One of Australia's most senior cancer specialists has accused Big Pharma of manipulating clinical trials of medicines for commercial reasons, including delaying the release of negative findings and being reluctant to fund research into the toxicity of their drugs.
Professor Stephen Clarke is a medical oncologist and pharmacologist with major clinical research interest in colorectal cancer. He is currently Professor and Head of the Academic department of Medicine at the Concord Hospital Clinical School of the University of Sydney.
Professor Clarke completed an FRACP in Medical Oncology at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney and then a PhD from the University of London at the Institute of Cancer Research/Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital in London.
Professor Clarke, who tests the toxicity of cancer drugs at the University of Sydney, said he had been involved in several cases where commercial realities collided with good medical research.
They included two drug companies delaying the publication of data which showed their medicine was not as effective as they had thought, because, Professor Clarke said, it "would not have been favourable to their business plan".
He cites four instances when he wanted to test the side-effects for different patients, the drug companies refused to fund the research.
"These were commercial decisions, they wanted to maximise the image of their drug," he said.
Drug companies were controlling, censoring and vetting trial information to present results in the most favourable light for sharemarkets.
"There's a degree of owning information, or they will control the timing and reserve the right to vet a presentation or article that might be written."
Drug companies being reluctant to fund research to work out how many people would benefit from a drug because such trials could rule out certain patients and therefore reduce the number of people who would use the drug.
Professor Clarke said this had happened with companies involved with the new treatments for lung cancer.
"If you proved that a group of patients did not respond to that treatment, then there goes part of their market," he said. "If you had done these trials through a co-operative group or government sponsor you could spend the time and add the science to work out who is likely to benefit.
"If such research was done it could enable safer and more effective treatments."
Professor Clarke said the companies involved were large multinationals, but he declined to name them.
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Insider's view:Past posts here and here.
Let's see if we can work out who Prof Clarke was talking about.
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