Reluctant placebo supplies undermining independent trials
The reluctance of some pharmaceutical companies to supply placebos for independent clinical trials is undermining studies not dictated by commercial objectives, two Danish researchers claim.
We believe that this could be a major way for the pharmaceutical industry to control scientific information about their drugs, contend Mikkel Christensen and Filip Knop from the University of Copenhagen in a letter to the 7 January issue of The Lancet.
Christensen and Knop cite an example known by us in which an unidentified drug company was approached by researchers for placebo medication, in the form of an injection pen for diabetics, to support an independently financed trial of a marketed product.
The company concerned asked for a full study protocol, which was scrutinised by an opaque system of evaluation committees, Christensen and Knop write. After more than six months, they say, the company finally agreed to supply the placebo devices on condition that the protocol was changed in line with its suggestions.
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