New ethical framework for pharmaceutical physicians

摘要

Lenzer highlighted the helping hand that some US news organisations give to pharmaceutical companies in circumventing the Food and Drug Administration's requirements for fair balance in video news releases.1 An ethical framework of guiding principles for pharmaceutical physicians has recently been published.2 Pharmaceutical physicians should "ensure that expectations are not inappropriately raised as a result of media briefings" and "be involved in the drafting of any briefings about potential therapeutic interventions provided to financial analysts or to the media." Thus the disproportionate publicity that arose from studies such as ASCOT and ASTEROID—targeted directly at the consumer via the news media—should not occur when other trials are reported.