Conflicts of Interest of Sponsors and Promoters in Research

Abstract

The development of health technologies by transnational pharmaceutical industries has been considered the most profitable industrial activity on the planet. This economic power facilitates the favoring of the interests of those who are the biggest sponsors and promoters of research in their relationships with researchers, institutions and associations of patients. In developed countries, about 90% of clinical trials are conducted by large pharmaceutical industries, in developing countries it varies between 100 and 95%. That is, in the reality of countries like Brazil and Angola there is a clear dependency due to the low research capacity. There are some differences in the rigor with which the concept of conflict of interest has been defined. We will work with the International Council of Science Editors’ definition that has been used by most of the highest impact scientific journals. In this definition, any financial relationship or other types of advantages offered by sponsors and promoters to researchers and research institutions already characterizes a factual and not just potential conflict of interest. We will try to demonstrate the most common practices these conflicts appear through the hiring of medical consultants, injection of resources in journals, medical associations and organizations of patients, payments or advantages to institutions, researchers, research participants and ethics committees, as well as in funding of scientific events. We will finally present some results of a recent publication conducted by me and a graduate student in Bioethics on conflicts of interest between sponsors of Brazilian national specialty congresses and researchers and the results of clinical trials for drugs presented.