[Pharm-policy] Immune Response Corp sought to Block Publication of an AIDS Study

[James Love]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49106-2000Oct31.html


Scientists Report Bid to Block Publication of an AIDS Study
David Brown, Nov 1, 2000, Washington Post, page A10

A California biotechnology company tried to block publication of a major
AIDS study that found the experimental treatment the firm was developing
failed to improve the health of patients, the scientists conducting the
research reported yesterday.

Immune Response Corp. of Carlsbad, Calif., opposed publication of the
study because it did not include a particular analysis that it believes
shows that the treatment boosted the immune systems of some patients.

But the researchers, led by James O. Kahn of the University of
California at San Francisco, submitted their results over the company's
objections to the Journal of the American Medical Association, which
published the results in today's issue.

"The message to my colleagues is realize you have the responsibility to
publish . . . don't wait for the sponsor to sanitize your research,"
Kahn said in a telephone interview.

The dispute is the latest skirmish in the low-intensity war over
financial and scientific conflicts in medical research. The paper was
published with two other studies exploring the possible conflicts of
interest that can occur in biomedical research.

"The principle we are upholding is to get the results out to the people.
That's what a journal does," said Drummond Rennie, deputy editor of the
journal. "Patients have to know this, their doctors have to know this,
and anyone else doing trials with vaccines like this has to know. This
is just common justice."

        [snip]

-- 
James Love  mailto:love@cptech.org http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
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