Australian Clinical Trial Authors’ Declarations of Industry Ties

Abstract

A uthors' financial ties with pharmaceutical companies can affect the design, conduct and reporting of clinical trials. 1,2 Although disclosure does not eliminate conflicts of interest (COI), it allows readers and reviewers to consider potential impacts. A systematic review of studies comparing authors' self-reported COI disclosure with company payment reports 3 found 23 studies (22 US and 1 Danish 4 ; n=5984 authors) with a pooled prevalence of non-disclosure of 66% (95% CI 48-78%). To our knowledge, the adequacy of authors' disclosures has not been examined in other countries. Since October 2015, Medicines Australia, Australia's pharmaceutical industry association, has required member companies to report all payments to individual clinicians for consultancies, speaking, advisory boards and educational events. 5 This study compares disclosure of industry payments by Australian authors with Medicines Australia (MA) company reports. We examined COI declarations by clinician authors of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between January and August 2020, including completeness of authors' declarations and compliance with International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria.

The scientific workforce in 2022

“…February, researchers from the global south have been significantly under-represented in open-access journals, largely because of publication fees. In March, a study found that one in four Australian researchers who are financially supported by pharmaceutical companies failed to note that connection when submitting manuscripts 2 . And questions about image integrity swirled around Nobel laureate and geneticist Gregg Semenza at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, leading to 17 corrections, retractions or editorial notes of concern.…”