scholarly journals Ethical Issues (Conflict of Interest) between the Medical Profession and the Pharmaceutical Industry

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-192
Author(s):  
C. Messis
Keyword(s):  
Pharmaceutical Industry ◽  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Medical Profession

Pharmaceutical industry sponsorship of academic conferences: ethics of conflict of interest

2020 ◽  
pp. medethics-2020-106224
Author(s):  
Saroj Jayasinghe
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Pharmaceutical Industry ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Professional Judgment ◽  
Conflicts Of Interests ◽  
Core Issue

Sponsorship of medical conferences by the pharmaceutical industry has led to many ethical issues, especially in resource-poor developing countries. The core issue in these instances is to reduce or avoid conflicts of interests (COIs). COI is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgment or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by secondary interests. Disruption of social trust should also be considered. This deontological approach should be complemented by a consequentialist approach. Towards this, the concept of distal interests (DI) is introduced. DI lies beyond the immediately visible COIs and the consequences of immediate decisions. They are ‘distal’ in time or place: ‘DI in time’ means consequence of the decision in future scenarios, while ‘DI in space’ means those that impinge on other institutions or bodies. In judging the consequences, it is also necessary to consider the reality of the existing relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and organisers of conferences. In more developed countries, these relationships are governed by stricter regulations, adherence to codes of conduct by both parties and stronger institutional oversights. In contrast, developing countries such as Sri Lanka the regulatory environment is lax and the demarcation of interests between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession is considerably blurred. Therefore, establishing clear rules of engagement between the stakeholders should be considered as an attempt to clear the muddy waters. The paper proposes a set of guidelines to capture these approaches.

Legal ethics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Tur
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Applied Ethics ◽  
Legal Ethics ◽  
Role Morality ◽  
The Third ◽  
Integral Element ◽  
Principles And Standards ◽  
Set Up

Legal ethics can be considered from at least three related viewpoints. First, as ‘professional ethics’, it is a corpus of rules, principles and standards, often embodied in a written code and disseminated, applied and enforced by appropriate governing bodies as a guide to the professional conduct of lawyers. Legal professions set up specific institutions and officers to monitor and assist practitioners and to accumulate experience and expertise in applying detailed provisions in morally complex situations. For some commentators this is primarily regulation or administration and not ethics at all, but for others it is ethics in action or ‘applied ethics’. ‘Applied ethics’ is the second aspect of legal ethics, distinguished from ethics in general by the focus on ethical issues in the context of legal practice, including confidentiality, conflict of interest or acting for a morally disreputable client. Interesting though such questions may be in themselves, some writers do not acknowledge that they are truly questions of ethics, because the duties and privileges of specialist functional groups generally and lawyers in particular are not universalizable. For others, including some feminist ethicists, the ‘agent as such’ does not exist and we all encounter moral difficulties and problems, if we encounter them at all, only in the context of some specific relationship or role, for example in the role of a lawyer. Legal ethics thus requires an analysis of role morality. The third aspect of legal ethics is as an integral element in general philosophical and legal education.

The Case of Synthroid (A): Marketing a Drug Coming Off Patent

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Alice M. Tybout ◽  
Julie Hennessy ◽  
Natalie Fahey ◽  
Charlotte Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Pharmaceutical Industry ◽  
Patent Protection ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
The United States ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
List Type ◽  
Generic Competition ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
History Of ◽  
Competitive Products

The case tells the story of Synthroid from its development in 1958 as the first synthetic thyroxine molecule to its competition against generic equivalents in 2004. The case introduces students to the pharmaceutical industry, its practices, and some of the complexities of pricing and drug choice, with drug manufacturers, insurance companies, physicians, pharmacists, and patients all playing a role. It also provides a primer on hypothyroidism, its symptoms, and its treatment.Because Synthroid was developed and introduced before FDA regulations and drug standards of identity were fully established, it was difficult for competitors to get their drugs certified as identical to Synthroid. Through a series of efforts with physicians, especially endocrinologists, Synthroid's owners were able to maintain the perception for forty-six years that Synthroid was uniquely effective. In 2004, however, the FDA declared several competitive products to be bioequivalent to Synthroid, which posed a significant challenge to its owner, Abbott Laboratories. Students are challenged to consider options to maintain the drug's unit volume, revenue, and/or profit in these difficult circumstances.The case is written in two parts. The (A) case provides background on the history of the drug, the pharmaceutical industry and its marketing practices, and hypothyroidism and its treatment, and it concludes in 2004 as Abbott's marketers face the impending challenge of defending the Synthroid business against generic competition. The (B) case describes what Abbott actually did to maintain its share in the United States and outlines its strategy in India, a market without patent protection for pharmaceuticals.After analyzing the case students should be able to: Describe strategies that branded competitors can use to defend their business from lower-priced competition Understand the basics of pharmaceutical marketing and pricing, including the global challenge of defending branded drugs against generic equivalents Discuss ethical issues in the marketing of high-margin branded products that have lower-priced alternatives, especially in the healthcare industry

Ethics and scientific publication

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale J. Benos ◽  
Jorge Fabres ◽  
John Farmer ◽  
Jessica P. Gutierrez ◽  
Kristin Hennessy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Scientific Publication ◽  
Scientific Investigation ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Ethical Violations ◽  
Duplicate Publication ◽  
Data Fabrication ◽  
Education And Awareness

This article summarizes the major categories of ethical violations encountered during submission, review, and publication of scientific articles. We discuss data fabrication and falsification, plagiarism, redundant and duplicate publication, conflict of interest, authorship, animal and human welfare, and reviewer responsibility. In each section, pertinent historical background and citation of relevant regulations and statutes are provided. Furthermore, a specific case(s) derived from actual situations is(are) presented. These cases were chosen to highlight the complexities that investigators and journals must face when dealing with ethical issues. A series of discussion questions follow each case. It is our hope that by increasing education and awareness of ethical matters relevant to scientific investigation and publication, deviations from appropriate conduct will be reduced.

Institutional conflict of interest: attempting to crack the deferiprone mystery

2020 ◽  
pp. medethics-2019-105498
Author(s):  
Arthur Schafer
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Mission Statement ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
First Line ◽  
Harm Minimisation ◽  
Safety And Efficacy ◽  
Explanatory Hypothesis ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Institutional Conflict

A recent study by Olivieri et al, published in PLOS ONE, reports that between 2009 and 2015 a third of patients with thalassaemia in Canada’s largest hospital were switched from first-line licensed drugs to regimens of deferiprone, an unlicensed drug of unproven safety and efficacy. Based on retrospective data from patient records, the PLOS Study reports that patients treated with deferiprone, either as monotherapy or in combination with first-line drugs, suffered serious (and often irreversible) adverse effects. The data reported by Olivieri et al give rise to a number of ethical issues. These ethical issues are identified, placed in historical context and analysed. For purposes of this analysis, reliance is placed on two core principles of research ethics, harm minimisation and informed consent, and also on the hospital’s mission statement. Then a mystery is explored: How and why did it happen that Toronto’s University Health Network treated large numbers of patients with an unlicensed drug over a period of many years? ‘Institutional conflict of interest’ is considered as a possible explanatory hypothesis.

scholarly journals Conflict of Interest Disclosure in a Top-Tier Portuguese Medical Journal

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 652
Author(s):  
Nuno Moreira Fonseca
Keyword(s):  
Medical Journal ◽  
Pharmaceutical Industry ◽  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Letters To The Editor ◽  
Clinical Images ◽  
Independent Information ◽  
Financial Relationships

Introduction: Scientific medical publications are considered to be a source of unbiased and independent information. Authors are required to disclose relationships with the pharmaceutical industry for transparency purposes. The aim of this work was to assess conflict of interest disclosure in a Portuguese top-tier medical journal by comparing authors’ self-reported conflicts of interest with payments listed in the official database of Portuguese Ministry of Health.Material and Methods: All articles published in the Portuguese Journal of Cardiology from December 2015 to May 2016 were reviewed. Articles based on clinical images, with authors affiliated to foreign institutions, editorials, letters to the editor, or submitted before January 1st 2015 were excluded. Authors were categorized on concordance between self-reported disclosures and payments listed in the database. Authors who authored multiple articles were counted as new authors, since each paper offered a new opportunity for financial disclosure.Results: Of the 155 authors surveyed, 82 (53%) were in perfect concordance with the sunshine database, while 73 authors (47%) had one or more undisclosed payments. Undisclosed payments totaled over € 210 000. Four (17%) articles mentioned a conflict of interest, 24 articles (96%) had at least one author with undisclosed payments.Discussion: None of the payments listed in the database was acknowledged in self-reported conflicts of interest. This might indicate that authors do not consider their financial relationships with the industry to be relevant.Conclusion: The lack of concordance between self-reported conflicts of interest and payments found in the database raises concerns about incomplete disclosure.

scholarly journals Widening the debate about conflict of interest: addressing relationships between journalists and the pharmaceutical industry

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 492-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Lipworth ◽  
Ian Kerridge ◽  
Melissa Sweet ◽  
Christopher Jordens ◽  
Catriona Bonfiglioli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pharmaceutical Industry ◽  
Conflict Of Interest
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