A recent study analyzed 200 industry-funded Phase III and Phase IV trials of vaccines, drugs, and devices during 2014-2017. It found that the academic authors were not solely responsible for more than 30% of the design, conduct, analysis, or reporting of those clinical trials. Instead, there was collaboration between industry personnel, academic investigators, and contract research organizations.

Following up on this study, a survey was sent to a number of authors of papers related to these clinical trials. The results showed that sometimes employees or contractors of the for-profit corporation funding the research do significant work without authorship. This includes undisclosed regulatory agency involvement in trial design, and undisclosed funder or contractor involvement in data analysis.

In total, only 4% of the trials were independent from industry involvement after being funded. This brings up an issue of clinical trials being reliable, truly independent, and in the patients’ best interests. Because the results of these clinical trials can impact millions of Americans, is it sensible for corporate interests to such have influence?

Read here to learn more:

[Industry Involvement in Clinical Trials Huge, Often Downplayed](https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/clinicaltrials/75481?xid=nl_mpt_investigative2018-10-09&eun=g1118496d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=InvestigateMD_100918&utm_term=InvestigativeMD)