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Media: greater transparency concerning health professionals' links with pharmaceutical firms

French health professionals now have an obligation to declare their links with pharmaceutical companies when they speak in public or appear in the media.

Numerous studies published in major international medical journals have shown that health professionals who work for pharmaceutical companies (for example by taking part in a clinical trial funded by a drug manufacturer), often remain favourably disposed towards the company afterwards, thus losing a degree of their objectivity.

This conclusion has resulted in a new law requiring health professionals who work for the European and French drug regulatory agencies to declare their links with healthcare product manufacturers.

This requirement has now been extended to health professionals speaking in public or in the media. For example, doctors who mention a drug on the radio must declare whether or not they have a financial link to the manufacturer.

This transparency is especially salutary since pharmaceutical companies often wheel out health professionals with whom they have financial links to speak in the media, to take part in medical education and other public forums, and to influence public opinion.

The media must make sure that health professionals comply with this new obligation (decree of 25 March 2007, Art. R. 4113-110 of the French public health law).

©Prescrire June 2007

Source: "Transparence. Presse et formations : rendre publics les liens d’intérêts" Rev Prescrire 2007 ; 27 (284) : 467.

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