The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7223 p665
9 November 2002

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The Lancet (www.thelancet.com)
ABPI: Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (www.abpi.org.uk)

Lancet articles are disappointing and biased according to ABPI

The first of a series of four articles published in The Lancet, aimed at scrutinising the pharmaceutical industry (PJ, 2 November, p632), has been condemned as disappointing and biased by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

ABPI director general Dr Trevor Jones believes that the authors set out to malign the industry.

"While there are always areas in which any industry, including pharmaceutical companies, can improve its performance, a whole succession of unbalanced articles does not help rational analysis and debate," he said.

Dr Jones accepted that debate and fair criticism should take place in the public eye, but he said the articles fail to acknowledge the benefits that the pharmaceutical industry has brought to the health of millions through its discoveries.

In the first article, Professor Joe Collier and Ike Iheanacho from the Consumers' Association criticise pharmaceutical companies for producing excessive information that "is largely kept secret, often duplicated and can risk undermining the best interests of patients and society".

In addition, they say that transnational pharmaceutical companies are probably the biggest single influence on prescribing practice due to their promotional and educational activities, and that these companies influence and distort medical research, which ultimately threatens patients' interests (Lancet 2002;360:1405).