“If we're willing to be manipulated there are a lot of people who want to manipulate us.”

Robert Harrington of Duke University was listed as a defender of the CME system, but he spent most of his presentation attacking industry-funded CME. His catalog of pharma malfeasance: a 1999 AstraZeneca e-mail openly talked of intentionally burying trial results; academics have been caught signing their names to ghostwritten papers; companies have paid fines of up to $800 million for off-label marketing practices that included unethical CME. “We need to take a stand about what's right and what's appropriate,” Harrington said.

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