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More than two-thirds of the patient organizations involved in the evaluation of treatments for the use of the NHS in England and Wales have received funding from the manufacturer or a rival manufacturer, said researchers.
The study in the BMJ found that the evaluators of the National Institute for Excellence in Health Care and Health Care (NICE) seeking to approve or reject treatments for the systematic use of the NHS were aware of less than a quarter of those interests.
Researchers, led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said that greater transparency was needed "to rebadure the public that health decisions are not unduly influenced by health." ;industry".
Virtually all drug and treatment evaluations done by NICE for use in the NHS in 2015 and 2016 have received contributions from patient organizations. The researchers said that if decision-makers took their views into account, any possible bias should also be taken into account.
NICE welcomed any contribution that would help to ensure public and professional confidence in its work.
Funding links
The study examined the role of 53 patient organizations that contributed to 41 evaluations of NICE technology. Funding for the pharmaceutical industry has been determined from manufacturers' reports and accounts, annual reports, websites and patient organization responses.
The study revealed that:
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72% of patient organizations had accepted funding from the manufacturer (s) of a competing technology or product, in the same year or the year before, for contributing to the 39, evaluation of this technology.
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Specific interests were present in 79% of the occasions that patient badociations contributed to the evaluations
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NICE's evaluation committees were aware of the specific interests of patient committees in only 21% of cases.
In addition, in 62% of the cases in which the committees did not know the specific interests of the organizations, disclosure of the financial links was not required under the NICE policy.
As a result of these findings, researchers called for more robust disclosure rules "to preserve the patient's voice in policy and to rebadure the public that health decisions are not unduly influenced by l & # 39; industry. "
Call for greater disclosure
In a research-related editorial, Bethany Bruno and Susannah Rose of the Cleveland Clinic in the United States said the findings "substantially contribute to the more global picture of the influence of the". industry on patient organizations ".
They stated that NICE, like other health technology badessment organizations in other countries, should expect disclosure in all circumstances and not just when the appointment of patients and clinical experts. In addition, "NICE must ensure that all patient organizations comply with the rules in force," they wrote.
In response, Gill Leng, Deputy Director General and Director of Health and Social Services, NICE, said: "Our goal is to maintain a high level of integrity in the way we conduct our work.
"Ensuring that organizations and individuals declare potential conflicts of interest, in accordance with our policies, is essential for the way we develop the directions and is essential to maintain the trust of the public and professionals in our work. .
"This study is an important contribution to help us achieve this goal."
BMJ 2019; 364 documents: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k5300 (Published January 16, 2019)
BMJ 2019; 364 documents: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l129 (Published January 16, 2019)
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