Big Pharma Authors Are a Corrupt Crowd

     A recent study published in the Spanish health journal Gaceta Sanitaria shows that eighty percent of 704 Big Pharma clinical practice guideline authors received some form of compensation by pharmaceutical companies. The research was done by Spain’s Department of Public Health and it assessed the honesty of those authors to report any conflict of interest industry compensation.

     One third of those authors whose public records show compensation from Big Pharma filed no required conflict of interest statements. Ten percent of them did file, but claimed they had received no Big Pharma payments, despite the public records showing they did. Another ten percent claimed some compensation, but not all of their pharmaceutical industry payments.

     In fact, the Department of Public Health concluded that only seventeen percent of the 704 clinical practice guideline authors had reported their Big Pharma compensation at all reliably. That’s quite a collection of dishonest folks. That’s quite a corrupt industry where that many employees accept Big Pharma bribes and then lie about them.

     Yes, this is a study in Spain only. Yes, it only covers a six year span, but it’s recent, 2017- 2023. Yes, the payments reported to these authors came from pharmaceutical records and themselves may therefore not be the most reliable admission of compensation. Is it possible that this level of corruption is only unique to Spain? Yes…but that is highly unlikely.

     The greater probability is that this study reveals a level of dishonesty prompted by the lavish compensation by Big Pharma to these authors. They are apparently willing to work in an inherently evil industry, producing harmful drugs, because they have been so well bribed by the financial rewards available to them there.

     Big Pharma greed breeds more greed, both in employer and employees.

     Thanks to Richard Sears for bringing attention to this study in his recent Mad in America post.