. Read it and weep. I have rarely had the cockles of my heart so warmed.
Subscribe