The Fact
A Cochrane systematic review of 75 papers found that drug and device studies sponsored by the manufacturer more often reported favorable efficacy results (risk ratio 1.27) and more often reached favorable conclusions (risk ratio 1.34) than studies funded by other sources. Industry-sponsored studies also showed less agreement between their results and their conclusions. The authors concluded this points to “an industry bias that cannot be explained by standard ‘Risk of bias’ assessments.”
What This Means
Who pays for a study is part of the evidence. When the company that sells the drug funds the research, the results and the conclusions lean in the drug’s favor more often — even when the study looks well-run on paper.
Sources
- Lundh, Andreas, Joel Lexchin, Barbara Mintzes, Jeppe B. Schroll, and Lisa Bero. “Industry sponsorship and research outcome.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2017, Issue 2, MR000033. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.MR000033.pub3