1 / 9

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ARE HERE TO STAY:

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ARE HERE TO STAY:. PROTECTING SCIENCE FROM BIAS Susan S. Ellenberg, Ph.D. Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, FDA Boston, MA May 3, 2004. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN SCIENCE. Conduct of research Entering, treating, evaluating patients Oversight of research

rex
Télécharger la présentation

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ARE HERE TO STAY:

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ARE HERE TO STAY: PROTECTING SCIENCE FROM BIAS Susan S. Ellenberg, Ph.D. Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, FDA Boston, MA May 3, 2004

  2. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN SCIENCE • Conduct of research • Entering, treating, evaluating patients • Oversight of research • IRB • Regulatory authority • Data Monitoring Committee • FDA Advisory Committee • Evaluation of grant applications, manuscripts

  3. SCENARIO • You are an honest and competent scientist • You sit on an oversight committee • You are involved in making a decision about the future of an investigational product • Your spouse owns a large stake in the company that makes the product • The data are marginal; legitimate arguments can be made for and against • Can you make an objective judgment? • Should we expect others to accept that your judgment was objective?

  4. DECISION MAY TRANSLATE TO: • What is the least favorable outcome? • Voting “no” and losing a lot of money • Voting “yes” and worrying that others will think you were motivated by self-interest rather than the science Problem: neither you nor anyone else can be sure if decision would have been the same if no COI

  5. WE WORRY ABOUT CONFLICT OF INTEREST (COI) BECAUSE… • We want to be sure clinical research data (and/or its interpretation) has not been influenced by extraneous factors • personal incentives • other knowledge in a way that could bias trial results or interpretation

  6. MANY TYPES OF COI • Financial • Intellectual • involved in discovery • involved in product development • Emotional • Patient care • personal/professional relationships

  7. MINIMIZING COI IN CLINICAL RESEARCH • Randomized treatment assignment • Blinding investigators to treatment assignments • Independent data monitoring committees • Keeping interim data confidential • Excluding individuals with major COI from some roles • Disclosure of potential COI

  8. “ZERO CONFLICTS” USUALLY NOT ATTAINABLE • Experts in a given area are likely to have had some prior involvement with sponsor (or with company making a competing product) • Insisting on complete absence of any possible conflict might be too limiting: ignorance is not preferable to independence • Distinguish between major conflicts (exclude) or minor conflicts (disclose)

  9. “CONFLICT OF KNOWLEDGE” VS COI • Ongoing clinical trial • Sponsor blinded to interim data • Based on external data, sponsor wishes to modify primary endpoint • Proposed change submitted to FDA • Suppose FDA reviewer knows the interim data on both endpoints • Reviewer has no incentive either way • Can reviewer make objective judgment on sponsor’s proposal?

More Related