Are medical journals reliable sources of objective information, or do they, at times, act as shills for the pharmaceutical industry and other interests? We believe the latter after reading a Perspective article on drug pricing in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that presented the perspective of the pharmaceutical industry on what drugs should cost without explicitly revealing the industry ties of its authors.
Editorial content in journals is expected to provide objective information about medical science, care, and health policy. That objectivity is threatened by authors of editorials, review articles, and other “perspective” pieces with critical conflicts of interest due to financial associations with the topics being discussed. To prevent this, or at least limit it, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors advocates transparency about such conflicts.