Dear Editor
I am in agreement with Addington and Godlee [1] that transparency should no longer be an optional extra.
When it comes to evidence based medicine [EBM], continuing medical education [CME], public education and awareness, there is nothing I am aware of that is analogous to services such as BBC Verify.
Legislation is urgently required, as a first step, to make it mandatory for industry and the commercial sector generally to declare all payments in a single, open, searchable register to the following groups: doctors, healthcare workers, scientists, parliamentarians, Royal Colleges, media centres, broadcasters of every sort, charities, opinion leaders and social media influencers. This list is unlikely to be exhaustive as science is rarely financially disinterested. Whilst, in the search for objectivity, there are many sources of bias, we should at least begin with financial biases as it has been repeatedly demonstrated that such biases can result in harmful consequences [2].
References:
[1] Adlington K, Godlee F. Disclosure UK: transparency should no longer be an optional extra. BMJ2016;354:i3730. doi:10.1136/bmj.i3730 pmid:27383187
[2] Industry influence in healthcare harms patients: myth or maxim? Trayer, J. et al. July 2022, 12;18(2):220010.
Re: Drug industry payments to groups of influential MPs—“the next great parliamentary scandal?”
