There's a good way to figure out when a drug company plans to introduce a new product.
When pharmaceutical company scientists show up at medical meetings to give talks about diseases that most people never have heard of - disorders such as female sexual dysfunction or cardio metabolic syndrome - it is likely that a new drug is coming, said James Stein, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
But such talks, which Stein and others say can be used to create a buzz for new drugs, may be coming to an end.
The ongoing controversy over drug industry influence in continuing medical education has taken a sharp twist: Pharmaceutical industry employees will not be allowed to make medical education presentations later this year at the one of the largest medical meetings in the world, the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Sessions.
The policy was set by a national organization that accredits the heart association's continuing medical education programs as well as the programs of other medical organizations. It applies to the medical meetings of all those groups.
The development, which has fired up the medical community, came up last week at a National Institutes of Health meeting in Bethesda, Md. There it was learned that the heart association would not be allowed to let drug industry employees make educational presentations for doctors at its upcoming annual meeting.
Adriane Fugh-Berman, a critic of industry funding of medical education, said the policy is a reasonable move that should be applied to doctors who work as speakers and consultants for drug companies as well as employees.
"I don't think industry employees should be giving CME," said Fugh-Berman, a physician and associate professor of physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University.
She said they should not be in the position of evaluating potential therapies when they have a financial stake in such matters. Beyond that, it is human nature for a researcher to put a positive spin on information about a drug the researcher has studied.
"It's not impugning the integrity of anyone who works for industry," she said. "There are good scientists who work for industry. It's about evaluating the science."
On June 25, Georgetown University and the organization PharmedOut, which Fugh-Berman heads, will hold a daylong conference on whether the drug industry should fund continuing medical education.
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