PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Edwin AM Gale
TI  - Between two cultures: the expert clinician and the pharmaceutical industry
AID  - 10.7861/clinmedicine.3-6-538
DP  - 2003 Nov 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 538--541
VI  - 3
IP  - 6
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/3/6/538.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/3/6/538.full
SO  - Clin Med2003 Nov 01; 3
AB  - Expert clinicians, valued for their academic status and independence, are used by the pharmaceutical industry for advice, for contract research, and as a means of conveying their message to other clinicians. Both academics and industry depend upon this interaction, but there is a fundamental clash of cultures at the interface between the two. Independence cannot be marketed for a fee, opinion too easily shades into advocacy, and secrecy and science do not mix. Formal guidelines and declarations of interest are inadequate as a means of policing an interface where undisclosed amounts of money change hands so freely. In the absence of effective sanctions, each of us must seek a personal solution to the professional and ethical issues involved.