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The 2005 information awards

Prescrire encourages pharmaceutical companies to share all the clinical evaluation data.

Prescrire's drug reviews are based on an extensive literature search aiming to collect all the evaluation data, especially clinical data. Among the sources consulted, Prescrire also makes enquiries with pharmaceutical companies, so that all the evaluation data that resulted in the granting of a marketing authorisation can be taken into account, including unpublished data. Some companies respond to Prescrire's queries within a reasonable time, and supply the data requested. These companies are commended in the Information Awards (13 in 2005). When some companies responded very swiftly and supplied particularly exhaustive and detailed data, they were ranked "Outstanding" (2 in 2005). Other pharmaceutical companies either fail to respond to Prescrire's request for information, or do not supply sufficient data. These firms are given a "Red Card" (11 companies in 2005). The Information Awards are a means of encouraging pharmaceutical companies that have a responsible information policy (towards Prescrire, its 30,000 subscribers and their patients), and to incite the companies who are lagging behind to make more of an effort. From now on, with each new drug review it publishes, Prescrire plans to use special graphics to make the quality of the information provided by pharmaceutical companies more visible.

©Prescrire February 2006

Source: "Le palmarès 2005 de l'information" Rev Prescrire 2006 ; 26 (269) : 87.

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