Drug Companies Shop for Testing Facilities Yielding Favorable Results
It is hard to believe, but about 70 percent of the financing for clinical drug trials in the US comes from the drug companies themselves. These funds generally go to American Universities for the actual testing to be performed. However, drug companies will select those Universities whose testing standards allow for consistent results showing the drugs safety and efficacy. These companies look for schools that allow them to interfere. This includes inserting their own analyses into the University's test results, suggest revisions before the report is released, or even drafting the report altogether. The report found in the New England Journal of Medicine, was the culmination of surveys sent to 122 American medical schools. ...
Response to at least one survey indicated that a drug company refused payment to the University because the trial did not produce favorable results for the drug. An alarming 69 percent of the administrators responding to the survays said that competition for research money "created pressure on administrators to compromise" with drug companies looking to finanace the trials. The study was performed by Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Massachusetts.
See related NY Times article here.